So I'm at the MLA, and I went to my first panel, Demonstration Interviews for Job Seekers in Foreign Languages. Professors Sibelan Forrester of Swarthmore College and Patrizia C. McBride of Cornell led two mock interviews with two folks playing the … [Read more...] about Really? An #MLA14 Panel on Interviewing
Adjunct Issues
Desperate Cramming
Let’s imagine that I am doing some sort of cover letter "blind taste test" and I have to guess, by content only, which cover letter has been written by a graduate student. I will know by one element above all others---what I call “desperate … [Read more...] about Desperate Cramming
Teaching: Not When and Where but What and How
When discussing teaching in the teaching paragraph of your letter, one of the temptations is to tell a chronological tale of how you taught as an adjunct here and an adjunct there, and taught this class in Fall 2012 and this other class in Spring … [Read more...] about Teaching: Not When and Where but What and How
On Leaving the Cult (A Letter From a Client)
I get a pretty regular stream of fan mail from clients and readers, and I read all of it, respond to all of it, and deeply appreciate all of it. When I get a letter from someone telling me how the reading the blog and/or working with me changed … [Read more...] about On Leaving the Cult (A Letter From a Client)
Writing Your Book While Juggling Teaching and Kids (A Guest Post)
A reader wrote asking for a post on how to write a book while working at a teaching-intensive university. I put out a request for a guest post on the subject on Facebook, and Katherine Vukadin responded with this account of writing a book while … [Read more...] about Writing Your Book While Juggling Teaching and Kids (A Guest Post)
Chronic Illness, Disability and Heternormativity on the Tenure Track (A Follow-Up Guest Post)
This post is a follow-up to the guest post earlier this week, "The Real Life of a Tenure Track Faculty Person." That post generated an enormous amount of reaction and comment that is still going on. One of the commenters asked to know a bit more … [Read more...] about Chronic Illness, Disability and Heternormativity on the Tenure Track (A Follow-Up Guest Post)
The Real Life of a Tenure Track Faculty Person (A Guest Post)
This guest post came out of a conversation that's been percolating among readers on the blog, facebook page, and over email, about the actual financial risks and repercussions of doing a Ph.D.. Indeed, last week's blog post, Should You Go To … [Read more...] about The Real Life of a Tenure Track Faculty Person (A Guest Post)
Should You Go To Graduate School?
The “don't go to graduate school” debate has flared up again this past week with the publication of this piece in Slate, "Thesis Hatement: Getting a Literature Ph.D. Will Turn You Into an Emotional Train Wreck, Not a Professor. The author, Rebecca … [Read more...] about Should You Go To Graduate School?
What Is a “Toxic” Campus? A Guest Post
I have been asked by readers to describe the qualities of a "toxic" campus or job. I have thoughts on this, and someday plan to write a post about it. But for now, I offer this anonymous guest post by a client, which she titles, "The Bad and the Ugly … [Read more...] about What Is a “Toxic” Campus? A Guest Post
Ph.D. Poverty–Guest Post IV
Following up on the article From Graduate School to Welfare in the Chronicle of Higher Education, I am featuring stories of Ph.D. poverty here on the blog, contributed by readers. I will post them on Thursdays over the next month or so. I believe … [Read more...] about Ph.D. Poverty–Guest Post IV