Kathleen Lowrey, a recently tenured prof at the University of Alberta, got in touch with thoughts on the contradictions of the tenured subject position, inspired by my post on Tenured Privilege. I asked her to consider contributing a guest post, and … [Read more...] about Graduate Student Shrimps on the Doctoral Barbie: The View from Tenure (A Guest Post)
Graduate Student Concerns
The Shame of Ph.D. Debt
Last week, in response to a skeptical comment about levels of Ph.D. debt on an earlier post, I created The Ph.D. Debt Survey, an open-source Googledoc spreadsheet. It has now passed 1700 entries. The original spreadsheet is here. I’m still … [Read more...] about The Shame of Ph.D. Debt
Who Is “Us”? Thoughts on the MLA
I’ll start with two observations about the MLA, since so many have asked for my impressions as an anthropologist attending for the first time. I thoroughly enjoyed myself. Because I have no years of psychic wounds connected to the MLA, I felt … [Read more...] about Who Is “Us”? Thoughts on the MLA
Really? An #MLA14 Panel on Interviewing
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
MLA Job Advice (A Guest Post)
I missed my weekly Friday post yesterday because I had grand plans to make it a video post, but when I recorded the video, I couldn't get it to upload. I ended up delivering my little lecture on tailoring the job letter three times at different … [Read more...] about MLA Job Advice (A Guest Post)
“Write Like a Motherfucker”
I've been post-academic now for just about exactly three years. Three years since I left my tenured position at University of Illinois to move back to Eugene, Oregon with no job and no idea what I'd do next. This summer I finally started to … [Read more...] about “Write Like a Motherfucker”
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?
The Baggage We Bring: An Email From A Bootcamp Client
This email from a client, following on an Interview Bootcamp with Kellee, is an insightful articulation of the ways that anxieties, resentments, and insecurities about your work and the profession can seep into your ability to prepare for and perform … [Read more...] about The Baggage We Bring: An Email From A Bootcamp Client