Advice to Incoming Graduate Students

I found this article from ProfHacker to be a helpful list of suggestions for any grad student; many of these things I found true for my first year and some I want to start implementing (for instance, developing a “personal research library” where I make notes of the things I’ve read). What do you guys think? What advice would you give to first-year students?

http://chronicle.com/blogPost/An-Open-Letter-to-New-Graduate/26326/

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Faithful and Autobiographical Liteary Criticism

I’ve been thinking about something for a quite awhile, ever since I read and discussed Richard Bushman’s “Faithful History” essay with some friends at ND. The  paper explores the idea of writing “faithful” or “Mormon” history, but concludes pretty early that the typical definitions of this type of word–apologetic, faith-promoting narratives of church history–tend to be both unsatisfying and easily dismissed by the broader academic community (plus, what if 19C American religion isn’t your focus?). Still, Bushman feels we shouldn’t completely divorce our Mormon identity from our work. If we expect car salesmen or accountants to still be Mormon car salesmen or Mormon accountants (that is, they live their religion throughout the work week) how would this shape our way of doing history? Bushman suggests a couple of possible ways of doing “faithful history”–history that fuses our professional identity with our faith; for instance, we might approach historical narratives with an awareness of humanity’s struggle between idealism and our baser natures–the constant struggle between striving towards Christ-like living or reveling in the natural man. You wouldn’t necessarily cast the narrative in these terms, but you are open to how these types of narratives inflect the history you are crafting.

Here’s what I’d do, if I were you…

Here’s why I wouldn’t mind being at Notre Dame next semester: “Joyce and Beckett” taught by Maud Ellmann and “Modernism and Magazines” taught by Barbara Green. To be honest, I have no idea who the professors are, I’m just tired of grading and I wanted a good distraction. I thought, what better way to distract myself than to longingly look at everyone’s class options!

I say longingly (with a hint of *strong* jealousy) because next semester I have slim pickings: a seminar on material culture and nation building in the early U.S. (actually, a class I’m looking forward to for aim to theorize archives and archival research); a seminar called “new directions in ecocriticism” (I double hate any thing with the word “new” after my class on ‘new formalism’); and then a possible class on “romantic negativity,” British civil war literature (theorizing violence and the nation-state) or on how to suck on egg. The last one sounds the best.

OK, so if I were at Minnesota (oh, lucky, lucky Katie!)–in addition to probably bugging the heck out of Paula Rabinowitz with silly, puerile questions designed to make me look smart but only expose my academic insecurities–I’d take “Old Age in Film and Literature” with David Luke and “Readings in Narrative” co-taught by Nurrudin Farah and Charles Sugnet. But it appears that there are some really cool medieval classes. The “Gods and Monsters” class looks great.

At Colorado, I’d take Paul Youngquist’s “Black Romanticism,” Adam Bradley’s “Ralph Ellison” seminar, Nan Goodman’s “The Rhetoric of Law,” and then I’d finish myself off with a poetry fix in Julie Carr’s “Politics and Poetry” (the title is much, MUCH longer). Speaking of Colorado, how’s the town, Jeremy? You haven’t started disappearing from the world at 4:20 each afternoon, have you? (Oh!)

Kaila, the course descriptions for Duke aren’t available for my perusal, but I’d take Wald’s, Aers’s, and Baucom’s class (not just because our last names are nearly identical, but that certainly helps; I may have applied to Wisconsin last year because they have a building called “Bascom Hall”).

Enjoy (or, don’t enjoy).

Really: how stale does this feel in 2010? Is it just me, or is she coming on to the game way too late?

Favorite (academic) writers

Writing seminar papers always have a way of fleshing out what I hate most about my writing–my convulted prose, my ambiguous words, my stunted analysis. It makes me want to pay more attention to not only “what” scholars write (just making sure I get their argument) but be more attentive to their style and prose, how they set up their ideas, communicate them, etc.

So who are your favorite academic writers? Who has the clearest, cleverest, most imitable prose? I’ve got to run to dinner, so I’ll mention some of my favorite writers in a bit, but I wanted to throw that question out right now.

OK, be honest

How’s the paper writing coming? Honestly. How is it?

I need to write about five more pages for one on 1930s prostitution novels. That makes me happy. (Confession: the paper is “supposed” to be ten pages.) I have about twelve pages left on a paper about Beckett, Albee, and animal studies. I’m not too worried about that paper because I have a vague notion of what I’m going to say. I’m a little worried about that class, however, because I need to write a book review of de Man’s Allegories of Reading–which I’ll have you know, is not the type of book one should ever have to do a book review of. He’s just (flipp’n) close reading! My heavens.

OK, now time for the paper that initially made me want to post this. I currently have one paragraph. But is a bad, bad paragraph. Awful. Painfully so. I’m getting angry just thinking about the paper, because the professor gives no helpful feedback during office visits, but when s/he responds to abstracts/proposals/etc. s/he writes things like “unclear logic” or “you’re contradicting yourself.” Anyway, its so late in the game that I don’t have time to change my topic (and I like my topic), but I’m frustrated. I hate this paper. Sorry, just wanted to complain.

The day has finally come

On Tuesday, I registered for classes. Hooray! It’s official.

Here’s my question for all you more experienced PhD-ers. I have a fellowship for the first year, so I won’t be teaching, TA-ing, etc. Consequently, I signed up for four classes. One’s a required “intro to literary methods” course. Two are seminars (Shakespearean adaptations and 19th c. lit), and the last one is a special subjects reading class (medieval lit, of course). So is that doable? My thought process is that since I won’t be working, I might as well take more classes, although I could get away with only taking three.

Shower me with your words of wisdom. Please.