On the Feminist Curricula Vitae
Hey everyone, this is my first post here. (And, incidentally, my first post on lj since high school. So please, please don't mind my posts and profiles.)
I'm applying to Ph.D. programs in Women's & Gender Studies (going in with just a B.A.). The hardest thing about the process is that it's so difficult to find people who have gone through similar processes--almost all of the standalone Gender Studies Ph.D. programs are brand new. So it's so hard to know exactly what the protocol is for different parts of the process. Specifically, I'm working on my CV right now, and I suspect it looks very different from most of your CV.
Is anyone here in Women's Studies programs--preferably the Ph.D--instead of English, American Studies, History, etc? I'd really appreciate having someone to talk to in general, but especially in terms of my CV right now.
Some of the things that I am going to mention might sound like something you should never put on a CV to many of you, but some things are more acceptable in this field than in others. Still, I'm not yet sure where exactly to draw the line. Anyway, here are some of my concerns:
I'm applying to Ph.D. programs in Women's & Gender Studies (going in with just a B.A.). The hardest thing about the process is that it's so difficult to find people who have gone through similar processes--almost all of the standalone Gender Studies Ph.D. programs are brand new. So it's so hard to know exactly what the protocol is for different parts of the process. Specifically, I'm working on my CV right now, and I suspect it looks very different from most of your CV.
Is anyone here in Women's Studies programs--preferably the Ph.D--instead of English, American Studies, History, etc? I'd really appreciate having someone to talk to in general, but especially in terms of my CV right now.
Some of the things that I am going to mention might sound like something you should never put on a CV to many of you, but some things are more acceptable in this field than in others. Still, I'm not yet sure where exactly to draw the line. Anyway, here are some of my concerns:
- Blogging credentials? I mean, it's feminism. I write for a fairly well-trafficked feminist film blog, and I'm wondering how I should present that. At this point, I think that I'm going to leave it off of my CV--mostly because I don't have any real publication history to counter it and also it would be kind of presumptuous--but it is something that is informing my interactions with faculty members, and likely my personal statements. Do any of you have any tips for how to present new media work in professional ways? I consider it kind of relevant, especially since my research interest is in representation in internet, zines, and self-representation in punk media. (ETA: this question has more to do with whether or not people in the field have had experience integrating this media than whether or not you think it is relevant to academia. Gender studies has already determined that it is relevant, I'm just not sure how I can present that in communication settings.)
- Teaching experience--I spent most of my undergraduate years pursuing a secondary education degree, but I decided (this semester) to go to graduate school instead. I have four years of fairly rigorous classroom and teaching experience, but it's mostly with adolescents. Do you think this is relevant? Keep in mind that almost every program I'm applying to places a heavy emphasis on pedagogy and teaching as a feminist practice.
- How do you recommend presenting activist and organizing work on your CVs? Obviously this is highly relevant for my area, and I have extensive experience with it, but I'm not sure what it should look like on a CV. For example, I have worked in sexual assault programs in crisis intervention settings, I have organized Take Back the Night, I am a chairperson on my university's Women's Council, I have also organized feminist film-themed events, and I have worked in media capacities for these programs...all of these are very different types of work, but they are all degrees of feminist activism and organizing. Do you think I should put them together in one section? Does anyone else have a section like this on their CV? (ETA again: This is definitely relevant to a CV, I just don't know what it should look like.)
- Do you think I should be freaking out at how sparse my CV is, given that I'm...an undergraduate? One of my friends, who has completed her Ph.D., said something to me along the lines of "what do you mean you haven't published any academic work as an undergraduate?" and now I am kind of panicking. Hopefully she is just trying to unnerve me.
- One more thing, for now: how minor is too minor? Like, is it better to have fewer things on your CV than to have things that aren't that impressive? For example, I won a scholarship for outstanding history students--but that was when I was attending a community college during my first year. I also am very proud of winning third place in my university's book collecting competition..which, admittedly, I will probably add to my CV for the university wherein I'm also applying to the library program, but I understand that's kind of a pathetic thing to list. Are Dean's lists relevant?