Grad School
This quarter has been busy, and so this journal has been neglected.
I'm stressed as usual, but I'm enjoying the classes I'm doing. I've finally finished the rather absurd coverage requirements that OSU has for its MA students, and can focus exclusively on medieval studies at last. I'm doing courses in medieval allegory, the Benedictine reform, and Middle English, all of which I love more than I can say. We did monastic sign language the other day, which I found so fascinating.
I met with my advisor today to discuss my MA portfolio, consisting of two potentially publishable papers, which I have to defend in front of a committee. I have my papers chosen, and I wanted to run them past her. One is the essay for which I won the Kahrl Prize and which I'm presenting in part at Kalamazoo; the other is an essay on Malory's Morte D'Arthur, male virginity, and mutilation, which the professor for that course really liked and thought I should publish.
Apparently, the portfolio is the preferred option of "weak students", according to OSU folklore. It makes more sense in my case than the crazy reading exam, though. It'll give me two publishable articles, and two potential chapters for my Ph.D. The reading exam would give me, uh, familiarity with a pile of books, most of which would be out of my area.
Besides, I'm preadmitted to the Ph.D, and most of the people who count know that I'm not weak at all.
I'm stressed as usual, but I'm enjoying the classes I'm doing. I've finally finished the rather absurd coverage requirements that OSU has for its MA students, and can focus exclusively on medieval studies at last. I'm doing courses in medieval allegory, the Benedictine reform, and Middle English, all of which I love more than I can say. We did monastic sign language the other day, which I found so fascinating.
I met with my advisor today to discuss my MA portfolio, consisting of two potentially publishable papers, which I have to defend in front of a committee. I have my papers chosen, and I wanted to run them past her. One is the essay for which I won the Kahrl Prize and which I'm presenting in part at Kalamazoo; the other is an essay on Malory's Morte D'Arthur, male virginity, and mutilation, which the professor for that course really liked and thought I should publish.
Apparently, the portfolio is the preferred option of "weak students", according to OSU folklore. It makes more sense in my case than the crazy reading exam, though. It'll give me two publishable articles, and two potential chapters for my Ph.D. The reading exam would give me, uh, familiarity with a pile of books, most of which would be out of my area.
Besides, I'm preadmitted to the Ph.D, and most of the people who count know that I'm not weak at all.