I spend today working on two different conference abstracts which are supposed to be very short (300 words max!) and yet somehow convince their readers that I have all the brilliant thoughts and should be invited to speak them. Which means that I have spent a little bit of time today writing down my ideas and several hours condensing each clause ( Read more... )

So I told myself I would take this whole weekend off, because the last six months have been so stressful and the last two especially so non-stop-worky-work. I was really psyched to just do nothing. Bliss. Of course it would be sheer bliss.

Right?

Well, as it turns out, it was a lot harder than I expected! First off, I tried to sleep in really ( Read more... )

66.5 hours and 14,242 words later, not counting bibliographies, I'm done with my doctoral exams. (People of LJ, I feel like you especially will appreciate the fact that my third essay was all about costume dramas.) Now to wait a week or two, and then find out if I passed. Then if I did pass, to turn around immediately and write a prospectus. Next, ( Read more... )

I'm reading a book of literary criticism from 1972* which refers to the emerging discipline of "women studies."

The "off" sound of this made me giggle, until I suddenly wondered: why do we call it "Women's Studies"? There's American Studies: the study of things American. Likewise Asian-American Studies, African-American Studies, Queer Studies... ( Read more... )

With elections on the horizon, one hears a lot of talk about whether America would elect a female president. (Yes, people of more progressive countries, I am ashamed to say this is still up for debate ( Read more... )

Know what's awesome? Finding out that your super-intellectual Human Rights professor, of whose chic hipster wardrobe you live in daily envy, recently fell in love with Richard Armitage in North & South and is now watching Robin Hood.

The swoonability: not even doctors of transnational trauma literature can resist it!

Seminar papers.
Essays to grade.
Revision to polish.
Other essays to read.
Applications to fill out.
Statement of purpose to finish.
Other things I can't bother to list.

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It seems like every time I get down in the dumps about my career, some little thing happens to give me a boost. Today I was on campus visiting the library and saw all these signs for the Connecticut Children's Book Fair. Of course there was no way I was passing that by ( Read more... )

Very busy this weekend, as you no doubt know-I realize I've practically been going up to everyone, clutching them by the shoulders and saying "Do you know how much work I have??"-but I've been working on posts about these various links for a while now so I should really put them up.

1) On a somber note, I was interested by this article from io9: ( Read more... )

It's a dull old line, but it couldn't be more true for me right now: I'm sick and tired of being sick and tired. My essay grading for the class I teach and essay writing for all the classes I'm taking happened to fall due this same week, the week before I take the GREs (because my old scores expired, what joy). It would be a lot of work to handle ( Read more... )