April 16, 2023
On Giving Good Presentations
Somehow I Enjoy Giving Academic Talks. Here’s Why. I’ve never liked public speaking. Even into college, I identified with – or passively accepted – labels like quiet, shy, and introverted. Public speaking was uncomfortable, awkward, and something to be dreaded. Which is why in graduate school, finding out that I
March 30, 2023
A Short Reflection on Rejections
7:30am. I open that messy bird app that I’ve been wanting to quit and see someone’s celebratory post announcing that they’ve won a grant. It’s a grant I’ve also applied for. Shoot. I haven’t checked my email yet, but the post says they found out yesterday. I would have seen
December 30, 2022
Choosing a Dissertation Committee
I’ve been asked a few times about how I chose my dissertation committee, mostly by friends who are currently going through the process themselves. Personally, forming my committee just seemed to happen. The choices I made felt natural and effortless (in contrast to most things in graduate school, ha). But
December 28, 2022
Feedback, Again: Dissertation Proposal Edition
Reflecting on my dissertation proposal, the one topic I had to write about was feedback. I first wrote about feedback in my first year of graduate school. That post was my way of trying to figure out why the feedback I was getting in grad school, on class assignments and
December 20, 2022
Dissertation Proposal Defense: How It Went
December 2, 2022, 11:50 am Tapping my feet nervously, I’m sitting at my home “office,” which is just my dining room table with my laptop and a second monitor. My wi-fi has been spotty lately, so I have an ethernet cord stretched halfway across the room, probably a safety hazard.
November 21, 2022
Coping (Club Q)
We have mass shootings in America all the time. But it hits and hurts differently, intensely, when your hometown is the one that has become a hashtag, and one of your identities, a target again. I am coping by having a coffee with milk and sugar and fake whipped cream.