I was happy when a pitch was well received at Limestone Post. While the piece I wrote, released today and detailing the vanishing peaches, doesn't yet capture the mode public scholarship I aspire to, I was able to receive feedback from a variety of Orchard leaders to fact check and help clarify the message. More importantly, the piece reflects a tonal and audience shift. The publication brings to mind some of the concerns facing my colleagues as we set out on careers in academia. How do we earn living wages while completing our graduate studies?
Read More
'm pacing myself for the marathon of projects that follow after this proposal, and part of that is turning my attention to reading that makes me truly inspired to write. As an undergraduate, I dedicated all of my elective course hours to creative writing and literature, particularly nonfiction. I was fortunate to have an incredible professor, Jill Christman, and I learned that good reading fueled good writing. The words seemed to take up physical space in my body until they forced my own writing to spill up and over and out of me. I'm trying to get back to that feeling--that the ideas are urgent and need to be given space, that I am excited to be working. This is all part of my new year's resolution to own my identity as a writer. With two publications to my name, I feel myself pulled into a world of academic writing that doesn't quite match the tone or audience I most enjoy. So, here is a reading list I'm working through to feed the other writer in me with the goal of creating a dissertation that speaks to a wider audience and has last value outside of the dark corners of a university library.
Read More
If you missed it, I spent the last three weeks doing our department's take-home version of comprehensive exams. This is the first year they've been an option, & while we all have complicated feelings about the idea, I was fortunate to have this version. Because let's be honest, my baby--now five months & increasingly demanding--would not let a closed-book test happen. Not the memorization required, & not three uninterrupted four-hour time blocks. (Is it an unfair advantage to take a break mid-exam to pump? The world may never know.)
Read More
