• Posts Tagged ‘reading’

    Last-Minute Gift Ideas for Academics (or what to get with your holiday Amazon giftcards)

    by  • December 23, 2012 • Advice • 0 Comments

    My department has recently introduced these two books to the grad students through reading groups and classes. Both give great professionalization advice for various stages in the studying, working, and writing processes. Semenza, Gregory Colón. Graduate Study for the 21st Century: How to Build an Academic Career in the Humanities. New York: Palgrave Macmillan,...

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    Getting to the Good Parts: Chapbooks and Blue Books

    by  • October 12, 2012 • Research • 2 Comments

    demon of venice

    One of my favorite things about Broadview Press’s 2006 edition of Zofloya (1806), by Charlotte Dacre, is the inclusion of a chapbook version of the original text in the appendix. Dacre’s novel, which occupies 216 pages in this edition, has been condensed into a 19-page document that speeds through the tale, sidestepping scenes of...

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    On Starting a Reading Group

    by  • April 22, 2012 • Advice • 0 Comments

    Once I’d finished my coursework requirements, I found myself really missing the chance to regularly gather with fellow grad students and talk about reading. Studying for exams and writing the dissertation can be isolating experiences.  Some large programs may have a few students studying or writing within similar fields, but smaller programs don’t always...

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    Comprehensive Exam Preparation

    by  • November 26, 2011 • Advice • 0 Comments

    This is my exam semester. When I began my PhD in West Virginia University’s program “exams” existed in an intangible future; now, they are here. No matter the format, no matter the number of texts on your list, the comprehensive exams are one of the legendary hurdles of obtaining a literature PhD. Critical to...

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    ‘Tis The Season to Apply for Research Fellowships

    by  • November 9, 2011 • Libraries & Archives, Opportunities, Profession, Research • 1 Comment

    It’s that time of year… and no, I don’t mean for busting out the Holiday music (for that please refrain until after Thanksgiving.  Thank you.).  This, my friends, is the season to consider applying for research fellowships!  With so many thrilling archives around, full of material ripe for analysis, it would really be a...

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    Legitimacy and the Graduate Student

    by  • April 18, 2011 • Pedagogy, Research, Student Life • 4 Comments

    We’ve all heard it:  “I don’t feel like I belong here”—the clarion call of English graduate students and the hyper-obsession of meta-conversations within Literature departments at the highest level.  What is this obsession, and who really does belong in graduate programs or the academy, if not those who are there already?  This problem has...

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    Reading Suggestions for Grad Seminar

    by  • April 7, 2011 • Pedagogy • 0 Comments

    New Graduate Course Help entry on Romantic Circles Pedagogy Blog. Dr. Katherine Harris asked for our help recommending reading for her graduate seminar. Respond on her blog post at http://www.rc.umd.edu/pedagogies/pedagogies_blog/?p=264. This Fall, I’m teaching a graduate course in Romanticism. The last time I offered a graduate course(2 years ago on William Wordsworth), it was cancelled for...

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