On Reading

March 27, 2021

 Like many of my fellow academics, I feel the pressure of having to continuously write scholarly papers, present them at academic conferences, submit them for peer review and publish them in highly-ranked journals. I share the same responsibilities. The other month, I found myself arriving to campus and walking to my office while talking on the phone, holding the phone in one hand while signing...

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Navigating Research in the New Normal

March 27, 2021

After a long year of dealing with the global COVID-19 pandemic and with vaccines rolling out globally, many academic communities are looking ahead to the post-pandemic world. The challenges and changes to our lives will continue into 2021 and beyond, highlighting the need to find new and innovative ways to dive back into research. COVID-19 shifted virtually everyone’s timelines & goals to complete...

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27/3/2021

March 27, 2021

 The word liminality, is derived from the Latin word limen, meaning threshold.  Liminality is the transitional period or phase of a rite of passage, during which the participant lacks social status or rank, remains anonymous, shows obedience and humility, and follows prescribed forms of conduct, dress, etc. A state of liminality is one where the order of things has been suspended.  It...

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Research Year Pt. 1: The Planning Process from First Year

July 27, 2019

I am going to start off by saying that I am writing this from three weeks in to my research stint abroad. Therefore, I am by no means an expert on this topic, and I predict that my rationale, methods, mood, etc., will oscillate and change through this whole process. That is precisely, though, why I am documenting this to convey and debunk some of the myths that I held about life beyond comps and...

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MP #1

February 26, 2019

Whether it is a procrastination phase or a phase that you truly think a middle part looks good on you, we all go through temporary obsessions to then wake up one morning like why on earth am I doing this. Mine recently has been playing food roulette where I do not grocery shop and just buy food on the fly. This has left me hungry constantly and spending way too much money on crappy campus food. So...

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2/1/2019

February 01, 2019

One of the greatest finds of my graduate school career, beyond a fascinating dissertation project and some quality friends, was academic Twitter. I used Twitter briefly in undergrad as a joke, and really believed that most grew out of it. Well, I was wrong. After feeling frustrated with a mix of isolation and not knowing really how academics work (I am first-gen grad student coming fresh out of...

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