Earlier this week we shared that a crucial part of making progress on your dissertation isn’t just letting go of perfection but actively giving yourself the freedom to fail. Today, we’re going to share our favorite ways to fail. If you take lessons in acrobatics, stagecraft, or tumbling, one of Read more…
This mini-series is an adaptation of 15 signs of an abusive relationship from a romantic context to an academic context. Each installment will adapt 5 signs to an academic context. For more familiarity with the signs please check out the original article over at HuffPo. You can also see the Read more…
One of the wisest pieces of advice I got while I was writing my dissertation was from a senior faculty member who observed that, “Sometimes, through no fault of their own, advisors and advisees get stuck in a loop rehashing the same issues in the text.” Again, in it’s own Read more…
Let’s start with an uncomfortable truth: The overwhelming majority of PhD advisors are very bad at their job. This does not mean that they are bad people. Many, many of them are good people, good teachers, good scholars. And bad advisors. There are many reasons for this and the most Read more…
I started applying for tenure-track academic jobs the year I thought I would finish my dissertation. So, you know, a little over a year before I actually finished my dissertation. I looked and applied for jobs from July 2016 through January 2018. Part of what attracted me to academia originally Read more…
Happy Halloween! Our goal for this month was to make dissertating feel exciting rather than terrifying. There is, however, a fundamental truth of dissertating which we may have mentioned before: It is hard. Even if you love your project, even if you have the world’s best committee, even if you Read more…
Congratulations! You’ve completed your first chapter draft and are feeling that peculiar mix of excitement and nausea that settles in before sending something to your advisor and/or committee for feedback. Before now and then, however, you want to make sure that everything is as perfect as it can be to Read more…
So far this October we’ve given you some of our best tips to make dissertating feel doable and, dare we say it, exciting!, rather than terrifying. If you are an astute reader (and of course you are, you smart cookie) then you’ve probably noticed that we haven’t talked much about Read more…
When I was in coursework I often had 3 seminar papers due around the same time at the end of the semester. Combined with teaching responsibilities and the rigors of trying to be a person (e.g. cooking, cleaning, showering) I often wrote these papers at the last minute. What I Read more…
Last Wednesday, we asserted that “dissertations are a trash genre.” We stand by this statement However, we’ve also received some great feedback from people who have written dissertations that we wish to add. The most important thing to reiterate is that you absolutely have to write a dissertation. It Read more…