#academia feels

[diana-selene]

Just turned 21, and kept feeling I wasn't young anymore. Opened tumblr to be welcomed by my favorite aesthetic Dark Academia and realized.

I realized that Dark Academia made me feel home, with how much I used to consume books as a kid, how I loved to Journal trivial things, how I still collect books hoping I can pick them up again. Dark academia feels like nostalgia, like the child I used to be, like the love I had for this, like I still want to be the person I look up to. Dark academia makes me feel like a child and yet not.

It feels beautifully unexplainable.

[slingsandarrowsgifshop]

I had a friend who was chair of the theatre dept once... this was him.

[pictures-of-things-on-earth]

writing progress

OK!

My first paper of the summer: drafted, finally, and waiting for the writing group. 

It is fun stuff and a little cheeky-- I use tools developed for social studies of quantification to get at how the culture concept has been operationalized in the context of the Mexican state security apparatus.  It’s material I’ve been working through for a while. It was never the most riveting for me, frankly-- never seemed like a site for real portable theory-making-- but it’ll be just the thing for the workshop I’m headed to this September.

Today I’m finally getting back to my article attempt from last summer.  It turns out those reviewers were right. It’s a hot mess.

I suppose I’m glad that it’s as far along as it is; plenty to work with. And I probably learned a great deal from trying to write in the form. But if I hadn’t tried to develop material for high-status journals first, I might not have written in circles for months and months on this after writing in circles for months and months on a different piece.  *ugh*

I’m fixing it up now. I’ll send it out at the end of the summer to an upper-mid-level journal. Not a flagship, but a good solid place to be published.  And I’m going to be very happy if that journal is at all amenable. If not, I’ll have something I can send elsewhere with a minimum of changes, because it will be well-written and coherent. 

Next fall I’ll revisit the high-status publishing thing.  Maybe. Maybe I’ll be too busy with the book. Maybe in the spring.  Maybe in a decade, if somebody twists my arm.

[basic-game-theory]

I’ve only written 1500 garbage words so far, but my thesis is my baby and I love it.

[verycunninglinguist]

my new life goal is to be Gary Nash

ngggghhhh so in love with his work and having so many history feels

look at a very partial list of his books:

Class and Society in Early America (1970)

Red, White, and Black: The Peoples of Early America (1974)

The Private Side of American History: Readings in Everyday Life (1975)

The Urban Crucible: Social Change, Political Consciousness and the Origins of the American Revolution (1979)

Race, Class and Politics: Essays on American Colonial and Revolutionary Society (1986)

Forging Freedom: The Formation of Philadelphia's Black Community, 1720-1840 (1988)

Race and Revolution: The Inaugural Merrill Jensen Lectures (1990)

American Odyssey: The United States in the Twentieth Century (1991)

Forbidden Love: The Hidden History of Mixed-Race America (1999; 2010)

First City: Philadelphia and the Forging of Historical Memory (2001)

The Unknown American Revolution: The Unruly Birth of Democracy and the Struggle to Create America (2005)

The Forgotten Fifth: African Americans in the Age of Revolution (2006)

I am currently reading First City for my thesis and it is extraordinary and I just want to be him, guys.

[mypantsflewoff]

really frustrated

once again, my colleagues are not including me in the loop.  i don't know if this is deliberate or not.

colleague (also on my PhD committee) gets a small grant funded to replace an installation that's been non-functional since 1999.  this was my suggestion several years ago.  cruise is scheduled...have not been invited to sail or even TOLD IT'S HAPPENING.  i only know through other means.

just got told TODAY that i might be sailing on Chikyu (the japanese drilling vessel) in August.  THIS IS THE FIRST I'VE EVEN HEARD OF THIS BEING A POSSIBILITY.  i'm planning some family travel in august, not to mention dragoncon on labor day.  i really kind of fucking need to know this shit further out than 6 months.

i'm being pushed to try for an adjunct position that's closer to monterey, even though it would completely prevent me from sailing on our july cruise....which i have way more invested in than the Chikyu leg.  i haven't sailed in a year and a half.  that is my brain-reset function.  i am going fucking batshit without having been to sea.

never mind that my current institution makes me feel so fucking isolated and professionally alone.  i have NEVER felt this way anywhere else i've been stationed, even when i've visited other institutions for short amounts of time.

[mypantsflewoff]

seeking some teaching advice from the academics!

i'm aware of a few academics/faculty that follow me, so here goes.

I'm a postdoctoral fellow.  Unfortunately, I'm stationed at an institution that doesn't offer any kind of courses, so I'm limited when it comes to in-house teaching experience that the average postdoc at a university would have access to.  So, I've been checking out the local community college scene (there are MANY near Monterey) for part time adjunct positions in my field (geology/oceanography).

I was a teaching assistant MANY times....and not just the kind the graded papers.  I used to teach the lab section material and then guide the students through it (for the intro courses).  For the upper level labs I taught, I made up my own lab syllabus and lab exercises based on what was necessary for understanding the lecture material.  Two years ago I helped team-teach a mineralogy course and worked a bit on the course syllabus.  However, I've never built an entire course syllabus myself.

So here's my big questions:

How do you make the jump from TA-ing a lab to teaching a full-on syllabus driven course multiple days each week?  If you're coming in as a part-time adjunct for an existing course, does the department usually have something already somewhat put together for a syllabus/course material, or do you have to create this from scratch?

I'm kind of crapping my pants because I really don't have time on top of my research and getting renewed and published to build a syllabus from SCRATCH.  But I know I need more teaching on my CV for future hiring purposes....so it's a bit of a catch 22....

Also, any teaching advice and/or resources would be really appreciated. (Tagging professorfangirl because I bet she has some!)

[sweetnessdecency]

Little Dreams Come True

My professor's book came out and I'm credited in the acknowledgments! This is the closest I'll probably get to being "published" in academia. It's still satisfying though to see my name in print; there's good memories associated with being a research assistant and with the team I worked with.