#academic thoughts

[incognito2252]

academic writing

It has taken me like four years and maybe a bit more that while I like the learning aspect of higher education I don't like academic writing and I am also not particularly great at putting my thoughts into words on the page in a cohesive way and than I end up procrastinating like hell and than I end up rushing at the end. my brain does not like reading secondary sources, I find researching hard because I feel like my idea is hard to find in research but maybe that is because I make my thoughts to vague.

this is all to say I don't regret my time at university but I think it has helped my understand while I like learning and studying literature, religions, and history, I am not cut out to be an academic writing papers and all that jazz. which I think is perfectly fine it is not like I can keep enhancing my knowledge outside of higher education.

plus I feel like it is hard to write in an academic style is when you are not taught it in school to the extent they want you to write it at in university. we had a teacher try to teach us but I don't think he quiet got us to the level that we probably need it to.

so all in all I do like essays especially over like a 1000 words but anyway. feel free to disagree this is just my thoughts and opinions everybody is different.

[fluencca]

reasons for applying for a phd:

3. challenge myself and keep myself thinking in new ways

2. enhance humanity’s body of knowledge

1. i’ve become addicted to my jstor access and cannot live without it

[intergalactic-chameleon]

okay so far senior thesis is kinda fun as hell bc i've been reviewing the responses to the survey i created recently and the conclusions im coming to are so enlightening. for example, one section of questions is about letter writing and i asked ppl "do you think letter writing is valuable thing for people your age to practice?" and it's so interesting to see how people define value. i had someone respond "idk if it's valuable, but it's fun to correspond with friends in different cities/states/countries" and it made me think "why wouldnt that alone make it valuable?" my working theory is that when ppl in general hear the word "value" they think of importance, ie whether something is necessary or not. but value can just mean it matters to you and makes you happy. when did we learn that "value" needs to be inherently practical? art isn't inherently practical, in fact that categorization need not apply because art is something that is most well practiced when the mood strikes. and, ironically, frivolity is an invaluable characteristic of humanity, because what is more human than the lighthearted enjoyment of things?

just thought that was an interesting distinction lol

[docconbons]

Quit lit

Been reading some good academia quitting articles (quit lit) and more and more I wonder why I keep pushing.

I’m gonna give myself this coming year to focus on publishing, but also on doing things I used to like such as translation and just plain old studying languages. I may do some writing, and may do some quit lit myself. 

That said, if an academic job does work out, I 100 percent will do it. Because summers off is ENTIRELY worth it.

[flutterby-thoughts]

I’m currently reading The Jet Sex by Victoria Vantoch. Haven’t read anything like since since a few years out of college, but I always loved these types of books in my sociology courses back in the day.

Some random thoughts that I want to return to:

Read a bit on the role of the woman in the Cold War. Or rather, the role of the image of the woman. America touted the fact that they could keep their women in the home -- take care of them -- and give them all these great consumer items to make their lives easier and their bodies/faces more attractive.

They gave the USSR shit for having plump/heavy/muscular women who “had to” work outside the home -- and in masculine fields!

It occurred to me reading this -- when did it become bad for women to be plump? At one point, it was seen as a sign of being provided for -- she had enough food to eat. Also, wider hips are supposed to be better/easier for childbirth.

At this point in history, we were about a decade away from the sixties and Twiggy and stick-thin models.

What was the mechanism by which America said to the world, proudly and without irony: We care for our women so much that we will starve them?

[coldcomfortflowers]

question?

Academic question: I've been thinking a lot about they way queer social movements have broken down over generational shifts in ways other movements happen, I feel like this might be because queerness is not passed down from parent to child in the same way race or religion is so there isn't this sense of avenging the injustices done to my parents or a really clear sense of "my people." I don't know at all, but I'd really like to read about this sort of thing. Anyone I know have suggestions of where to look for more on this kind of thought?

[digital-ginger-m]

//ooc: Academic Thoughts

//So, I've started watching Shingeki no Kyojin (finally), and I'm on episode three. I think this would be a great series to analyze for a journal article. Specifically, I'd really like to compare the first episode with Barefoot Gen (manga about the bombing of Hiroshima), because there are several visual things that are extremely similar (I did an analysis of the effect of the Hiroshima bombing on culture over the summer for a class). I'm wondering if SnK is influenced to an extent by that bombing (it wouldn't be the first thing; I know there're other manga/anime that are influenced by that in some way). It's very interesting visually. Now, if I can just find the time to do this as a project.