At the start of every academic year, students in the American Studies Program get assigned a new part-time assistantship. Over the past three years, I’ve been at the Mariners’ Museum, served as a teaching assistant for an undergraduate class, and worked at the Equality Lab. This year, I’ll be serving as a Graduate Assistant at… Continue reading This Year’s Assistantship: The Cohen Career Center
Category: Academics
How My Art Practice Influences My Scholarship
I’ve been talking a lot about my art and my research interests lately, but I’ve never mentioned them together. For a long time, that was how I felt about my academic work and my artwork: they weren’t related to another beyond giving me a better technical understanding of etching and other intaglio techniques, which was… Continue reading How My Art Practice Influences My Scholarship
Grad School Stresses: Accomplishment Pressure
I’ve spent a lot of time on this blog talking about how the years I spent working as a curator have made me a more confident graduate student. While I may feel more comfortable with my strengths and limitations, that doesn’t mean I don’t experience insecurities altogether. Today then, I’d like to talk about what… Continue reading Grad School Stresses: Accomplishment Pressure
Museums in Times of Crisis: An Equality Lab Virtual Symposium
In October I told you about Finding Home, a virtual symposium from the Equality Lab that looked at the concept of home during the pandemic. Last Friday, we hosted another symposium addressing the pandemic and the overarching need for social change, Museums in Times of Crisis. Organized by Laura Beltrán-Rubio and myself, this symposium provided… Continue reading Museums in Times of Crisis: An Equality Lab Virtual Symposium
Confronting My Fear of Theory
Sometime during my first year of my Master’s program I decided I was “not a theory person.” I don’t remember exactly when or why this happened. Maybe it was because my classmates seemed so much more assured of the readings than I did. Perhaps it was the way I struggled to write about theory. Or… Continue reading Confronting My Fear of Theory
Finding Home: An Equality Lab Virtual Conference
The Equality Lab has been keeping busy this semester with various remote activities. In September, Ravynn K. Stringfield hosted a workshop on cultivating a professional identity on Twitter. Just this past Friday, October 23, we hosted “Finding Home: Placemaking in the Spatial Humanities,” the first of a series of online mini-conferences we’ll be hosting throughout… Continue reading Finding Home: An Equality Lab Virtual Conference
So What Exactly is a Dissertation Prospectus, Anyway?
At the beginning of this year, a time that feels like a million years ago now, I wrote a post called “So How Exactly Do You Get a Ph.D., Anyway?” In that post, I described the basic steps you go through to get a degree in American Studies at William & Mary. Today, I’d like… Continue reading So What Exactly is a Dissertation Prospectus, Anyway?
This Year’s Assistantship: The Equality Lab
A new academic year means a new assistantship at William & Mary, and while conditions are very different from previous semesters, I’ve still got plenty to do for the College. Today then, I’d like to talk about my assistantship with the Equality Lab. The Equality Lab, as the name implies, is an organization on campus… Continue reading This Year’s Assistantship: The Equality Lab
Comprehensive Exams: Reflecting on my Experience
On September 9, I officially passed my comprehensive exams. In terms of degree requirements, this means I am ABD: All but Dissertation. Mind you, I still have a ways to go before completing the degree because I still have to research and write the dissertation, but finishing the exams is a major milestone as it’s… Continue reading Comprehensive Exams: Reflecting on my Experience
Thinking (and Reading) About Cultural Politics
When I was an intern at the Dallas Museum of Art, the museum attempted to buy at auction A Grand View of the Seashore, a large seascape painted around 1774 by the French artist Claude-Joseph Vernet (1714-1789). This wasn’t any ordinary art purchase. A Grand View of the Seashore is actually the companion piece to… Continue reading Thinking (and Reading) About Cultural Politics