Here’s a preview of the soon-to-be announced St. John’s English Deptartment Blog, for which most of the real work will be done by Tara Bradway and Danielle Lee.
Here’s a preview of the soon-to-be announced St. John’s English Deptartment Blog, for which most of the real work will be done by Tara Bradway and Danielle Lee.
The blog is pretty neat! As a graduate student, sometimes it can be hard to keep in touch with the things going on at the university because I’m not on campus or interacting as much as undergraduates do (ok, so I am, but not all graduate students are). I’m looking forward to using this blog to stay in the loop.
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On a side note (wasn’t sure where to put this), I was wondering if there would be any point during this class where we could all have a conversation about the state of the profession and/or the university. I’m not really sure where else I could learn about those types of things, and I thought that maybe you would be willing to lend us some guidance since it has to do with the course title somewhat.
I confess that I am a bit selfishly motivated because I recently learned that I am almost done with my coursework– though I’ve only just begun– and I’m freaking out a little bit because I don’t feel prepared to enter the ubercompetitive workforce of academia. I don’t know what universities expect or what I should be doing to prepare, other than writing, publishing, and networking. I’m assuming that some of my classmates are wondering about the same things, seeing as many of us intend to leave here either in search of teaching positions or more schooling.
I’m not sure if this is something you’d be willing to consider since our schedule seems pretty tight, but perhaps, you have some references you could point me to in order to do a little research on my own, even if it’s something out of the scope of class.
That’s a good idea, Nicole, & I think we may have some time later in the course when everyone’s projects are humming along steadily. We can talk about finding maybe 1/2 a class session for such things later.
I can’t help noting, however, that the “state of the profession” is a very mobile & malleable beastie. Today it’s not very much like what it was when I finished in 2000, nor really what it’ll be when each of you finishes in 201?? Plus it’s very different in different sub-fields, etc. I can certainly talk about how to keep abreast of such information, and how to broaden your professional horizons beyond STJ, which I think are good things to know about.
I’m also glad you like the blog.
The blog really looks great!! It is great to have a place to go to keep updated on all of the events related English at St. John’s, stuff that the e-mails may miss sending us. I particularly liked your post about upcoming conferences, Dr. Mentz. I would like to attend A Modern Aeneid: A Reading and Discussion of Olivier Kemeid’s The Aeneid since I am interested in classics and drama. I would like to have attended Teaching World Literature: Perspective and Pedagogy if it were closer to the area.
I like your suggestion, Nicole, about having a discussion about the state of the profession. I had been kind of anxious about my path and was having a conversation this past week with Dr. Denny about the profession in Teaching Composition class. It seems hard to land a position in academia these days as time goes on as you seem to be implying, Dr. Mentz. In the prospective discussion, everyone can share ideas of how to help each other with what to do and where to go.