Since I last wrote back in January, I finished a full draft of my dissertation, secured an external reader, and scheduled my defense. I’ve been settling into my new job as the assistant director of William and Mary’s Writing and Communication Center, I led the organizing committee for our graduate research symposium to a very satisfying (and, I believe, successful) conclusion, and have been tending to a variety of small-er projects that I’ll elaborate on below.
It has been strange to be “done” (inasmuch as these things can ever be finished) with the diss, awaiting defense, far away from graduation, but in a full time job. That isn’t a complaint, by the way. Recently, William and Mary announced a hiring “slow down” (freeze) that has made me exceptionally grateful that I was able to secure anything at all. The in-betweenness of this time in my life, however, has given me a lot of space to contemplate.
Mostly, I feel an overwhelming sense of gratitude for the fact that I have more or less made it through this journey. Moving into a full time position at the institution where I am getting my degree has been odd as it has required a shifting of contexts that hasn’t always been easy to navigate. In a sense, I think I felt this when I started adjuncting at Drexel after having been a student there. I think it is difficult to get people who have seen you as their student to see you as their colleague. Fortunately, moving into a unit that is overseen by Arts & Sciences broadly rather than into a department where I’ve taken classes, it is easier to be regarded as a professional rather than a child (I also think there is a gendered component here at work that might make me seem a bit more competent than I am).
Admittedly, it still feels strange to introduce myself to people in my new role rather than as a graduate student, even though it has truthfully been quite a long time since I’ve felt like a student at all. This is not to say that I don’t have things to learn - there’s a ton I don’t yet know - but it is to say that in my time here I have received a lot less coaching on how to bridge that gap and have been more subjected to a baptism by fire approach that has more or less worked.
I’ll probably write a longer missive wrapping up my experience as a student here after the defense, but for now suffice it to say that the last few weeks have been marked by a strange mood of reflection and a lot of gratitude for what has been a long, sometimes arduous, mostly weird process.
What’s next?
Admittedly it feels easier to be asked that question as someone who has a job because I don’t have to do the painful pin-balling in my brain of trying to come up with something satisfactory. My role as WCC assistant director isn’t term-limited (at least not right now) so I imagine I’ll be in it for at least a couple of years. I don’t intend to be a writing program administrator for the entirety of my career and while I know it is difficult to go from professional faculty role to faculty role, I don’t think I’m done with that aspect of this journey yet.
A big blessing of being in this job is that I have a considerable amount of time to devote myself to other projects. My teaching load is light and the day to day administrative work of it is not all that difficult or time consuming. Plus, I have research time built into my contract and that will continue to prove to be very useful as I think about how to move into the next phase of my career.
I’m currently working on the draftiest draft of a book proposal in advance of attending SCMS next month (by which I mean in two weeks) and my advisor has given me the goal of “just talking to someone,” which is actually quite helpful advice for me. As I’ve written my defense talk and started outlining my proposal, what has been most surprising to me is realizing how much my project has changed from its initial conception and how much more different it will become as I think through devising the manuscript. While initially this was something that really frightened me during my early days as a doctoral student — you mean I’m going to write a book and then none of it is going to be useful? — I’ve actually been thinking about how much fun revision can be under the right circumstances. Put differently: I feel a little empowered.
I haven’t touched my SCMS talk yet which isn’t ideal as we leave a week from Thursday but it’s based on a dissertation chapter so I imagine it’ll come together relatively easily as the proverbial hay is already in the barn. I’m excited to go to SCMS as I haven’t been since 2021 when it was virtual and it’s in Chicago this year which is a place I’ve never been (save for about 55 minutes last year when Carly and I drove through it during the worst traffic and most insane driving conditions I’ve ever experienced in my life).
Following SCMS, I am giving a talk as part of William and Mary’s Emerging Scholar Series in partnership with the Williamsburg Regional Library. Fortunately, it is not at all related to dissertation work and is giving me the opportunity to a) preview what I hope will become my second book project and b) think about something different, which is honestly a very welcome break. If you are in Williamsburg and would like to attend, you can read more about the event/my talk here.
It’s a relatively busy spring for me which feels nice if a little overwhelming. I think this often happens to me (and probably most other academics, too) - everything really picks up in the spring time and before you know it, it’s just a dead sprint to commencement.
I think that’s all for now. If you’d like to attend the Zoom meeting of the public portion of my defense and you have my e-mail address, feel free to drop me a line, I’m happy to send the info your way. Otherwise, hopefully my next missive will be a celebratory one.
Thanks for reading!