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Grad School: The Secret Syllabus

Looking for The Tenure-Track Program Syllabus? Click here.

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Absolute Beginners

• Welcome to the Course 🌍
• The Summer Before Grad School Begins 🔒
• Phd Application Statement of Purpose: A Metaphor ⏩
• PhD Applications: How to Choose a Writing Sample 🔒
• First-Year Chaos ⏩
• Helping Your Potential Advisor Advocate for You 🔒
• How to Research Potential Advisors (Proquest Trick) 🔒
• No One Remembers Your Application 🌍
• Moving from a Non-U.S. to a U.S. Institution 🔒
• Starting Attending Job Talks Now! (Here’s Why) 🔒

Working with Your Advisor

• Advising Your Advisor on How to Advise 🔒
• How Often to Meet With Your Advisor 🔒

Jumpstarting Your Research

• “That Was Then. Diss is Now.” (Read as many dissertations as books!) 🔒
• One Note, One Card: Back to Basics ⏩
• Meet a Librarian (Now) ⏩
• Figuring Out How to Speak about Your Research (before you know what it really is) 🔒

Coursework

• How to Choose Courses in Grad School 🔒
• Methodological Promiscuity 🔒
• Credit Loads: Why NOT to Max Them Out🔒
• Transferring MA Credits ⏩
• Language Training ⏩
• Summer Courses ⏩
• Start Reading for Orals… Now ⏩
• Your First Research Paper ⏩
• From Proposal to Final Paper 🌍
• Independent Study/Directed Reading Beware ⏩
• Critique Like a Writer ⏩
• Getting Feedback from Profs (“You Need to Learn to Write Better” story) ⏩

Orals and Comps

• I Failed Orals: Let’s Be Honest about the PhD Process 🌍
• Auditioning Faculty to Be on Your Committee ⏩
• Why You Need to Prepare Briefing Memos 🔒
• How to Practice for Orals 🌍
• How to Begin Every Orals Exam Answer 🌍

Emotional and Mental Health

• Mental Health Begins Now 🌍

Your First TAship

• Creating a Section Syllabus ⏩
• Working with Your TA Course Faculty ⏩
• Your First Course Evaluation ⏩
• Paying the Price for a Crappy Prof: What to Do with Bad Evaluations ⏩
• Unionization ⏩

Social Media for Grad Students

• TikTok for Grad Students 🌍
• Creating a Professional Website ⏩

The Second Year

• The Summer Before Year 2 ⏩
• Sophomore Slump ⏩
• How (and If) to Start a Secret Life 🌍
• On-Campus or Off? Where to Live 🔒
• Doubts ⏩

Networking and Relationships

• Having a Child in Grad School ⏩
• Dating in Grad School ⏩
• A Death in the Family ⏩
• Physical Fitness ⏩
• Mental Health Redux ⏩
• How (and Why) to Avoid Cliques ⏩
• Meet a 6th Year and Ask Advice ⏩
• Activism, On and Beyond Campus ⏩

Conferences & Writing Groups

• When to Apply for Your First Academic Conference? 🔒
• How (and Why) to Form a Writing Group 🔒
• Honoraria: How Much Money Do You Make Giving Talks?

Fellowships and Grants

• How to Write a Statement of Purpose ⏩
• Letters of Recommendation: How and When to Ask for Them 🌍

The Dissertation

• The Contours of a Dissertation? ⏩
• Time to Completion ⏩
• Switching Dissertation Topics ⏩

Filing and Defending

• The Defense ⏩
• To Embargo or Not to Embargo? ⏩
• Do This Right After Your Defense 🌍
• When and How to Approach Editors 🌍

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Tenure: The Secret Syllabus

Looking for The Grad School Syllabus? Click here or scroll up.

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Getting Published

• Publishing 101: How the Process Works, Start to Finish ⏩
• How and Where to Meet Editors and Publishers ⏩
• “Simultaneous Submission”: What Is It, How to Do It, and Why It Matters ⏩
• How to Write an Author Response Letter ⏩
• Negotiating Better Book Contracts ⏩
• What if a Press Rejects Your Book? ⏩
• Edited Volumes and “Special Issues” ⏩
• How to Interpret and Respond to Criticism ⏩
• Writing for Magazines and Newspapers (and Getting Paid Doing So!) 🔒

Teaching

• Don’t Launch that Shiny New Course! ⏩
• Your Slides Suck: What Profs Can Learn from Graphic Designers ⏩
• The Secret to Better Evaluations ⏩
• Course Evaluations Matters (in Ways Your Students Don’t Realize) 🔒
• How to Run Office Hours (Hint: Stop Calling Them “Office Hours”) 🔒
• Course Evaluations are Biased (and We Should Our Students So) ⏩
• Working with TAs Effectively ⏩
• How to Treat Student Athletes with the Respect They Deserve ⏩

Mental Health

• Where and When to Seek It Out ⏩
• Leaves of Absence ⏩
• Enemies (ugh) 🔒

The Minefield of Informality

• Hallways, Lunches, Dinners…🌍
• First-Name Basis or “Dr. So-and-So”? 🌍
• Power: When Do You Know You Have It?🔒

Fellowships and Grants

• Sabbatical Grants ⏩
• Multi-Year Grants ⏩
• Conference Grants ⏩
• Small Grants ⏩
• “Mid-Career” Grants and Fellowships: When’s the Earliest You Can Apply? ⏩
• Residential Fellowships ⏩

Promoting Your Research

• No One Knows Who You Are 🔒
• Book Awards ⏩
• Securing Blurbs ⏩
• The “Author Questionnaire” ⏩
• Social Media for Academics ⏩

Advising Students

• Young Professor, Older Graduate Student: The Complex Dynamics of PhD Advising ⏩
• Don’t Give No Advice: The Basics of Good Mentorship ⏩
• Mentoring Students is the Hardest Job You’ll Ever Have ⏩
• How to Help Your Students Find Their Thesis and Dissertation Questions ⏩

Reappointment

• What is Reappointment Review? ⏩
• Getting (and Interpreting) Feedback ⏩
• Preparing Your Reappointment File ⏩

Sabbatical

• What Should Your Sabbatical Goals Be? ⏩
• Where to Find Funding for Your Sabbatical? ⏩
• Should You Do a Residential Fellowship? ⏩
• Protecting Time and Getting S*** Done 🌍

Work-Life Balance

• Childcare ⏩
• Dating ⏩
• How to Have a Social Life ⏩
• Parental Leave ⏩
• Leaves of Absence ⏩
• Activism: On and Beyond Campus ⏩

Department Meetings

• How to Navigate Department Meetings 🔒

Tenure

• Preparing Your Tenure File 🔒
• Who Will You Be Compared To (the “Comparison Set”)? ⏩
• Should You Go Up Early for Tenure? ⏩
• What If? What Happens If You’re Denied Tenure? 🔒
• What Have You Done for Us Lately?: How Will Your Institution Count Work You Completed at Your Previous University? 🌍
• Who Will Write Your “Outside Letters” ⏩

Applying for Jobs

• Should You Apply for an Outside Offer? 🌍
• How to Negotiate Contracts (without Losing Your Soul) ⏩

Money

• Honoraria: How Much to Expect for Giving an Invited Talk ⏩
• Reviewing Articles and Manuscripts: How Much Will You Get Paid ⏩
• Other Ways to Make Money on Campus ⏩

Conferences

• How to Organize and Raise Money for Your Conference 🌍

Climbing the Ladder

• Becoming Chair ⏩
• Treating Administrators and Office Staff with the Respect They Deserve ⏩
• What Kind of Career Do You Want to Have? ⏩
• Committee Assignments 🔒

Your Second Book or Major Project

• Becoming a “Scholar Between Projects” 🌍

Tenure…. Now What?

• What Will You Do with Your Newfound Safety? 🌍