Project PhDcast

Humanities Graduate Student Symposium 2023

Adaptability: Crossing Boundaries in the Humanities 

Brock University, Pond Inlet, Saturday, March 25, 2023 

Abstract: Academia from the Edges 

Grad school is an all-consuming experience, where we spend a glorious year or two immersed in our passions. But what happens when, either through choice or circumstance, we leave the academic setting? While MA programs train us for continued studies at the PhD level, that is not a possibility for everyone. But leaving the traditional academic route does not mean leaving your academic training and the passion you have for your discipline behind. In fact, I argue, those who engage with academia from outside the traditional structures are critical for the ongoing survival of our disciplines. In this presentation I will share some of what I have learned about doing academia “from the edges” in the ten years since I finished my MA, exploring the ways people stay connected with their disciplines while continuing to learn and grow as independent scholars.  

Links:

• MythTake podcast
• Foreword podcast
• Progressive Connexions interdisciplinary conferences and research
• The Female of the Species: Cultural Constructions of Evil, Women and the Feminine (At the Interface)  2013
• “From Ancient Texts to Digital Tech” in Independent Scholars Meet the World: Expanding Academia Beyond the Academy Edited by Christine Caccipuoti and Elizabeth Keohane-Burbridge. University of Kansas Press, 2020.