Comments on: update, and a plea http://ealuscerwen.wordpress.com/2009/02/06/update-and-a-plea/ Just another WordPress.com weblog Tue, 17 Nov 2009 09:03:40 +0000 http://wordpress.com/ hourly 1 By: Vocational Ph.D. programs: is this the future calling? « A Corner of Tenth-Century Europe http://ealuscerwen.wordpress.com/2009/02/06/update-and-a-plea/#comment-13769 Vocational Ph.D. programs: is this the future calling? « A Corner of Tenth-Century Europe Fri, 27 Feb 2009 21:11:24 +0000 http://ealuscerwen.wordpress.com/?p=132#comment-13769 [...] on a course with the time of two fewer teachers than it had been planned for during some of that; I also spent much too long on a first article, though I guess the work paid off at the time. In the UK it is conventional to over-run, but since [...] [...] on a course with the time of two fewer teachers than it had been planned for during some of that; I also spent much too long on a first article, though I guess the work paid off at the time. In the UK it is conventional to over-run, but since [...]

]]> By: Mary Kate Hurley http://ealuscerwen.wordpress.com/2009/02/06/update-and-a-plea/#comment-13765 Mary Kate Hurley Thu, 12 Feb 2009 23:53:10 +0000 http://ealuscerwen.wordpress.com/?p=132#comment-13765 This is going to sound insane, coming from me. Note that I have relatively few regrets about my graduate school career, though I'm sure I could come up with a few in the next year or three if I try really hard to fit them in before I finish. I'd have to say more languages -- I've still not learned Middle Dutch, and my modern Icelandic is non-existence, though the Old Norse makes reading it not so bad. Never made it to Princeton for Sara Poor's Middle High German class either. More linguistics would have been lovely too. Also: More Theory. Yup, capital T theory. I wanted to do all of philosophy when I got here. The languages I did learn (Provencal, Old French, Anglo-Norman....etc) got in the way. Not really a regret. But something I would do differently, if there were more hours in a day, or I could get one of those Time Turner thingies. This is going to sound insane, coming from me. Note that I have relatively few regrets about my graduate school career, though I’m sure I could come up with a few in the next year or three if I try really hard to fit them in before I finish.

I’d have to say more languages — I’ve still not learned Middle Dutch, and my modern Icelandic is non-existence, though the Old Norse makes reading it not so bad. Never made it to Princeton for Sara Poor’s Middle High German class either. More linguistics would have been lovely too.

Also: More Theory. Yup, capital T theory. I wanted to do all of philosophy when I got here. The languages I did learn (Provencal, Old French, Anglo-Norman….etc) got in the way. Not really a regret. But something I would do differently, if there were more hours in a day, or I could get one of those Time Turner thingies.

]]> By: Matt Gabriele http://ealuscerwen.wordpress.com/2009/02/06/update-and-a-plea/#comment-13764 Matt Gabriele Sun, 08 Feb 2009 02:56:06 +0000 http://ealuscerwen.wordpress.com/?p=132#comment-13764 Get the heck outta dodge. This doesn't mean graduate, but work somewhere else and talk to other people who'll challenge the way you look at your project. Graduate study can/ does create bubbles around you, where everyone (even if they agree) still thinks the same. Pop the bubble as soon and as often as possible. Get the heck outta dodge. This doesn’t mean graduate, but work somewhere else and talk to other people who’ll challenge the way you look at your project. Graduate study can/ does create bubbles around you, where everyone (even if they agree) still thinks the same. Pop the bubble as soon and as often as possible.

]]> By: Jonathan Jarrett http://ealuscerwen.wordpress.com/2009/02/06/update-and-a-plea/#comment-13763 Jonathan Jarrett Sat, 07 Feb 2009 16:10:00 +0000 http://ealuscerwen.wordpress.com/?p=132#comment-13763 I wish... I'd taken slightly less long writing my first article and so had finished the thesis sooner. I effectively took eight months out working on an article. I shouldn't have finished within my funded time, but one fewer part-time years might have made a difference, there were a lot of good jobs I wasn't qualified for that I could have been. Also I wish I'd somehow found a way to learn to actually speak Catalan and Spanish as well as read them. And having done so also to go abroad and use them looking at actual documents sooner. And lastly, I wish I'd had some time to meet some of my college contemporaries, because I never did and it might have taken my life in quite different directions. But mainly, my message would be: write something quick but don't write something long. I wish… I’d taken slightly less long writing my first article and so had finished the thesis sooner. I effectively took eight months out working on an article. I shouldn’t have finished within my funded time, but one fewer part-time years might have made a difference, there were a lot of good jobs I wasn’t qualified for that I could have been. Also I wish I’d somehow found a way to learn to actually speak Catalan and Spanish as well as read them. And having done so also to go abroad and use them looking at actual documents sooner. And lastly, I wish I’d had some time to meet some of my college contemporaries, because I never did and it might have taken my life in quite different directions. But mainly, my message would be: write something quick but don’t write something long.

]]> By: Larry Swain http://ealuscerwen.wordpress.com/2009/02/06/update-and-a-plea/#comment-13762 Larry Swain Fri, 06 Feb 2009 22:17:42 +0000 http://ealuscerwen.wordpress.com/?p=132#comment-13762 Well, hmmmm....I was a fool. I studied in a program that had 2 medievalists. One was my advisor. But there were practically *NO* medieval classes, what I had were either through a consortium offering so had to travel for or an independent reading. My MA was all medieval and medieval language, my PhD, until my exam prep and dissertation, hardly any medieval at all. So I wish I'd gone somewhere else. Well, hmmmm….I was a fool. I studied in a program that had 2 medievalists. One was my advisor. But there were practically *NO* medieval classes, what I had were either through a consortium offering so had to travel for or an independent reading. My MA was all medieval and medieval language, my PhD, until my exam prep and dissertation, hardly any medieval at all. So I wish I’d gone somewhere else.

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