Professor Stephen Hawking died on March 14, 2018. From all directions, I've been flooded with reactions to his passing. Even people who don't usually post about disability topics or about science are sharing their reactions. As a disabled graduate student and scientist, I’m feeling the loss. More...
26 mars 2018
Recruiting as a Senior Grad Student
Strategies for making the most of recruitment events, even as an advanced (and possibly burned out) grad student. More...
Dr. Hawking’s Legacy and Disability in Grad School
“Everyone’s Leaving Me Behind!”: Dealing With Others’ Transitions
In the world of graduate school, spring is a time of transition. It’s when we start hearing about incoming cohorts, but it’s also when people start firming up their post-graduation plans. On a sadder note, the end of the spring semester is also when people might transfer to other programs or quit graduate school altogether. More...
What I Learned in a Pedagogy Course
From my first day in the classroom, though, the professor showed us how to be active, cooperative educators by being one herself. Here are a few of the lessons I learned from her during that first semester that I have gone on to use while teaching my own classes. More...
Debunking the Shame in 'You Should Be Writing!'
This popular tongue-in-cheek rebuke has been a humorous, if not a durable universal higher educational meme, familiar among graduate student researchers, academic faculty, and other writers. It softly shames us for engaging in activities unrelated to advancing and publishing our research–namely, the laborious and intensive writing part. More...
Discovery Teaching and Learning
Each semester, I make an effort to try something new in my classroom, whether it be a small change like tweaking assignments and readings or a large one like switching textbooks. This year, intrigued by an article on creating a “humanities lab”, I decided to experiment with intentionally implementing discovery learning activities in my classes. More...
The Five Numbers Required for a Complete Grad Student Tax Return
The trickiest step in the tax return preparation process for a graduate student in the US is the very first one: identifying your income and other key numbers to plug into your tax return manually, enter into your tax software, or hand over to your tax preparer. More...
In Defense of Graduate Organizations
After undergraduate studies, the idea of joining an on-campus organization may seem ludicrous especially with the other responsibilities entrusted to graduate students. You have deadlines to meet, office hours to hold, and not to mention your own personal life. However, getting involved with your Graduate Student Association (GSA) can be helpful to your overall graduate experience. More...
Disabled in Grad School: How 'Out" Do I Need to Be
This post is part of a (somewhat loose) series about being disabled at university, with a focus on graduate school: problems we encounter, how we deal with them, and what you can do that will make things easier for fellow graduate students with disabilities. More...
Lessons Learned
By Steven Mintz. Many popular critiques of higher education focus on a series of straw men: soaring costs, indifferent faculty, pointless research, rampant political correctness, administrative bloat, country club amenities, inflated grades, undermotivated, underprepared, and disengaged students, and a ratings-fueled pursuit of reputation and status. More...
