Creative ways to make Graduate research fun

Research is a large part of graduate school, some might argue it's the biggest part. If you're in a master's program, having research, presenting at conferences and the all-important publishing of research is the thing that will make you or break you in terms of getting into that Ph. D program you've been drooling over.

As a grad student, I feel like I was born with this natural affinity for research that some people never quite develop. I guess if we had a world full of research loving, potential grad students it would be even scarier out there! This affinity can be both a blessing and a curse. It's the blessing that most likely got you and I into grad school, but it's the curse that will haunt us for the rest of our lives! (Refer to Proof of the 3 P's)

The rest of my graduate career will undoubtly be bursting with research (including a Thesis that I should probably be thinking about), so to save some shread of sanity I'm trying to come up with ways to make graduate research fun, yes fun! Here's what I've come up with so far:

1. Research something you're actually interested in*

Ok this might seem like a "well, duh" statement, especially if (like me) you're just starting out in grad school, but here's the thing...I've heard stories, awful stories about poor, unsuspecting grad students being used as research pawns to research things that OTHER people are interested in...other people being anyone yu might interact with: advisors, random professors, other grad students that are above you in the hierarchy, etc. Sure it may start off with "Oh, hey, do you remember if it was that one Judith Butler article that has that anecdote about heterosexualization of the social bond of marriage?" But soon, you'll be writing papers just to submit them to conferences and/or writing papers because you're professor is interested in something as random as Chick-fil-A (true story!).

Moral of the story, research what you liek while you can. Because what Florence and the Machines doesn't know is that the dog days are just beginning for you and I.

*There is of course the chance that doing massive amounts of research on a subject you once thought you liked will make you resentful of that subject...the risk is yours

2. Research something you have a background in**

Researching something you have a background in means you already know something about it and can build off your original knowledge, this sounds a lot better than trying to teach yourself about whatever the hell someone wants you to research while you're writing the paper.

**The problem here is that not everyone has your background, so you'll probably have to go back and write in all that useless crap you already know and thought you wouldn't have to write about...

3. Do research with fellow grad students***

Doing research with people that also have to do the same can serve as a motivator. You see them working, they see you working and you feed off each other's energy. You can learn about what they're researching and talk out some of your papers.

***Yeah, you might want to be careful here too. Try not to feed of each other too much because you'll shortly realize that you're starved for energy and so are they. Soon you'll start reading for class popcorn style and everything will crumble into manic laughter and playing ridiculous games that involve sticking pieces of paper to your forehead and guessing what the soc/crim major sitting next to you wrote on it.

4. Do research with fellow grad students while drinking rum (or another liquor of choice)****

This is the best idea ever! The rum (or liquor of choice) will break down those walls that were inhibiting your writing, plus you get the added motivation of #3.

****This is the worst idea ever! Yes, for those first two shots or rum and coke, you might be doing ok, but the sad truth is grad school is basically set up to create alcoholics and doing massive amounts of research, especially for things like your final paper in a class that has consitantly given you migranes all semester, while there is liquor in a 30 ft radius is just a shitshow waiting to happen. Add in the fact that those fellow grad students you're doing research with have gotten those same migranes and you'll have most of your cohort being a drunken mess at whoever's apartment.

5. Do research alone while drinking rum

NO! Stop right now! Put down the rum. Pack up your research. Unpack the rum from your research bag! Put it away and go to the library.

I may have just saved your life.


Maybe I should stop trying to make research fun and just grin an bare it before my liver gives out.

Yes, it's that time again...

Something I never quite understood is the concept of a final paper. I mean I get it, I do. In place of an exam we will give you this HUGE assignment (anywhere from 15-30 pages usually) that will test your ability to apply concepts we've talked about all semester or your ability to explore topics related to the course. You're aware of this assignment at the beginning of the semester, so in the professor's eyes you should be working on this paper for the entire semester.

The only problem is throughout the semester you've been writing weekly papers for the same class (and of course more than one class has given you this dilemma).

Realistically, your professors know that you only have that one week to write this paper. Sure you might have come up with the concept for the paper early, you might even have a stellar outline, but you won't actually start writing until the week it's due. Hence:

I'm not neurotic! Everyone does it!

In graduate school e-mails are important to things like knowing what's going on in your department, talking with your advisor and other professors (such as a thesis committee), hearing about things like a graduate research fair that you REALLY should present at and, ya know, life.

When you get to the point of grad school, you are quite familiar with the massive amount of e-mails that you can potentially receive on any given day. So if, by chance, you don't receive e-mails, you may experience slight discomfort. In fact, the amount of discomfort and your reaction to this discomfort might look a little something like this:

Now imagine you are in my shoes, where you've been getting e-mails, just not from your dept...imgaine the spin this can take. Are you not getting their e-mails? Do they not have you on the e-mail list? Wait...you thought you fixed that? Is your e-mail not working for selective e-mails? IS YOUR INBOX CONSPIRING AGAINST YOU?!?!?!

Now, not wanting to sound paranoid, it may take a while to actually e-mail your advisor and say

"Hi, Dr. So and So,
 I was wondering...well I think...I'm not getting e-mails from you and I'm thinking that maybe I should be.

Thanks,
Your Name Here"

But everntually, you will. And you may discover that you were never put on their list. You will have a sigh of relief. Just don't start questioning why you weren't on the list to begin with...parania, it's a serious problem.

Proof of the 3 P's

In case you wanted proof that the three 7 P's exist well here it is. Apparently it's so well know it's being mocked in a very public way...the funnies!

Is anyone else feeling the pressure of the 3 P's?

So, you're finishing the first semester of your terminal master's program and then it hits you...you only have a year before you have to sell your soul to a Ph.D program, because though this degree may be terminal you're hoping that your education sure isn't! And, of course, if you're selling your soul you need to make sure that you make it worth your while. So where your dream program is at UCLA, UC Davis, the University of Michigan, NYU, Emory or where ever it may be, you now only have a year to make yourself worth of their program.

Now, whether you had already realized that or whether reality just slapped you in the face with the cold hard truth, take solace in this breif musical break, to which you will undoubtedly relate.

We're all under pressure; pressure to produce, present and publish. Hence the 3 P's. Presumably this pressure will help us in the pursuit of our end goal: Ph. D.

What if your university isn't exactly helpful in guiding you, either with this pursuit or with the 3 P's? Well I guess then it's up to you. If you find yoursefl in this precarious position, as I did, you might want to check with the rest of your cohort. You might find that they feel exactly the same way. If so then you can all work together (especially if you want to get into different programs for your Ph. D).

A simple search for conferences will get you started, as it did for me and my cohort. In only a few hours I found 11 conferences that we might still be able to present at before the end on next semester, not even touching the call for papers that might come out in the spring. Just a warning though, many call for papers end around this time of year. amound the conferences I found almost half have submission dates that end on or before December 1st (kind of reminds you of Ph. D applications, huh?). Starting your search earlier in the semester is the best thing to do, but its not over until the rejection letter start coming in. You can always submit abstracts for papers that may not be quite finished (or started) as long as you are 110% positive that it selected you can come through with a paper.

Since I have this (albeit small) list of conferences, you can expect a future page containing them as well as any others I come across in the future. Given my field is Women's and Gender Studies, most of the conferences will reflect that, but there will be the occasional psychology conference thrown in there too.  If you come across any that I don't have, I'd appreciate it if you would throw it my way!

"Embrace the Insanity and Keep on Going"

My favorite professor told me this just a few months ago. She is, without a doubt, the professor I learned the most from during undergrad. She was my psychology advisor, my research methods professor and my research project supervisor,  in short she was awesome. Always encouraging me, even when it didn't necessarily mean going in the direction she thought I would.

Now, after I graduated, she still helps me, sometimes just by making statements like this. When I feel like I'm going crazy, like everything is going to crash down, all I have to do is remember to embrace the insanity and keep going.

It's sometimes funny what little things inspire you.

I know I've been absent from here for a while...I've been a bit busy...the insanity keep my arms full for a while. I'll be back

Getting Schooled on Classes

There further you get into your graduate education the less time you will find yourself in class. However, if you are just starting out there's a good chance you're in a few. Most grad classes are really focused on your area of study, but if you're adding some weird, out-there concentration (like I am) you might find yourself in a classes that you don't necessarily think would be placed in the same schedule. For example, as a Women's and Gender Studies student, one would expect to find things like Feminist Thought and Domestic Violence & Sexual Assault on my class schedule, but pairing those with Theatre for the Young...?

This leads me to my main "topic" this time: Types of classes.

I think this information can be useful to anyone in grad school, but particularly those that have some seemingly randomly placed classes in there.

First, you will undoubtedly have the class that will might you wonder if you are in fact above a third grade reading level. For me, this class is Feminist Thought. I can't tell you how many times I've had to google words just to get a partial understanding of one sentence in a forty page long article. (One would think that theorists should be forced to choose between incomprehensible to people with less than a Ph.D, or long enough to be my Master's thesis, but that's a topic for another day!) This class will be the one you find yourself nearly in tears over several times throughout the semester (actual tears may too come). It is the most challenging class you have come across in your entire academic history and because of it you will question whether the admissions committee decided to torture you for a good laugh at your misery.

Next, you might find yourself in a class that you thought was going to expand your knowledge on a subject you were already quite familiar with (this would be my Domestic Violence & Sexual Assault class). I have a decent background in trainings and education in domestic violence and sexual assault, so upon seeing this class listed for the semester, I jumped on it. I was told that it was taught by a board member of the local women's domestic violence shelter and that he had been teaching the class for many years. This was definitely the class I thought I would rock. Well as it turns out, I know everything this professor is going to say before he says it. Everything. The readings are simple and about things I already know and class discussions do nothing be reiterate the readings. There's really no point to this class whatsoever and every week I'm left wondering why I'm there and how the rest of the class has managed to survive to this point in their life. Baffling.

Finally, the is the fun class (Theatre for the Young), the class you thought was going to save your sanity for the first semester at least. Wrong. It might be fun at first, you might think "Well, at least it's a break, right?" but then as the semester progresses you realize that you're losing more of your sanity with each class you attend (and being the good student you are, you'll attend them all...most of the time). If you are put in the position that I was, you'll be in a mixed class. By this I mean that this class is open to undergrads too. BE WARNED of this class! It is EVIL and you will want to rip your eyeballs out because of the level of stupidity. You will be taught as if you are an undergrad, because that's what the majority of the class is. In fact there is only one other grad student in the class with you...and she might stop showing up after a while. The "grad component" of the class only means doubling the paper length and a surprise project. My prof left it up to me what I was going to do for this surprise project and thinking about applying to Ph. D programs in the future, I chose teaching. This seemed like a great idea. Then I was given no feedback and all of the sudden surprise, you're teaching next Monday, get me a detailed lesson plan by Tuesday at the latest (of course its Monday afternoon when you get this e-mail and well, duh, you have a paper due Tuesday for DV&SA). So you throw something together for a lesson plan and all is good. Once again, no feedback. Joy.


The real pleasure in all of these classes is realizing that you're encountering all three types at the same time. This will throw you into a semi permanent state of confusion. You may have ups and downs to the point that you think you're developing a mental disorder. Don't even get me started on the will power it takes to go from Theatre for the Young into Feminist Thought on the same day. If only you could see the sideways head turn and the sarcastic "really?" expression on my face.

The real insanity of it all is that when you're find yourself reading for one of your no-brainer classes you will be thinking about the challenging class and wanting to read for that instead. Why? Who knows, maybe you're just a masochist...I mean you'd have to be to subject yourself to grad school in the first place, right?