An Introduction to the Graduate Essays
Olivia C. Smith, Editor
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Half of the graduate school battle is actually getting accepted. The other half—actually
surviving. And it is possible to survive graduate school, a point that many tenured faculty members
can confirm. But graduate school would be so much easier to navigate if we just had some insider
information. A couple of facts that I learned very early on in my graduate school years:1.)
Always, always treat the office administrative staff with the utmost respect as they work very hard
for very little; know everything there is to know about university and department politics; and
usually control your paycheck; 2.) Posturing—a.ka. talking without a clear or relevant point just so
that you can show everyone how much you know, which usually shows how much you don’t know.
Posturing is the one thing that many graduate students are usually pretty good at, and the one thing
that drove me nuts throughout my years of graduate school. Posturing is just bad form—Avoid it!.
3.) Life does not stop just because you are in graduate school. Getting your work done is
important, but having fun is also important. Learn how to balance both, and you will learn the art of
surviving graduate school.
All of the above points, along with a thousand others, were somewhat of a mystery to me before graduate school. When I began the arduous process of applying to graduate schools, I had the strong support of my women’s studies professors, who offered advice and openly shared their graduate school experiences. Although their advice proved invaluable, all of them had degrees outside of women’s studies, and I longed to hear what graduate students in women’s studies had to say about their experiences. Besides a few discussion threads on the WMST-L File Collection, to my knowledge, publications specifically focusing on women’s studies graduate students’ experiences did not exist. Today, five years after I began my search, there continues to be limited resources on this topic. I expect that the essays provided in this Guide will help enlighten students to some of the intricacies of women’s and gender studies graduate programs. I also anticipate that these essays are just the beginning, and that as more and more students graduate from women’s and gender studies programs, more and more of their experiences will be readily available through publications.
I was quite delighted to receive so many of the wonderful abstract submissions for this publication, but because of limited space and funds, I could only select a few essays to include. In the process of choosing essays, I attempted to balance different experiences and perspectives, which included consideration of degree types and essayists’ diverse experiences and backgrounds. I also tried to find balance between personal reflections on actual experiences and theoretical analyses of women’s and gender studies as a field, both important aspects when considering graduate school. Despite efforts to offer a comprehensive diversity of experiences, the essays represented here are not exhaustive. However, I do believe that these essays offer an important and unique peak into the mysterious world of graduate school.
This section begins with broader reflections on women’s studies as a discipline. In “Encountering Women’s Studies,” Elora Halim Chowdhury draws on her years as a graduate student and then as a professional in women’s studies to examine the field from the inside out. She explores important trends in women’s studies and implications for students seeking a graduate degree. Katherine Side, in her essay “Standing Alone: Disciplining Women’s Studies through Freestanding Graduate Programs,” explores the difference between freestanding and collaborative women's studies programs.
The next three essays offer practical advice to those considering graduate school. We begin with an old favorite from previous Guide editions. The essay “Finding the Program that’s Right for You” originally appeared in the 1994 edition of the Guide. Despite its age, this essay continues to offer relevant and comprehensive advice and observations about conducting research and applying to women’s studies graduate programs. In “Incorporating Women’s Studies into a Traditional Social Science Doctoral Program,” Kimala Price shares her experiences pursuing a minor concentration in women’s studies and offers strategies for pursuing two discipline areas. Similarly, Brandy Simula offers useful advice for those who want to find the graduate program with the right fit in “Focusing on Fit: Finding the Right Graduate Program for You.”
The final three essays offer more personal reflections as the authors share unique and specific experiences while providing hands-on strategies for surviving graduate school. In “Seeking a Vocation: A Journey Beyond the Ivory Tower,” Katerine Rodriguez writes about her sometimes painful and yet very rewarding graduate school experiences. In the end, she finds that graduate school offers practical skills that can be applied outside of academia. Jennifer J. Gusman and Jeffrey S. Bucholtz, authors of “You Can Handle the Truth: Monitoring Power, Privilege, & Oppression in Feminist Relationships,” examine the complicated relationships, the communities built within graduate programs, and power differences within those communities that are inadvertently created even within the “safe spaces” of women’s studies. And finally, the essays end with Pamela M. Rossi-Keen’s often humorous and sometimes painful reflections on the myth and realities of motherhood in academia in her essay “Surprises: Maternity, Scholarship, and Politics in the Academy.”
I hope that you enjoy this new addition to the Guide. And remember to record your own experiences as you journey through graduate school—the literary world doesn’t have enough dark comedies!