Winter is here…

And with that another semester has started. I would like to say that I had some respite over the holidays, but that would be a lie. I spent a majority of the break working on my thesis and a publication submission. My supervisor Dr. Catherine Keske has kept me on my toes this past semester … [Read more…]

Graduate school is an opportunity

If you are thinking about applying to graduate school in the humanities, you probably have heard snarky comments such as “but, what is the point? It’s not like you are going to learn anything practical” or (if you dare do a PhD) “You are just going to waste four years (or more) of your life … [Read more…]

The Third Milestone of Grad School: The Thesis Proposal Defence

Prelude: You thought it was ‘life or death’ when you sent in your first grant application in the fall. It wasn’t, life went on (1st Milestone). You thought you were literally going to die the last week of your first semester. You didn’t, and had a wonderful winter break to forget about it. Like a … [Read more…]

The first snow storm of the year…

I am in my room looking outside, and it’s snowing. Earlier, I was on campus in my office when I missed an important email from the Internationalization Office. The email read, “St. John’s campus closing at 5:30pm due to inclement weather”. As I was hard at work, I did not notice the email until another … [Read more…]

Round two…

After having a nice break at home, it’s great to be back at Memorial for round two of my master’s degree. It’s exciting to think that I’m halfway through my first year at Memorial; the Fall semester flew by so quickly, and I expect that this Winter semester will be no different. I was pleasantly … [Read more…]

This semester is a reality check…

Academia is often referred to as the “Ivory Tower”. When I first heard this metaphor, I had a beautiful image in mind of a delicate, cream-coloured fairy-tale tower on a green hill, against a blue afternoon sky. I juxtaposed this image against a reading of Edmund Spenser’s Faerie Queene. In book two, the heroes Guyon, … [Read more…]

How I Got My Writing Done

The first thing that came to mind when I was thinking about this blog post was “writing.” Even though I am an English major, I used to have a love/hate relationship with writing, and for a long time it made me wonder if I was actually suited for grad school. Granted, I actually never had … [Read more…]

I survived!

I survived my first semester of grad school! WOOOOO! Looking back, so much has happened since I first started my Master’s program in Archaeology. While it has been very rewarding, it hasn’t been without its challenges. I’ve learned a lot through my research and course work, but I’ve also learned a lot about myself. I … [Read more…]

The end of the semester has arrived!

Here I am again! I can’t believe that I am already at the end of my first semester. It seems like it just started, but at the same time I feel like I have known the other students, and I can say my new friends, for a long time. Everywhere in the pubs and in … [Read more…]