Discover Rackham
Student Spotlight: Matthew Stone
We should be opening Matthew’s story with a joke. A fan of stand-up comedy, he’s in the midst of writing some bits for an open mike night at a local comedy club. “I’m working on some jokes, but they’re not funny yet.” Hopefully he’s having more success in the lab as a...
Career Clarity in the Humanities: Unsolicited Advice and Commiseration for My Fellow Graduate Students
A little while before I started writing this blog post, I decided to get real with my Facebook friends. I asked them: Yes, I too have participated in the existential hand-wringing that has become so central to the experience of the humanities doctoral student. These...
Alumni Spotlight: Martha Rolingson
“I wasn’t a typical grad student.” While Martha lived in Ann Arbor for only two years, she accomplished a significant amount in that short time frame. She recalls, “People were surprised I was in and out as quickly as I was. Most students in anthropology seemed to...
Non scholae sed vitae 2: The profit in non-profit
Last semester, I mentioned how I’d been exploring the implications and applications of my education to the real world through community-based learning and engaged pedagogy. Moving forward, my goals are to expand my thinking about university teaching and research on...
A Graduate Student Reflection on the COP 21 in Paris
The 21st Conference of Parties (COP) under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, 1992 (UNFCCC) was recently held in Paris from November 30 to December 11, 2015. The COP was attended by over 40,000 delegates which included representatives from more...
Student Spotlight: Rebecca Christensen
It is prestigious to be a part of one of the best graduate programs in your field, and there’s a lot of privilege that comes with the ability to attend a university like ours. Becky Christensen has a more holistic view on the privilege we have, and during her time at...
My Grad-Student New Year Wish/Resolution List
Keep my notes organized, and not use cookie-smeared napkins as convenient parchment to write down important bits of information during seminars. Do a better job of explaining to my family what it is I do, and how exactly I spend my time. Start convincing my 4-year old...
My Grad-Student New Year Wish/Resolution List
Keep my notes organized, and not use cookie-smeared napkins as convenient parchment to write down important bits of information during seminars. Do a better job of explaining to my family what it is I do, and how exactly I spend my time. Start convincing my 4-year old...
Non scholae sed vitae 1: Adventures in engaged pedagogy
Most of us in academia, and maybe especially those of us in the darker recesses of the Humanities, are well familiar with the hand-wringing around the pertinence of our research to the “real world.” Obviously, the skills often touted in conversations around this –...
Student Spotlight: Christopher Parsons
Chris is a local kid. That doesn’t mean he always knew his way around campus, however. He’s figured it out by now, after a few years of grad school under his belt, but he was a student in a new town just like most new graduate students, regardless of the fact that his...