Today, Dr. Dagmawi Woubshet talks about the literary and cultural analysis that went into completing his dissertation on AIDS writing. Dr. Woubshet received his Ph.D. from Harvard University in 2007 and is now an English professor at Cornell University. He spoke to the students of SILCS on June 16, 2008.
SILCScast 004: Dr. Dagmawi Woubshet
November 17th, 2008 by Lindsay Davignon
SILCScast 003: Dr. Darryl Dickson-Carr
November 7th, 2008 by Lindsay DavignonThis week, Dr. Darryl Dickson-Carr talks to the students about the details of the graduate application process. Dr. Dickson-Carr currently works in the English department at Southern Methodist University, and has worked in the past as both a Director of Graduate Studies and a Director of Undergraduate Studies at Florida State University.
SILCScast 002: Dr. Emily Bernard
October 31st, 2008 by Lindsay DavignonIn our second podcast, we have Dr. Emily Bernard from the University of Vermont. Dr. Bernard talks about the background behind her article Teaching the N-Word, which appeared in American Scholar. This podcast is marked “explicit” for language.
SILCScast 001: Dr. Valerie Lee
October 24th, 2008 by adminBack in June, a number of English faculty from around the country visited the students of SILCS to talk about various topics related to graduate school and their own lives. Over the next several weeks, we will be showcasing six of these lectures in our podcast.
This week we have Dr. Valerie Lee, who is the chair of the English department at The Ohio State University. Dr. Lee talks about why she became an English professor.
News: Ph.D. Enrollment and Completion
September 19th, 2008 by Lindsay DavignonTwo reports have hit the news recently concerning enrollments and attrition in Ph.D. programs, focusing on gender and ethnicity. The first, titled “Graduate Enrollment and Degrees: 1997 to 2007″, takes data on applications and enrollment in graduate programs to find trends in the growth and success of such programs. The second, “Ph.D. Completion and Attrition: Analysis of Baseline Demographic Data from the Ph.D. Completion Project”, studies ten- and seven-year Ph.D. completion rates of different demographics. Both reports were done by the Council of Graduate Schools (CGS).
The first report used surveys from 683 colleges and universities to study graduate school enrollment and degrees awarded. The study found that the number of doctorates conferred in 2007 rose 9% from the year before, and rose faster for women than men. Enrollment rates also jumped, growing faster for U.S. minorities than for White, non-Hispanic students.
“The increase in doctorates awarded, particularly in key fields, is a necessary step in producing the highly qualified workforce required to enhance U.S. competitiveness,” said Debra W. Stewart, CGS President. “While the increased representation of minority students is another encouraging sign, we must continue to expand the domestic pipeline to ensure that America has the talent pool it will need in the 21st century global economy,” she added. (link [PDF])
The second study, using data submitted by 24 institutions for 12 academic years, found that completion rates in Ph.D. programs varied greatly based on gender, ethnicity and citizenship. Men tended to finish doctoral programs more quickly and in higher numbers than women; international students finished far more quickly than domestic students; and White students had the highest completion rates of all other ethnicities, followed by Hispanic Americans, Asian American, and African Americans. However, women and African Americans had higher completion rates in Humanities.
The cumulative ten-year completion rates for the racial/ethnic groups vary widely across broad fields (see Figure 3). African Americans and Whites complete at the highest rate (60%) in the Life Sciences. White students also complete at the highest rate in Engineering (60%), five percentage points ahead of Hispanic Americans and seven points ahead of Asian Americans. Asian Americans (53%), Hispanic Americans (53%), and Whites (52%) complete at similar rates in Mathematics & Physical Sciences. African American students have the highest rate (52%) in the Humanities, followed closely by White students (51%). White students complete at the highest rate (57%) in Social Sciences, two percentage points ahead of Hispanic Americans. (link [PDF])
The study was Phase I of the Ph.D. Completion Project, which aims to address the issues surrounding Ph.D. completion and attrition. Phase II will utilize exit surveys of students to discover the causes behind the attrition rates and develop possible interventions.
Taken together, the two reports suggest that while the number of minorities entering graduate programs is increasing, there is a need for programs to help retain students. The Chronicle of Higher Education writes that minority students are “academically and, in some cases, culturally unprepared for the demands that will be placed on them”. Inside Higher Ed provided a few strategies for increasing completion rates, which included giving students more information about what grad school will be like before they enter as well as help with dissertation writing and providing family leave time.
Week Four
July 8th, 2008 by Lindsay DavignonThe first Summer Institute for Literary and Cultural Studies has come to an end. On Sunday, June 29th, the students flew home, armed with knowledge of the graduate school process, connections to mentors and other people in their field, and a semester’s worth of literary and cultural studies crammed into one month.
The last week started with a fun weekend. On Friday everyone went to the bowling alley, where we discovered a few students were secretly bowling pros. On Saturday evening, a bus took the students into Providence to see Waterfire. Waterfire is an event that happens in Providence every week or two in the summer, where braziers are lit down the middle of the river and music plays while gondolas take people through the water.
Sunday morning everyone headed out to Providence again, this time to the Save the Bay Center right on Narragansett Bay. A small boat took everyone on a tour of the bay and a visit to the salt marshes of Prudence Island.
Though there were no classes during the last week of the Institute, there were lecturers every day. Dr. Beverly Guy-Sheftall, Dr. Herman Beavers, Dr. Deyonne Bryant, Dr. Shawn Christian, Dr. Dennis Foster and Dr. April Langley all spoke to the students throughout the week. President Ronald Crutcher and Dr. Betty Crutcher also had a meeting with the students on Monday morning and hosted a dinner at their house Monday night.
On Friday, representatives from Boston College, Boston University, Brown University, Tufts University, Southern Methodist University, University of Missouri Columbia, and the University of Delaware arrived on campus for a graduate school fair. Students had individual interviews with the Directors of Graduate Studies from each university.
Saturday, the students had their symposium, where they presented their papers as if they were on a panel at a conference. This was the culmination of all of their work at the Institute and was an astounding success. Afterwards everyone met for a formal dinner on their final night together at the Institute, where they were presented with certificates marking their accomplishment.
By now everyone is back home, recovering from their action-packed month. Next year will bring with it a group of new students, and hopefully this year’s students will be able to come back and visit. Keep an eye on this space in the fall for more program profiles and the launch of our official SILCS podcast, where we will showcase some of the lecturers who spoke in June.
Week Three
June 20th, 2008 by Lindsay DavignonThe final week of classes has come to a close at SILCS, and now the students have time to focus on finishing their papers and getting ready for a symposium on June 28th. The past three weeks have been packed with a semester’s worth of theory and instruction, and the students have done an admirable job in keeping on top of things.
Amidst their classes, the students also took three more trips to visit nearby colleges and universities. On Wednesday the 11th, the students took a trip to Harvard University. On Friday the 13th was Bridgewater State College, and on Tuesday the 17th was Brandeis University. These three campuses, along with the previous visits to Yale University and Brown University, showcased the types of campuses and graduate programs that the students could expect to attend and at which they could eventually teach.
The series of lectures continued with Dr. Darryl Dickson-Carr of Southern Methodist University. Dr. Dickson-Carr is a member of the SILCS Steering Committee and spoke to the students about his career and getting a Ph.D. in English. Dr. Dagmawi Woubshet of Cornell University spoke about doing comparative work and his travel around the world. This was followed by Dr. Dolan Hubbard, another SILCS Steering Committee member, who spoke about the College Language Association and the Modern Language Association. Yesterday, Thomas Sayers Ellis, who teaches poetry at Sarah Lawrence College, talked about creative writing and read a few of his own poems, including The Obama Hour, which was recently showcased in The Root.
There has been some leisure time in the past week as well. On the 19th, SILCS attending a showing of The Taming of the Shrew at the Sandra Feinstein-Gamm Theatre in Pawtucket. The production was a fun and energetic interpretation of the play, set in 1960s Italy. Over the weekend, some students visited Boston. Tonight there will be bowling, and tomorrow there will be a trip to see the Providence Waterfire, before we enter the final week of the Summer Institute.
Week Two
June 11th, 2008 by Lindsay Davignon
With the second week of the Summer Institute just about half over, the students are really settling in to the routine on campus. On Friday there was an exam, an engaging discussion with Dr. Betty Neal Crutcher, and Chinese food in the Multicultural Center on campus. Friday ended with ice cream and Scrabble, but the students had to get up early Saturday morning for their visit to Brown University.
After several days of rain, the temperature shot up to the mid nineties, which made the day in Providence a very warm one. The students toured the John Carter Brown Library and then met with Dr. Rolland Murray before having some time to explore Providence on their own.
On Sunday there was an optional trip to McCoy Stadium to see the Pawtucket Red Sox play against the Buffalo Bisons. The day was even hotter than the day before, with temperatures just under three digits, and many of the students opted to stay home with their homework instead. For those who did go, however, it was a fun day at the ball park, even though the home team lost.
Monday and Tuesday both featured afternoon lectures. Dr. Emily Bernard from the University of Vermont discussed her essay Teaching the N-Word and spoke about hate speech and the power in self-naming. Dr. Shalene Vasquez from Dartmouth College talked about her own career and graduate school experience.
This morning the students headed out to Harvard University to meet with the English department and visit the W.E.B. Du Bois Institute for African and African American Research. Later this week will be a trip to the theater, a visit to Bridgewater State College and, weather permitting, a day at the beach.
Week One
June 5th, 2008 by Lindsay DavignonThis has been a very busy first week for the Summer Institute for Literary and Cultural Studies. On Sunday, June 1st, the twelve students arrived. Despite various airport woes, the day went quite well, and the early morning rains even cleared up into a gorgeous late spring day.
The students met with Dr. Paula Krebs of Wheaton College, who is Director of the Institute, and Dr. Robyn Warhol-Down of the University of Vermont, who is the faculty instructor. Also on campus was Dr. Valerie Lee of The Ohio State University. Dr. Lee was a major influence behind both SILCS and The Ohio State University’s Program for Humanities Development.
In the evening, Wheaton College President Dr. Ronald Crutcher and his wife Dr. Betty Neal Crutcher opened their home to the students, staff and guests of SILCS for a dinner and a talk about the history of Wheaton College.
On Monday, Dr. Valerie Lee gave a lecture on why she became an English professor:
Ever since I was a little girl, I knew that I wanted to teach. The only thing that ever changed was the grade that I wanted to teach. When I was in the first grade, I wanted to be a first grade teacher; when I was in the third, a third; when I was in fifth, a fifth; when I was in high school I wanted to be a high school teacher, but then when I got to college I still wanted to be a high school teacher because I did not know that I could actually become a college professor. I didn’t know any African Americans who were college professors.
On Tuesday, Dr. Lena Hill of the University of Iowa arrived to talk about her own graduate school experience. Dr. Hill graduated from Yale University in 2005 with a Ph.D. in English Language and Literature. On Wednesday, she accompanied the students on a visit to Yale and the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, where she had spent much of her time.
This weekend brings with it the students’ first exam, a trip into Providence, RI to see Brown University, and a leisurely afternoon at McCoy Stadium to see the Pawtucket Red Sox.
Profile: Future of Minority Studies
May 20th, 2008 by Lindsay DavignonIn this week’s program profile, we will be looking at the Future of Minority Studies Summer Institute at Cornell.
The Future of Minority Studies Summer Institute is part of the larger FMS Research Project, which is a consortium of scholars that discuss the needs of minority education.
Although originally conceived in 2000 as a year-long interdisciplinary bicoastal research initiative, the FMS project has evolved to become a mobile “think tank” facilitating focused and productive discussions across disciplines about the democratizing role of minority identity and participation in a multicultural society. At a number of different events organized over the past few years, FMS participants have focused their discussions on a defined set of questions about the changing role of education and the need for an adequate conception of minority identities as the basis for progressive social change. (link)
The Summer Institute is a two-week seminar for 12-14 graduate students and postdoctoral faculty, who meet four days a week for lectures. The middle of the Institute is a two-day Colloquium, where the students of the Institute can interact with FMS scholars from all over the world.
This year’s Institute has the theme “Thinking Transnationally: Feminist Visions” and is led by Beverly Guy-Sheftall and Chandra Talpade Mohanty. Professor Guy-Sheftall, a Professor of Women’s Studies and English and Spelman College, is also on the Steering Committee for SILCS and will be speaking at the 2008 SILCS program.
The application deadline for this summer’s Institute has passed, but keep an eye on their website for information on when to apply for next year.
The Future of Minority Studies Research Project is funded by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, which also funds SILCS.