Grad School Awesomeness #2: Some Things to Do Before Applying

This is a second in my "Grad School Awesomeness" (GSA) series, and it too is a modified excerpt from the same email conversation as the first post on whether to Ph.D. or not. Today's post talks about things one can do to prepare to apply for Ph.D. programs in (comparative) literature. (I sound like a total jerk in these emails, but such is life...)

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I think past experiences and interests, however related they are (or not) to the Ph.D. field, are integral to who you are, as well as to your thought process on applying to Ph.D. programs. To be honest, I encourage the Ph.D. path with anyone who is interested, even given the caveat that I mentioned in my previous email...but that's because I believe that anyone who is interested in higher education should have access to it and the opportunity to succeed in that environment, regardless of what happens after graduation.

You know, having a foreign language or not isn't a big deal—of course, I imagine most Ph.D. programs want you to have English plus at least one foreign language, but it's also good to know one foreign language well rather than two only so-so. You can also apply to English lit Ph.D. programs and not really have to worry about foreign language skills as much; it's with Comp Lit programs that foreign language skills become crucial for the admission process...

I'm gonna take the liberty to suggest a few things to put on your to-do list this summer (if you aren't teaching and have time).

1. Read some good books, both for "academic" reasons and for fun
2. Read some "theoretical" texts
3. Read some books from academic presses (Duke University Press, University of California Press, University of Minnesota Press, etc.)
4. Write a "seminar paper" as a writing sample

I should explain a bit:

1. Read some good books—I imagine you already like to read, so this shouldn't be too painful. But think of all the books, classics and pop fiction, that you've been wanting to read—and read them! Considering those you've read in the past and have liked, start a list of the texts and writers that appeal to you. These can be texts that become your objects of analysis later on.

2. Read some "theoretical" texts—Grad programs will vary on how much they emphasize "theory"; my department REALLY emphasized theory (as do many other programs in the UC system), and programs develop reputations on their theoretical/intellectual approach in this way. (This becomes crucial in your professional development, because it determines your (perceived) intellectual "fit" at different departments when you're applying to jobs.) At UCSD, all first-year Ph.D. students take a three-quarter theory sequence: first quarter is about Marx and other "big name" theorists; second quarter is about gender and sexuality; third quarter is about postcolonial theory. (That's a gross oversimplification of the sequence, but so be it.) You can probably find reading lists for "theory" courses that give you an idea of what you might want to read. Something like this list from UPenn is a place to start, though it's somewhat skewed...

3. Read some books from academic presses—In any Ph.D. program, you'll be "reading" both primary texts (novels, short stories, film, etc.) and secondary texts. How well you know your secondary texts (the stuff from "academic" presses and others (Routledge, Verso, etc.)) will define how rigorous you are as a scholar. Given your research interests, you can visit the Websites of some of the presses (those three are pretty top-notch) and see if you can find books that interest you. Check them out from the library and flip through them. Take notes as you read, note the primary and secondary texts they analyze and cite, and see if you notice any texts that get mentioned repeatedly (and try to read those if you have time). Your initial questions and musings provide a great place to start reading. (Also, as you start narrowing down your choices for programs to apply to, try to read the books by professors that you'd be interested in working with.)

4. Write a "seminar paper"—As you read these books, if you decide that you need a writing sample as part of your application package, check out the guidelines for the applications and figure out the number of pages you might need for such a writing sample...then write a "seminar paper"! (You can google "how to write a seminar paper" to get some suggestions.) As a grad student, you'll be writing a number of things—seminar papers, project proposals, fellowship applications, dissertation chapters, journal articles. But at least during your coursework years, for each seminar you take, you'll most likely be expected to write a seminar paper. In my department, since we're on the quarter system, they tend to be pretty short—10–15 pages. (My friends in other departments write 20+ page seminar papers, though, so I'm not sure what's up with that.) But pick the number of pages you want to aim for (with standard formatting: 1" margins, 12 pt. font, double-spaced) and write! You can always cut the paper to make it work for schools that require fewer pages. But take all the good books, theoretical texts, and academic books you read over the summer, and try to come up with your original thesis/argument. It doesn't have to be a ground-breaking thesis, just something to show your application reviewers that you know how to read texts, synthesize information, and output an intelligent paper. Whether or not you enjoy this process of writing the "seminar paper" is crucial—because that's essentially what you'll be doing your whole time in grad school (in addition to teaching) . . . :)

No Sex Please, At Least Not in the Way You Think

It’s been over two months since I filed my dissertation, and it’s about time I started getting some work done. It’s not like I don’t have things to do; I’ve plenty (preparing for my class, writing my conference paper, working on a journal article, etc.)—it’s just that I’m in that zone of…I don’t know. Laziness.

To add fuel to the fire of my laziness (is that...even possible?), my recent reading materials have come from the local city library rather than the university library. And you know just how much I love books I can rustle up at the city library...

My first batch of books included those on the practice of jijitsukon (事実婚), the assertion that Japan ought to "single-ize", and the background to the increasing number of men not marrying. (I justify the selection of these books by saying they're related to Japan, gender, and marriage (=research-related).) 

Coupled with the YouTube video my friend forwarded me about "no sex in Japan", these texts made me think more seriously about the complicated nature of marriage, family, sex, and all sorts of other things that become tangled up in those practices. The rumor that Japanese people don't have sex is a total lie—of course they have sex, for crying out loud, just maybe not in the heteronormative, monogamous way that people normalize. The aging and dwindling population is tied up with changes in the marriage institution and costs/benefits of childbearing, of course, but they also have much to do with racist immigration policies and labor practices that economically disadvantage workers regardless of gender. And the social and psychological factors that make it difficult for people to establish longterm relationships while simultaneously making them feel like they have have do so—embedded in changing shapes of the family institution, these factors only complicate matters.

As my four-year-old niece would say, what a mess. While several solutions have been proposed and implemented already—make it more viable for women to stay in the workforce, make marriage less patriarchal and conservative (both politically and culturally), enable "foreigners" to make a decent living in Japan—I get this vague feeling that things aren't really...working. Gee whiz, maybe if I get my act together I can make this a future research project, to justify all the energy I'm spending thinking about it.

「コスパ」とは

コスパ：noun. abbreviation of "cost performance"; essentially, how much bang you're getting for your buck.

昨日は、とても消費が高い日でした。何故なら、久しぶりに、「楽しみ」の買い物をしたから。

読みたかった本。探してた服。大切な人への贈り物。ちょっとした「贅沢」でした。

こんな「消費」は、大好きです。

（ついでに、ローションと乳液のサンプルも貰いました。へっへっへ。）

ちょっと値段が高くても、自分が選んだ、自分の幸せへの投資なら、イイじゃないですか。

I love the warm feeling of spending money for all the right reasons—mostly for others, and then sometimes, those little indulgences for the self. :)

（これはポーラ化粧品の宣伝ではありません。）

Being Thin in Japan (or Not)

Fried-chicken-on-a-skewer keeps me coming back to 7-Eleven...

I might complain about many things in Japan, but I do love its ubiquity of convenience stores. I can buy silly shit like this and also print stuff while I'm at it.

But one of the many things that make me uncomfortable about Japan is the REAL LIFE body sizes surrounding me. Clearly "body image" is not a problem unique to Japan; unrealistic standards of beauty for women and men, "fat talk", etc. in the United States are a problem, too.

But, but. The other day when I went to my health exam for my new job, it was indicated that, by the faulty standards of BMI, I was categorized as "Underweight".

But, but. I see young men walking around town, with hips and legs that are smaller and skinnier than mine. And correspondingly tiny women whose skinny legs teetering on high heels make me wonder how women in Japan bear children (which is not something I need to think about).

But, but......

how much

愛は不思議だ。
素直でいれば、信じられない位深い、深い感情が見つかる。


私の好きな歌に、こんな歌詞がある。

「ねぇ　こんなに笑えた事　
生まれて　初めてだよ。
きっと　私はね
この日の為に　間違いだらけの　道を
歩いてきたんだ　ずっと。」


太平洋は大きいけど、前に進めば、いつかたどり着く。
夜の空は暗いけど、月はたった一つしかない。


次に会える日を、待っています。
その日まで、元気でいて下さい。


Just imagine—how deeply you can love the right one.

日本の謎 / Mysteries in Japan #5: 身分証明書 / ID

It's a little past 9 PM at this Starbucks here, and the joint is, as they would say, jumpin'. It's like, geez people, don't you have anywhere else to be??

I have an excuse, because I don't have Internet at my apartment, and I need, as Kusanagi Motoko would say, to get connected to the Net. And I have discovered that the reason I have to be at a Starbucks at 9:11 PM on a Thursday night is because Japan has a pretty screwed up subject identification system.

I won't complain about the mind-numbing process of getting myself transferred into this city at the local ward office. I know I have it pretty good as a Japanese citizen, even having to wait around, explain to the officer about living overseas, clarify why I'm not contributing to the national pension system, or be dismayed by the persistent racism and patriarchy of the Japanese koseki (family registry) system.

But it does make me sad when I have to consider handing over my passport just to get Internet set up, or when I can't get a library card without a "government-issued" ID. I mean, really—haven't you people ever heard of MIGRATION??

A Yard With Fruit Trees, a Family of Hawks, and a Goldfish Pond

When we were freshmen in high school, our literature teacher asked us to write a story describing an incident in which we had done something we later regretted. I wrote about how I killed one of the goldfish in our backyard pond by holding it out of the water for too long. That's right: Even as a child, I was a terrible person.

The pond now has a completely new group of goldfish swimming in it. The peach trees are gone, but we still have our navel orange trees. The pump is as fake as always, but now we at least have wooden boards to protect the goldfish from preying birds (like our very own hawk family) and evil children like me.

See you later, little pond. I'm off to a new city to try my hand at doing what I've received six years' worth of training to do. I may be back earlier than I expect, but when I do, it'll be to create another yard somewhere new, full of dreams and fruits and birds and love. Maybe by then the baby hawks would be all grown up too.