Course Calendar

The most accurate and up-to-date version of this calendar can be found on this site. Use this online calendar to check on reading assignments and other due dates, rather than the pdf or paper version of our syllabus, since those versions of the syllabus will not be updated throughout the semester.

I reserve the right to change the course calendar as needed; advance notice will always be given of any changes.

Week 1: Introductions

Monday, August 26

  • Practicalities, program review and structure

Week 2: NO CLASS

Monday, September 2: LABOR DAY

Week 3: The First Year of PhD Study

Monday, September 9

  • Managing coursework, finding mentors, preparing for second-year review and exams
    • Visit from Katrina Overton
  • BIG QUESTIONS in literary studies
    • Please bring to class one “big question” you have about the discipline(s)/your subfield(s), the profession more generally, and/or academia/higher ed in the United States

Week 4: Conference Presentations

Monday, September 16

  • Current graduate student panel: Laila Nashid, Chijioke Onah, Hunter Phillips, and Susannah Sharpless
  • Applying to conferences, writing abstracts, attending and presenting at conferences, conference funding
  • Please send Lindsay your ranked list of journals for your journal review presentation by class

Week 5: Olin Library: Meet in Olin 106G (may be relabeled as Olin 108)

Monday, September 23

  • Library session with Fred Muratori
    • Please bring a laptop to this session.

Week 6: Article Publishing

Monday, September 30

  • Visit from EGSO
  • Turning a seminar paper into an article, researching and submitting to a journal, the peer review process, managing reviewer feedback, timelines, publishing chapters from your dissertation
  • Journal review presentations

Week 7: Fellowships and Grants and Writing for Broader Audiences

Monday, October 7

  • Applying for fellowships and other research funding, general fellowship resources, writing fellowship and/or grant applications, timelines
    • Resources for Fellowship cfps
  • Visit from Caroline Levine: Writing for broader audiences

Week 8: NO CLASS

Monday, October 14: FALL BREAK/INDIGENOUS PEOPLES’ DAY

Week 9: Rare and Manuscript Collections: Meet in the lecture room in Rare and Manuscript Collections (level 2B of Carl A. Kroch Library)

Monday, October 21

  • Rare and Manucript Collections session with Katherine Reagan
  • Last day to drop classes or change grading basis

Week 10: Spring Courses and Faculty Panel

Monday, October 28

  • Faculty panel: Jeremy Braddock, Elisha Cohn, Rebeca Hey-Colón, and Rayna Kalas
  • Visit from Katrina Overton: pre-enrollment and SP25 classes

Week 11: NO CLASS

Monday, November 4: INDIVIDUAL MEETINGS

  • Lindsay will have office hours during class

Week 12: Teaching

Monday, November 11: Meet in GSH 258 at 3:15 PM (Colloquium will go from 3:15 - 5:45 pm on this day)

  • Visit from Kate McCullough, Director of Graduate Student Teaching: What happens in the classroom
  • Visit from Emily Parsons, Katrina Overton, and David Faulkner: Applying to teach an FWS

Week 13: Academic Jobs

Monday, November 18

  • Applying to academic jobs, materials, application timelines, interviews, campus visits
  • Visit from Lenora Warren, Academic Jobs Placement Officer

Week 14: NO CLASS

Monday, November 25: THANKSGIVING WEEK

Week 15: Jobs Beyond Academia

Monday, December 2

  • Panel with PhDs working outside of faculty jobs/academia: Maggie Reynolds (Outreach and Information Services Librarian, Cornell Prison Education Program), Elisabeth Strayer (Manager of Content, Verra), and Ruth Trego (Senior Technical Editor, CrowdStrike)
  • Visit from Susi Varvayanis, Executive Director, Careers Beyond Academia

Week 16: Conclusions

Monday, December 9: Meet in GSH 234 at 3:30 pm

  • Wrapping up and celebrating the end of the semester
    • Around 4:30 we will head from GSH to the Big Red Barn!