I kept logs daily-ish all along my master’s thesis and it was very helpful both as an acknowledgement of what was done that day but especially when I look back at it while planning and also preparing for meetings with my advisor. Turns out without a diary of thesis work i forget half of what i do, never give myself enough credit, and feel much less a sense of achievement than i ought to.
Congrats on a big year, and good luck with your goals for this next year!! I just defended and graduated with my PhD in archaeology from the University of Cincinnati and am looking for non-academic jobs so I have an entirely different set of goals/questions/things to think about than I did for the past almost-decade of grad school, which is exciting but also terrifying.
Thank you! Oh wow, congrats! That's a huge accomplishment! I can imagine that transition out of academia is a big one- wishing you all the luck and good vibes!
Awesome channel- it opened my eyes to the insane reading volume humanities PhD students have. I have a couple questions: (1) On one of your qualifying exam prep vids, you'd listed some pretty intense themes like the dynamics of violence and extreme violence; how can you read hundreds to a thousand pages of that per week and not be consistently sad and depressed? How do you keep your spirits up when reading about and analyzing tragic events? (2) Did your tennis elbow (lateral epicondylitis) end up healing up? I assumed you were taking notes by typing, but I saw your note-taking vids, and I guess you hand-write them on the ipad using the ipad pen; as someone who's had tennis elbow triggered by writing in the past, hand writing exacerbated it more than typing.
Hi! To respond to your questions: 1) Yes, the topics can be extremely intense, and I am someone who is very emotional, so I have found myself crying numerous times while reading books. I try to remember the importance of my work, and why this research is important, while also taking breaks and not reading everything all at once. I often watch trash reality shows in the evening, because I find it is one of the few ways I can completely block out my work. 2) We never figured out what was wrong with my arms - it was later diagnosed as not tennis elbow, potential nerve related, but over a year and a half later, and still no answers! Nowadays I do almost no work by hand, and almost all by typing.
@@KatherineWeiss Thanks for the reply! I'm dealing with reading sad topics daily now (mine are medical topics) and am always on the look out for strategies to avoid getting overwhelmed by the sadness. Dang, I'm sorry you weren't able to get answers to your elbow issue. I have a disease called small fiber neuropathy that initially seemed to just be nerve pain in my hands (but it was diagnosed via a skin biopsy). If you have to use the laptop mouse a ton, I would recommend strengthening the muscles around your shoulder blades (look up 'rotator cuff exercises' on youtube as a starting point); I've had tons of pain around my shoulder blades from laptop mouse work in the past. Anyway, mad props on being ABD and keep truckin' through that dissertation and the research for it!
@@KatherineWeiss Thanks for the reply! My reply didn't seem to show up so I'm retyping it just in case. I'm dealing with reading sad topics daily now (mine are medical topics) and am always on the look out for strategies to avoid getting overwhelmed by the sadness. Dang, I'm sorry you weren't able to get answers to your elbow issue. I have a disease called small fiber neuropathy that initially seemed to just be nerve pain in my hands (but it was diagnosed via a skin biopsy). If you have to use the laptop mouse a ton, I would recommend strengthening the muscles around your shoulder blades (look up 'rotator cuff exercises' on youtube as a starting point); I've had tons of pain around my shoulder blades from laptop mouse work in the past. Anyway, mad props on being ABD and keep truckin' through that dissertation and the research for it!
I hope you achieve all your future goals I have some suggestions if you don't mind How about a video series of tips for new Ph.D. candidates? Include for example A summary of your previous three years - What mistakes do most students make - What computer tools and programs are useful for a phd student in the History Department - What are health tips, especially for those who spend a long time in front of the computer - How can a phd student make time for entertainment, etc.!
I kept logs daily-ish all along my master’s thesis and it was very helpful both as an acknowledgement of what was done that day but especially when I look back at it while planning and also preparing for meetings with my advisor. Turns out without a diary of thesis work i forget half of what i do, never give myself enough credit, and feel much less a sense of achievement than i ought to.
Congrats on a big year, and good luck with your goals for this next year!! I just defended and graduated with my PhD in archaeology from the University of Cincinnati and am looking for non-academic jobs so I have an entirely different set of goals/questions/things to think about than I did for the past almost-decade of grad school, which is exciting but also terrifying.
Thank you! Oh wow, congrats! That's a huge accomplishment! I can imagine that transition out of academia is a big one- wishing you all the luck and good vibes!
Best of luck! Happy new year.
Congrats! Its been a joy to see your journey so far!
Thank you!
It was a big year,
you are doing great
So proud of all your hard work, it will pay off
love you
Awesome channel- it opened my eyes to the insane reading volume humanities PhD students have. I have a couple questions:
(1) On one of your qualifying exam prep vids, you'd listed some pretty intense themes like the dynamics of violence and extreme violence; how can you read hundreds to a thousand pages of that per week and not be consistently sad and depressed? How do you keep your spirits up when reading about and analyzing tragic events?
(2) Did your tennis elbow (lateral epicondylitis) end up healing up? I assumed you were taking notes by typing, but I saw your note-taking vids, and I guess you hand-write them on the ipad using the ipad pen; as someone who's had tennis elbow triggered by writing in the past, hand writing exacerbated it more than typing.
Hi! To respond to your questions:
1) Yes, the topics can be extremely intense, and I am someone who is very emotional, so I have found myself crying numerous times while reading books. I try to remember the importance of my work, and why this research is important, while also taking breaks and not reading everything all at once. I often watch trash reality shows in the evening, because I find it is one of the few ways I can completely block out my work.
2) We never figured out what was wrong with my arms - it was later diagnosed as not tennis elbow, potential nerve related, but over a year and a half later, and still no answers! Nowadays I do almost no work by hand, and almost all by typing.
@@KatherineWeiss Thanks for the reply!
I'm dealing with reading sad topics daily now (mine are medical topics) and am always on the look out for strategies to avoid getting overwhelmed by the sadness.
Dang, I'm sorry you weren't able to get answers to your elbow issue. I have a disease called small fiber neuropathy that initially seemed to just be nerve pain in my hands (but it was diagnosed via a skin biopsy). If you have to use the laptop mouse a ton, I would recommend strengthening the muscles around your shoulder blades (look up 'rotator cuff exercises' on youtube as a starting point); I've had tons of pain around my shoulder blades from laptop mouse work in the past.
Anyway, mad props on being ABD and keep truckin' through that dissertation and the research for it!
@@KatherineWeiss Thanks for the reply! My reply didn't seem to show up so I'm retyping it just in case.
I'm dealing with reading sad topics daily now (mine are medical topics) and am always on the look out for strategies to avoid getting overwhelmed by the sadness.
Dang, I'm sorry you weren't able to get answers to your elbow issue. I have a disease called small fiber neuropathy that initially seemed to just be nerve pain in my hands (but it was diagnosed via a skin biopsy). If you have to use the laptop mouse a ton, I would recommend strengthening the muscles around your shoulder blades (look up 'rotator cuff exercises' on youtube as a starting point); I've had tons of pain around my shoulder blades from laptop mouse work in the past.
Anyway, mad props on being ABD and keep truckin' through that dissertation and the research for it!
I hope you achieve all your future goals
I have some suggestions if you don't mind
How about a video series of tips for new Ph.D. candidates? Include for example
A summary of your previous three years - What mistakes do most students make - What computer tools and programs are useful for a phd student in the History Department - What are health tips, especially for those who spend a long time in front of the computer - How can a phd student make time for entertainment, etc.!
I'll keep these in mind when video planning!
Please, I have a question, before you were accepted into the program, did you conduct an interview? and how was it? @@KatherineWeiss
@@mohammedahmed-tz3xu I had an informal call with my future advisor, but no interview.
Hi Katherine really inspiring journey of yours let me know how i can reach out to you i want make my path to succeeding academia path
I am also writing Dissertation for my Master's...