Meet the 2013 - 2014 AGSE Board!

President - Holly Batty

Holly Batty is starting her third year as a grad student in the English Department at CSUN with an emphasis in Rhetoric and Composition. She is a second-year TA at CSUN and has been the Coordinator for the LA Valley College Writing Center for six years. Holly is interested in Critical Animal Studies and is an advocate for the ethical treatment of animals.

Vice President - Susana Marcelo

Susana Marcelo is a known insomniac, coffee addict, and tsundoku bibliophile who switches unexpectedly to the second person, especially when overworked, which is most days when you’re a grad student, a mother, and have two jobs (among other odd jobs) but you still make time to write prose because that’s your passion (laundry be damned); consequently, sometimes you wonder if your dreams are unattainable, such as reading every book you have, because responsibilities will pile up and you have to make sacrifices—tearing bread with one hand, typing with a sick child on your lap, reading while keeping an eye on dinner—that will make you doubt if it’s all worth it because you always burn the beans. Yet, one look of admiration from your children and you know it will be okay, you just have to make it through one day at a time.

Treasurer - Vana Derohanessian

Vana Derohanessian has her bachelor's degree in English literature in 2007 and is currently an English graduate student at CSUN. Vana is interested in the history of children's literature as a reflection of social and cultural values regarding children. Her incessant fascination with Lewis Carroll's classic "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" may be referred to by some as obsession.

Recording Secretary - Wafa Azeem

After waiting for 12 years, Wafa is pretty sure she is not going to receive an owl from Hogwarts. So in the meantime, she moonlights as a second year English graduate student. Not wanting to be outdone by Professor McGonagoll, she will be teaching her first English Composition class this year. With an emphasis in Literature, she enjoys spending time in different worlds and looking at her world with different perceptions.

Press Secretary - Stephanie Lim

Stephanie is an English graduate student at CSUN, where she also works as a Teaching Associate and Supplemental Instruction leader. She enjoys new media, pop culture, critical theory -- Marxist, Post-Modern, and Post-Structural ones, to be exact -- and reading American Literature from the Great Depression on. Although her program emphasis is on Literature, her true passion is musical theatre and, yes, she absolutely loves listening to show tunes!

Historian - Steve Florian

Steve Florian is a graduate student at Cal State Northridge, where he is a member of the Associated Graduate Students of English, the Eighteenth Century Literature Club, and will soon be a Teaching Associate, as well. He was raised in Nebraska and Michigan and now lives with his wife in Los Angeles. Ah, the sunshine!

The 2012 - 2013 Board would like to take a moment to thank our advisors, Dr. Ranita Chatterjee and Dr. Kent Baxter, our members, our supporters, and our awesome grad students for making our tenure as AGSE board members a fantastic experience!

From Lorie, Megan, Gina, Melissa, Holly, and Johnny - the best of luck to the new board and to all our English MA students!

Categories: AGSE, Board Members, CSUN

Workshop Recap: Path to the PhD

AGSE hosted Dr. Kent Baxter to share his journey in getting his PhD. This was a great opportunity to learn a little more about our Graduate Advisor as well as gain some valuable knowledge about the PhD process.

Couldn't make it on May 9th? Thanks to your 2013 - 2014 Recording Secretary, Wafa Azeem, here is a recap of the day's talk!  

Dr. Baxter’s story: 
He received his bachelor’s degree from CSUN in 1983, going from a music major, to Psychology, before finally choosing English. It took him 5 ½ years to get his degree.
He applied to UCLA, UCB, and USC for their PhD programs, getting accepted to USC, then deferring a year to travel in Europe instead.
When Dr. Baxter returned, he wasn't allowed to reclaim his spot at USC, but got incredibly lucky and found a place because someone else had dropped.
Through hard work and perseverance, he received his doctorate.


Some things to consider for a PhD:

• Are you interested in independent and focused learning? Do you work well without a lot of “hand
  
  holding?”: You really, really, really have to love the work that you do and the subject that you’re working on. You’re going to face a lot of obstacles and your passion is what will get you through it. (The programs are also really competitive and this creates a lot of anxiety, so again, you really need to love the work.)
• Think about funding: Teaching English Composition or a T.A.-ship can get tuition waived and sometimes may include a stipend.
• If you’re willing to put in the hard work and effort the program requires, you will do quite well, regardless of background. 
• You learn a lot through teaching, so consider the teaching opportunities the school has.
• Academic relationships are essential, so look at how available the faculty is and how involved they are. 
• Check the requirements of the school; do they require you to have fluency in two languages? 

Job Market:

5% RI- Research schools. (Usually the elite schools like Harvard and Yale).
95% in schools like CSUN (Where research emphasis is lighter than the RI schools. Focus more on teaching).

Questions to ask yourself:

Do you really love the work?
Do you like the graduate mode of study?
Can you be somewhat flexible in your approach to the program? (How broad is the program. Are you willing to explore different avenues of the topic?)
Have you researched programs?
Course requirements?
Languages?
How many people actually finish the program?
Availability of professors?

Thank you to everyone who could join us, and to the 2013 - 2014 board members: Wafa Azeem for her notes, and Stephanie Lim, for her pictures.

Categories: AGSE, CSUN, Path to the PhD, Workshop