Here I am, again. The discussion about emailing professors is really interesting: I do think its a case-by-case decision people have to make. Sometimes I read a prof's work and background and go rummaging in their articles, and become SO EXCITED because I feel like they are a kindred spirit. Those are the ones I, personally, tend to email. (usually in the middle of the night, sounding slightly derranged.) For this Ph.D. application process I want to try to do that sort of thing in a less spur-of-the-moment-at-five-in-the-morning way, just to make sure I don't gush anything too insane at the prof! heh.
So, I've been looking over the essays I wrote during undergrad, to see if there are any potential writing sample beginning points, and to brew in my head some ideas for my
statement of purpose. I'm realizing that my area of interest is poetry written by women, and poetry / literature that is connected to social or political change. American women poets, and the Beat Movement are two areas I get really excited about.
Theoretcially speaking, I'm a lush for feminist theory, critical race theory, and queer theory. I'm a little worried though, and need to do more research about the LITERARY theory side of these theoretical frameworks. I know these theories as LEGAL theories. How are they different when applied to literature? How DO you apply them to literature? Does anyone have a favorite book to start me on the process of understanding these theoretical frameworks in the context of literature?
In law, when we talk about the various strands of feminist theory we discuss people like Catherine MacKinnon, Carol Gilligan, Andrea Dworkin, and others I'm not remembering at the moment. Who are the literary feminist theory star players?
About the admissions process: I am terrified too. I went through this with law school, and it definitely is true that you just never know what is going to happen. I was rejected / waitlisted by many lower ranked law schools, but somehow also managed to get a good scholarship at Cornell. Law school is so numbers-based, you could at least *vaguely* predict what range of schools you might get into -- this is so much more left up to fate. How the admissions committees react to our
SOPs, references, writing samples, etc will make a huge difference -- and how much emphasis they decide to give our scores, too. I'm going to apply to probably ten schools. Its insane, but it helps increase the chances of getting something good!
Isn't it maddening?
OH AND I HAVE A QUESTION -- Does anyone know whether publication in student-run magazines "counts" as anything worthwhile?
In undergrad I had poems and papers published in lots of different campus magazines. (some of which seemed to be more selective than others) I was also published in a law school magazine, and was a member of its editorial board. Should these things be on my resume? Do campus publications "count" as real publications?
Thanks for listening to my post. Best of luck to everybody!!!!
