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Literature Reviews as Discourse

Sun, 01 Jun 2025 12:00:00 +0000

No, this is not a research blog post where I analyze literature reviews and try to reveal their discourses. This blog post is about making sense of difficulties I have had getting published when reviewers are quite critical of your background sections.

Throughout my time as a PhD student, I have been told a great many things about literature reviews, such as:

Literature reviews are summaries.
Literature reviews are about finding gaps in the literature.
Literature reviews are about appealing to certain publication venues.
Literature reviews are about deciding where the field should go.
Literature reviews are about saying which literature we should listen to.

Perhaps the most harrowing, that literature reviews are something you should already know how to do when you arrive for a PhD program.

Beyond Positionality

Tue, 01 Apr 2025 12:00:00 +0000

If you are trying to chart your growth or changes, then it’s helpful to establish a baseline, where am I at on how I think about my position in this world, in this country, and in this academic role.

Motivation

When I began my PhD in Information Science in the Fall of 2020, I was in awe. Cornell University, an Ivy-League institution, felt so impossibly out of reach for someone like me, and now I would walk through the doors of Bill & Melinda Gates Hall in Ithaca, New York to forever change my life. To become a Doctor.

The Importance of Rejection in Academia

Sun, 01 Dec 2024 12:00:00 +0000

At this point, I have lost count of how many applications I have submitted since becoming an “academic.” Though, the labyrinth of folder trees remembers (it always remembers). For many of us, the reality of the brutality of academia happened during our applications. I remember thinking “How can they expect us to submit (semi) unique applications to 10+ universities all at the same time, and then expect us to wait months to figure out if we get in?” Essentially half a year of my life down to an email on a cold day in February. All of which could render that labor useless. Little did I know that this timeline would be all that awaited me on the other side.

What If You Changed… Everything? New Research, New Committee.

Wed, 01 Nov 2023 12:00:00 +0000

Whelp, at this point it feels like my PhD has been at least partially a how to (how not to?) for grad school. Or, perhaps, a test bed for anything even remotely possible in a grad program. Well, regardless, let’s talk about this whole situation!

So, I decided to radically change my research direction. Like, a lot.

This is after three years, multiple research projects and publications. After completing candidacy – which included two chapters of a would-be dissertation.

Finding Academic Community

Sun, 01 Oct 2023 12:00:00 +0000

I was speaking with a PhD student in my department this morning. I referenced a colleague and good friend of mine at a university across the country and they asked, “Wait, how did you meet this person?”

The question caused me pause and I began talking through how I knew anyone during my time as a student, and now candidate. Here are a few reflections I have had:

Inheritance

First things first, a “community” and a network are two different, but often overlapping things. I will mostly be agnostic to those differences in my answers, so take that as you will.

A PhD Candidacy Postmortem

Fri, 01 Sep 2023 12:00:00 +0000

I wrote this post in the summer of 2022 and a lot has changed since then! While it is still a useful primer for getting a general overview of what candidacy can look like, it doesn’t provide more granular, experiential details.

Now that I am a PhD Candidate, I want to tell my story and answer questions I have been asked by eager PhD students.

*I will reference the candidacy exam as the “A-Exam” as that is the terminology of my university.

PhD Candidacy Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Fri, 01 Sep 2023 12:00:00 +0000

Okay, I wrote “The Qualifying Exam” and “A PhD Candidacy Postmortem,” so check those out too. This post is going to be more straightforward questions I have been asked and my perspective on them!

What is “candidacy” or “the qualifying exam”?

See The Qualifying Exam for a thorough answer, but for here: it is a milestone that marks the transition from student to candidate, which typically means that you begin dissertation work.

The Politic of the NSF GRFP

Fri, 01 Sep 2023 12:00:00 +0000

The National Science Foundation’s (NSF) Graduate Research Fellowship Program is widely considered “the” fellowship to win. Not only does it provide some of the most generous funding available, but it also lends a type of academic credibility unmatched by other fellowship programs. It’s reputation is so significant that STEM and STEM-adjacent fields simply refer to it as “the NSF.”

As mentioned above, the NSF GRFP has both a unique function and funding package. The goal of the NSF GRFP “… is to help ensure the quality, vitality, and diversity of the scientific and engineering workforce of the United States.” Ultimately, the GRFP is a retention tool, it is a sure fire way to ensure students finish the PhD, which is not a guarantee. This is reflected in the funding package, which is valued at $159,000. Broken down, that is three-years of funding covering $16,000 for education and $37,000 of living stipend each year. Fairly unique to this fellowship is the duration (three-years is a long time) and holistic funding (both education and living expenses). This essentially provides the winning students three-years of independent, research-focused study (and rent!). A dream for any graduate students who have balanced (multiple) teaching assistant positions, courses, and fitting in research. The outcome is three full academic years of research agency. All with no requirement for publication/topic consistency. It’s pretty clear that this is a life-changing form of funding.

What’s in a Name? On Changing Your Name in Academia

Tue, 01 Nov 2022 12:00:00 +0000

Oh no, I said it.

I said the thing that is the death knell for (primarily) women in academia. “But, but the citations!” or “Job market!?” or “How will they know who you are now!?”

Beneath the hyperbole is an uncomfortable and difficult question: how does one change their name when progression in the academe is so tightly tied to your name, which subsequently becomes your brand? Not all of us will be public intellectuals, but all of us will be subject to the name that appears on a paper and subsequent citations of that knowledge that follow.

The Power of Networks

Fri, 01 Jul 2022 12:00:00 +0000

I joined Intel Labs as a Sociotechnical Research Intern in May 2022. As a first-generation college student, this is a major accomplishment that brings me much pride. Though, the journey was more complex than the offer letter I have in my hand today.

During the fall, I joined Slack groups, Discord channels, and list servs. I signed up for alerts from all the major tech companies. Each of these spaces revealed the folks actively doing social science research in the tech world. I compiled a list of names and began sending emails for informational interviews. I synthesized notes, followed up on leads, and began strategizing cover letters and responses to interview questions. Applying during the fall semester was essentially an unpaid, part-time job.

The Qualifying Exam

Wed, 01 Jun 2022 12:00:00 +0000

Or preliminary exam or prelim or A-exam or or or…

Every PhD program has a number of requirements you must fulfill to earn your doctorate. While coursework should seem straightforward and you’ve no doubt interacted with TA’s (or taught already), there is one facet of the PhD program that has an unusually high level of ambiguity.

The qualifying exam(s).

See? I even had to put parentheses to cover for a plural because language and structure around this milestone are so inconsistent. The qualifying exam comes at a pivotal moment in the PhD experience. You will be formally transitioning out of a more familiar, structured student experience into an unstructured, self-led experience.

Industry Internship Application Guide

Sun, 01 May 2022 12:00:00 +0000

If you are reading this, then you are at least curious about what industry internships are and how to get one. You are in the right place. I will take a moment to describe what I mean by “industry,” who my audience is, and why you may (or may not) want to pursue one. Then I will talk about steps you can take to increase your chance of landing one.

My Journey to a Tech Industry Internship

Fri, 01 Apr 2022 12:00:00 +0000

This is the story about how I began my search for a tech industry internship as a social science PhD student in my second year. If you are looking for my guide for getting an internship, that’s over here.

Where to Begin? Build Your Network

I began this process with a fair amount working for and against me. As a first-generation college student, I didn’t inherit valuable personal and professional networks in academia or industry. Simply put, I didn’t know anyone and no one knew me. On the other hand, I attend an Ivy-League school with strong connections with industry and a litany of students who have interned. Given this, I knew if I could focus on networking and impressing the hiring committees in interviews that I would have a strong shot at landing a position.

What Does it Mean to be First Author?

Tue, 01 Feb 2022 12:00:00 +0000

This is a deceptively easy question.

It’s the person who got the grant funding to support the project! Or is it the person who did the most work? Or is it the person who wrote most of the paper? Perhaps the person who designed the research collection and methods?

Fairly quickly this question gets muddled.

This doesn’t even get into the intergroup politics of deciding on a set of criteria (if this happens) and then figuring out an equitable way to discuss authorship ordering.