It Takes a Village to Raise a Graduate Student: Collaboration, Social Construction, and the Graduate Experience 1. Introduction a.

Background of my situation i. Commuting & Working full time ii. Program designed for working individuals iii. Difficulties connecting TRANSITION: I increased significantly my roles in the program and on campus, roles that sometimes overlapped and many times conflicted. CHANGE SLIDE UNKNOWN KNOWNS b. Anzaldua We live in the borderlands i. Its not a comfortable territory to live in, this place of contradictions 1. Gender makeup of university and impact. Being a female graduate student in a male-dominated department and profession 2. Occupying but being outside traditional spaces TRANSITION: How do graduate students make those borderland spaces work for them? How do we make our time in that space more productive AND FULFILLING? I suggest that we already know, we just have to demystify the experience. c. Zizek Philosophy, the unknown knowns, and the public use of reason d. Demystifying the unknown knowns of the graduate experience CHANGE SLIDE THEORETICAL TOPOI TRANSITION: This is a personal reflection, but I am also a scholar. My focus has been on computers and composition, so I have turned to a theorist in that field to frame my argument. e. Dr. Hugh Burns i. Four Dimensions of Significance: Tradition, Method, Theory, Originality ii. Suggested theoretical topoi iii. Our community can weigh the potential significance of scholarship on these four scales. CHANGE SLIDE - TRADITION 2. What is the Tradition of graduate education and how do we contribute? a. Where weve been

i. cutthroat competition, assimilation, model ii. Slave labor, flunkies, research assistants iii. Encouraging independence before students are ready b. Where we are i. Reduced resources - Chronicle of Higher Education History phds. ii. mentorship Assistant professors instead of full professors, their recent experiences with graduate school iii. Collaboration encouraged more c. Where were going i. Make ourselves marketable with more experiences, and working with other students and faculty to create opportunities. ii. Agency Making the program what we want it to be and EGIS 1. What did we not have that we need to be successful? 2. Informational seminars: Thesis, PhD 3. More collaborative scholarship opportunities TRANSITION: And it is scholarship that contributes most to the next topos CHANGE SLIDE METHODS & THEORY 3. What methods do we use and how do we support a theory of learning? a. Academic courses using the knowledge we gain to shape future goals i. Which means being smart about those choices ii. Diversity in coursework b. Research i. Putting research into practice, practical application ii. Making connections others cant make because of collaborating with peers and diversifying in scholarship, teaching, and service c. Teaching i. Cohort Collaboration ii. What we learn here, the habits of research and adaptability, is what we take with us to our future teaching iii. Experiment as much as the program will allow TRANSITION: Experimentation leads to originality CHANGE SLIDE - ORIGINALITY 4. Originality

a. Reduced resources have given graduate students more opportunity i. Reduced tenure track faculty at our institution ii. SCRS b. Making use of those opportunities c. Where are the gaps i. EGIS d. How do I own this program TRANSITION: How do we make this program our own? CHANGE SLIDE - CONCLUSION 5. Conclusion a. Embrace the experience b. Embrace the uncertainty i. Living on borders and in margins, keeping intact ones shifting and multiple identity and integrity, is like trying to swim in a new element, . There is an exhilaration in being a participant in the further evolution of humankind, in being worked on. I have the sense that certain facultiesand dormant areas of consciousness are being activated, awakened. Strange, huh? Preface It is embracing these liminal spaces and the opportunities for collaboration within and among them that will make the graduate student experience worthwhile