English Graduate Student Association at NIU

MARCH MOBILE SYMPOSIUM

2008-03-18T20:07:00.000-07:00

Don't forget Saturday, March 22nd we will be dining at Eduardo's at 7 pm and then venturing on to O'Learys (9-10), Otto's (10-11), and The Annex (11-??).

All times are approximate. Please contact me, if you want to join us for dinner. If you can't join us for dinner, we hope you'll join us along the route somewhere.

See you Saturday!!

Poetry Panel for EGSA Spring 2008 Speaker

2008-02-03T13:43:00.000-08:00

This semester we are pleased to present an exciting opportunity to hear three renowned poets who have connections with Illinois and Northern Illinois University.

The English Department, cosponsored by the Graduate Colloquium Committee, is presenting:
"The Poet and His Craft: An Afternoon of Poetry with Kevin Stein, Lucien Stryk, and John Bradley," by Kevin Stein (Bradley University and Poet Laurette of Illinois), Lucien Stryk (NIU Distinguished Research Professor Emeritus), and John Bradley (Instructor and recent recipient of an NEA Fellowship), Friday, April 4, 2008, 3:30-7:00 PM, Holmes Student Center, Sky Room.

Following the poets presentation, there will be a reception and book signing.

Mark your calendar and plan to join us for a unique opportunity.

Alisa

Spring 2008 Mobile Symposium

2008-02-03T13:41:00.001-08:00

This semester's Mobile Symposiums have been scheduled. More details will follow, but for now, you can mark your calendars!

Friday, February 15th ~ Meet at O'Leary's at 9 pm .... CANCELED

Saturday, March 22nd ~ 7 pm Dinner at Eduardo's; 9 - 10 @ O'Leary's; 10 - 11 @ Otto's; 11 - ?? The Annex.
All times are approximate. Come join us!!

Friday, May 9th ~ Time and location TBA

You Might Be a Grad Student If...

2008-02-03T13:20:00.000-08:00

I found this and altered it to fit us "English People" a little better. Enjoy!

You might be a Grad Student if...
1.you actually take the time to compile a “you might be a grad student if...” list and then begin silently crying because it is WAY too personal
2.you think you should be paying rent for your office/library chair instead of your home.
3.you bring alcohol to the lab/library/office.
4.your office is better decorated than your apartment.
5.you have ever brought a scholarly article to a bar.
6.you rate coffee shops by the availability of outlets for your laptop.
7.you have ever discussed academic matters at a sporting event.
8.you regard ibuprofen as a vitamin.
9.you find the bibliographies of books more interesting than the actual text.
10.you find yourself explaining to children that you are in "20th grade".
11.you look forward to taking some time off to do laundry.
12.you have more photocopy cards than credit cards.
13.you wonder if MLA style allows you to cite talking to yourself as "personal communication."
14.you are thinking "I'll be golden in 2012...just you wait and see
15.you cross the "gender" box off of a government form and write sex above and check the appropriate F box
16.you get irresistible urges to use in-text citations in casual e-mails.
17.you start referring to stories like "Snow white, et al"
18.you have a coffee maker, phone charger, and food in a lab.
19.you have a janitor-like collection of university keys.
20.you do research on literary topics that do no relate to a class you are currently taking.
21.you look at undergrads and long for the "simple life"
22.you refer to late work as an "ongoing project"
23.you “fill up your car” with $2 worth of gas
24.you procrastinate on one project by working on another project.
25.you are staying in school simply to avoid paying off the tens of thousands of dollars you owe the government in student loans.
26.you are working on one thing but feeling guilty that you aren't working on the other thing.
27.you think your communication with God would be cited under “interview”
28.your significant other (who's not a grad student) says that they thought your Chicago Manual of Style was about fashion and you piss your pants laughing about it and tell that story to all other grad students for months and months and every time still find it funny.
29. you avoid math, with the exception of calculating grades
30.you buy the 2nd copy of your thesis to be burned at the "after thesis" party to which 3 other people show up--your roommate who can't remember your name because you hardly spend any time at your house, your neighbor who's there for the free booze, and the significant other who has somehow has managed to stick it out w/ you for the process.
31.Your roommate forgets she has a roommate but wonders where all the peanut butter has gone.
32.the only style you recognize anymore is MLA Style
33.You might be a grad student if you feel slightly sick whenever the thought occurs to you that the entirety of your thesis will be read by a maximum of five people: your advisor, an external examiner, a selfless friend editing the spelling mistakes and perhaps one or two nerds who - for some reason or another - are interested in the same stuff as you. The feeling of sickness is soon accompanied with the related question "Is it really worth all this???"
34.you might be a grad student if you choose beverages on the basis of caffeine concentration
35.you cannot see the surface of your office desk anymore because it is covered in books, photocopied/printed articles, half-eaten junk food, at least three empty cups of coffee stained in various colorations and a half-full cup of coffee, pens, worn-out computer and a calendar marking the days left until you have to hand in the thesis.
36.free food is the high point of your day.
37.people (non-grad students) ask you "Are you going to be done soon?" and you laugh but inside a little part of you dies.
38.the local coffee shop experiences a "noticeable" decline in profits should you leave the city for more than 4 days.
39.you refer to a particular microfiche reader in the library as "yours" and get annoyed if you find someone else on it when you go to use it.
40.you sleep in your office/lab (in a sleeping bag) and shower at the school gym because it's more convenient to stay the night than to go home and come back.
41.14 hours a day on campus is typical, even on an elusive day known as Saturday.
42.sleeping in means sleeping until 8:30
43.you don’t remember the definition of “evenings” or “weekends.” You've been told that they exist, but you are highly skeptical.
44. the books on your desk are piled so high that people cannot see you sitting at your desk
45. the area under your desk is never vacuumed because you are occupying your desk when the cleaners vacuum at 4am
46. you get hate mail notes on your desk by undergrads complaining about your extended occupation of a library desk
47. you can't help but sigh with envy when you overhear undergrads stress over 10 pg final papers in the elevator
48. you find comfort, company, and solace in visiting Facebook/Myspace in the wee hours of the cold morning in the library all alone
49. you consider power bar + extra large coffee a proper lunch/dinner
50. you have copies of all the restaurants that deliver and know the numbers by heart
51. you feel a constant sense of stress because you have papers to grade, papers to write, research to do, reading to do, and/ or any combination of all of the above
52. you procrastinate by counting the number of empty coffee cups on your desk
53. you sleep with your laptop at your bedside.
54. all of your office plants die because you procrastinate on your thesis by watering your plants (note: for those of you still wondering, plants do not need to be watered 4 times a day)
55. you can no longer count the number of times you have fallen asleep and woken up with a book on a page you don't remember reading.
56. you have figured out the exact way to balance your head on your hand so you can take a nap during a lecture while making the professor thinks you are looking at a piece of paper.
57. the number of library books that you have checked out at one time= 20 library books checked out from two university libraries, 2 books on hold, 2 books from a different state, and 2 books borrowed from professors... and then you wonder why you are online instead of reading them...
58. you can analyze the significance of appliances you cannot operate.
59. you have ever, as a folklore project, attempted to track the progress of your own joke across the Internet.
60. you are startled to meet people who neither need nor want to read.
61. everything reminds you of something in your discipline.
62. you have ever discussed academic matters at a sporting event.
63. you have ever spent more than $50 on photocopying while researching a single paper.
64. you actually have a preference between microfilm and microfiche.
65. you can tell the time of day by looking at the traffic flow at the library.
66. you look forward to summers because you're more productive without the distraction of classes.
67. professors don't really care when you turn in work anymore.
68. you have given up trying to keep your books organized and are now just trying to keep them all in the same general area.
69. you have accepted guilt as an inherent feature of relaxation.
70. you reflexively start analyzing anything you are reding when you realize it's a cereal box, not literature/ rhetoric.
71. you frequently wonder how long you can live on pasta without getting scurvy
72. you can identify universities by their internet domains.
73. you are constantly looking for a thesis in novels.
74. you have difficulty reading anything that doesn't have footnotes.
75. you understand jokes about Foucault.
76. the concept of free time scares you.
77. you consider caffeine to be a major food group.
78. you've ever brought books with you on vacation and actually studied.
79. Saturday nights spent studying no longer seem weird.
80. the professor doesn't show up to class and you discuss the readings anyway.
81. you've ever travelled across two state lines specifically to go to a library.
82. you appreciate the fact that you get to choose which twenty hours out of the day you have to work.
83. you still feel guilty about giving students low grades (you'll get over it).
84. you can read course books and cook at the same time.
85. you schedule events for academic vacations so your friends can come.
86. you hope it snows during spring break so you can get more studying in.
87. you've ever worn out a library card.
88. you find taking notes in a park relaxing.
89. you find yourself citing sources in conversation.
90. you've ever sent a personal letter with footnotes.
91. you have a favorite flavor of instant noodle.
92. you have ever said (and meant) “I'd be delighted to proofread your book/chapter/article.”
93. you spend more on books than on tuition.
94. you actually _hope_ your professor assigns homework.
95. you get a 3-hour final with 5 questions or less.
96. you spend Saturday morning waiting for the library to open.
97. you've memorized your professors' home phone numbers.
98. your professors know your home phone number.
99. more than 25% of your textbook is "left as an exercise for the reader."
100. you are on a first-name basis with everyone on the library staff.
101. And lastly, you might be a grad student if you actually take the time to compile a “you might be a grad student if...” list and then begin silently crying

Dr. Self and McCabe & Mrs. Miller

2007-09-26T11:01:00.000-07:00

Hello all -

On Wed., Oct. 17, the English Department will be screening Robert Altman's 1971 Western, McCabe & Mrs. Miller, in the Cole Preview Room from 3:00-5:30PM. It's a great film.

Then on Fri., Oct. 19, NIU's own Dr. Robert T. Self will be discussing his latest book, Robert Altman's McCabe & Mrs. Miller: Reframing the American West, in 211 Reavis Hall at 3:00PM. Refreshments will be provided.

Everyone is invited...and we'll probably need a couple volunteers to help bring/set up the snacks on Friday. This will also be an excellent opportunity for new English graduate students to meet Dr. Self and learn about his work, which should especially interest those of us involved in film studies!

If you have questions, please contact me, Kathleen Turner, or Ellen Franklin.

Cheers,

--Will Scheibel.

EGSA Outing Redux

2007-09-05T22:03:00.000-07:00

The EGSA Outing has been rescheduled for Friday, September 14th at 7:30 pm. We're still going to Eduardo's and out afterward. All NIU English Graduate Students (and their significant others) are welcome. If you plan to attend, please e-mail EGSA at NIU.EGSA@gmail.com by Wednesday the 12th with the number of guests attending.

We hope to see you there!

The Tournees Festival

2007-08-27T19:42:00.000-07:00

If you're interested in learning more about contemporary French cinema, French culture, the NIU film and literature program, or study abroad opportunities in France, mark your calendars for The Tournees Film Festival, held on campus from Oct. 26-28! Everyone is invited. Admission is free and refreshments will be available.

Dr. Christoph Lindner and I have organized this film series in association with the French American Cultural Exchange and are screening five acclaimed French films from the last five years. We are also excited to announce that Dr. Rosemarie Scullion, Associate Professor of Cinema and Comparative Literature, French, and Women’s Studies at The University of Iowa, has agreed to launch our event with a presentation on the directors of our first scheduled film, L'Enfant, titled “The Young and the Restless: Globalization and Social Critique in the Cinema of Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne.”

Please visit our website for more details and a complete schedule: http://www.engl.niu.edu/tournees/

Hope to see you there!

NEEDED: CANNED AND OTHER NONPERISHABLE FOOD

2007-08-27T09:37:00.000-07:00

Do you have unwanted canned food? Do you want to help someone?

If so, please donate food items to the Blessing Well Food Pantry, a nonprofit organization that reaches out to anyone needing food or clothing in DeKalb. Please place all donations in the box on Amy King's desk in 311, and she will transport all food to the Blessing Well.

Need information about donating clothes or volunteering your time? Please see Amy!

Thank you for your help!

It's almost that time...

2007-08-10T20:19:00.000-07:00

As impossible as it may seem, there is only one "free" week of the summer left. For those of us who have been enjoying (??) summer classes (Spanish, German, etc.) this hasn't been much of a summer break.

EGSA is planning to organize social activities throughout the year, hopefully one a month. Our first social event will be a dinner get together at Eduardo's on Friday, August 24th. We will meet there at 7 p.m. for dinner, drinks, and socializing.

I will need a count by Thursday in order to make a reservation. So, please e-mail me to let me know if you'll be joining us. It is a great opportunity to chat, reconnect with friends, and make new ones.

Enjoy your last week and see you soon!

Alisa

Off to a start...

2007-05-26T19:36:00.000-07:00

So, we developed this blog as a place to share information and activities for NIU's English Graduate Student Association. We will do our best to keep this up to date and provide information that is relevant and helpful to you as graduate students at NIU.

Please feel free to share information and ideas as well as discuss relevant topics.

Alisa