You Asked, I'm Telling: Academia and My Life

Several of you asked me questions about my research, my job, and how academia has impacted numerous areas of my life, so here goes....


Courtney, Lisa, and Elise asked: What is your dissertation about?  Elise asked if I could summarize it in one sentence, so here is the short answer: My dissertation was an examination of the integration of theater into daily life in cities in the Spanish Empire during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.  The somewhat longer answer is that I looked at how religious brotherhoods and city governments used theater to fund hospitals and orphanages in Castile and New Spain, and how this created a large cultural space in which theater operated in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.  If you want to know more, you will have to read the book when it eventually comes out.

Allison asked: You're working on a book.  What is it about? Basically, it is the same topic as my dissertation, but books are different beasts from dissertations, and I have a lot of restructuring, deleting, and new writing to do.

Jesspgh asked: How do you like academia? Honestly, I love it. I consider every day that I get to do what I love - research the past, write about it, teach it at multiple levels, engage in a community of scholars - to be a tremendous gift.

Rose-Anne asked: What do you like best about your job? There are many things that I really like about being a professor. It's a great feeling to have everything go right in a class - if the students have done the reading, have brought opinions and insights to the table, and discuss and debate with each other and I can guide that in a respectful and meaningful way, I leave the room elated.  I have also almost peed my pants from excitement at discoveries/research breakthroughs in the archives before. There is something awesome about touching documents from hundreds of years ago, and that feeling is magnified exponentially when they support a theory that you have.

What do you find to be the most challenging aspect of your job? I think the most challenging aspect is finding balance. If I'm prepping multiple new classes, have papers to grade, and committee meetings to attend and am trying to meet a deadline for a research project, it can be easy to work 60+ hours a week. Last year I often ended up working for 12 hours on my Sundays just to stay on track. Unlike with many jobs, the boundaries between work and non-work aren't always a clear in academia. Sure I might be able to work on class prep and an article from home in my yoga pants on a Friday, but I might also be working all day on a Saturday or a holiday or during the summer months (when I don't get paid) so that I can advance in my career.  Luckily, most of the time I enjoy what I'm doing, but I can get burnt out sometimes.

Amanda asked: What is one of the most fascinating parts of history that you love to learn about? My passion is Spain and its empire during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. And I have been obsessed with Spanish history and culture since I was a kid.  In the past year or so I've become really interested in clothing, stage costumes, food preparation and recipes, etc. in this period.  

Sarah S. asked: Would it be harder to write another dissertation or run an ultramarathon? It would be harder to write another dissertation.  To write another dissertation, I would need about a year of formulating a research question and reading secondary literature, at least several months in foreign archives doing research, and (realistically with my teaching schedule and other obligations) about two years to draft chapters, rewrite them, copy edit, etc. Plus, writing another dissertation would be emotionally and psychologically difficult because it would mean returning to grad school and thus taking a huge step back in my career trajectory.  I'm already training for a marathon and could probably manage an ultra within a year if I wanted to.   

Jesspgh and Lisa asked: How did you meet your partner/husband? I met M. in grad school back in 2004.  We did go on an awkward non-date (I thought it was a date and he didn't) shortly after we met to see Sean of the Dead.  After the movie, I realized we were not on a date, so I suggested meeting up with some friends who I knew were out at a local bar.  I called one of them to let them know we were on our way.  Well, my friend told everyone that they had to leave because we were coming, and he thought we were on a date.  When we got to the bar no one was there and it was pretty awkward.  But we were in the same TA office and so we ended up becoming good friends. I think the fact that we had been friends for several years before we started dating created tremendous trust in our relationship from the beginning.  We have a lot of fun, and I do sometimes tease him about our awkward non-date.

M. and me on my 25th birthday - just friends - Note the incredibly cheap stemware, a sign of grad student poverty

M. and me at Halloween in 2008 as Wesley and Inigo Montoya from The Princess Bride - The mustache is mine

A very sweaty M. and me at his sister's wedding in 2009

Tina asked: Do you want to have kids? And how has grad school/academia affected your plans? I'm not willing to say that I will never consider having children, but I'm leaning toward no.  I'm not a very maternal person - infants kind of freak me out.  But even if I really wanted to have kids it probably wouldn't be on the table right now.  The academic job market is horrible right now (as it is in many fields).  My current position is a year to year contract one and my husband is currently un(der)employed (he is also an academic and finished his PhD a couple of weeks after I did and has been teaching a class or two here and there as an adjunct for the past couple of years), so essentially we have no stability. While I realize that nothing in life is certain, I definitely don't want to put kids on the table when I can't be sure that I will have decent health insurance after next year.  I also have to say that I can't fathom how I would balance parenthood with the hours that I work during the school year.  I know people who do somehow manage it, and I have tremendous respect for them.