Time and grad school

Any delusions I had about being able to do original scholarly research as a doctoral student have been dispelled by the first month of school. Just staying on top of the reading for the courses I am taking and teaching uses up virtually all the time I have to allocate. I will probably need to suspend my longstanding practice of reading The Economist completely each week, and pray that I will be inspired to advance research of my own during the breaks between terms.

Note: all this is while working as a TA, not commuting, and not needing to worry about buying or preparing food. I can’t imagine how anyone keeps up with coursework and does research while working part time, commuting, or managing with serious family obligations.

Author: Milan

In the spring of 2005, I graduated from the University of British Columbia with a degree in International Relations and a general focus in the area of environmental politics. In the fall of 2005, I began reading for an M.Phil in IR at Wadham College, Oxford. Outside school, I am very interested in photography, writing, and the outdoors. I am writing this blog to keep in touch with friends and family around the world, provide a more personal view of graduate student life in Oxford, and pass on some lessons I've learned here.

37 thoughts on “Time and grad school”

  1. Sounds familiar. Time available for not-related-to-what-you-are-doing-right-now reading is far less for academics than for those in most other jobs, because our work fills much of the so-called leisure time anyway.

  6. One consequence of the length of reading lists for many university courses is that a person is forced to read quickly. Even the most diligent student needs to sleep, eat, manage the requirements of a full courseload, and quite possibly work to support themselves and/or their family.

    While perhaps inevitable, I think this situation is unfortunate. Quite often, while I am working to get through a thick book or stack of photocopies, I am fully aware that I could get more value from the text if I had the freedom to read it more slowly and to really think about the claims being made before moving on to others.

    Generally speaking, it would probably be helpful if professors assigned fewer courses to their students – and if academics made more of an effort to be concise.

  8. “It is a well-known fact in any organization that, if you want a job done, you should give it to someone who is already very busy. It has been the cause of a number of homicides, and in one case the death of a senior director from having his head shut repeatedly in quite a small filing cabinet.”

    From Terry Pratchett’s “Unseen Academicals”

  9. I have more-or-less worked out a schedule (PDF) that should allow me to get everything done in the 168 hours available each week.

    The big type describes the day’s priority readings. The smaller type lists specific obligations on the day.

    GEP is global environmental politics; IR is international relations; CANPOL is Canadian politics.

  15. I look forward to reading your term paper on Global Environmental Politics for POL413 this weekend.

  19. Readings for my Canadian politics seminar next week:

    Lori Hausegger, Matthew Hennigar and Try Riddell, Canadian Courts: Law, Politics and Process (OUP, 2009), chapters 2, 4, 7, 8, 11

    Ran Hirschl, “Canada’s Contribution to the Comparative Study of Rights and Judicial Review” The Comparative T urn in Canadian Political Science (UBC Press, 2008), pp. 77-98

    Rainer Knopff and F.L. Morton, The Charter Revolution and the Court Party (Peterborough: Broadview Press, 2000), chapters 3,4.

    David Robertson, The Judge as a Political Theorist (OUP, 2010), ch. 5

    Donald Songer. The Transformation of the Supreme Court of Canada. (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2008). Ch 1, 3, 6.

    Paper topic: Have the debates about “the Charter Revolution” diverted academic attention away other important issues about the courts and the judicial system?

  22. I have yet another 5-7 page paper due for this class on Thursday.

    This time, the topic is: “Are Canadian divisions best resolved through constitutional means or through other means?”

    My immediate response is to ask who says Canadian divisions can be resolved at all…

  25. After ten straight hours of non-stop grading, I now need to read the following and write a 5-7 page paper on them by noon tomorrow:

    • Martin Papillon, “Is the Secret to Have a Good Dentist? Canadian Contributions to the Comparative Study of Federalism in Divided Societies,” in White, et al., The Comparative Turn
    • Jennifer Wallner, “Empirical Evidence and Pragmatic Explanations: Canada’s Contributions to Comparative Federalism,” ibid.
    • Samuel V. LaSelva, The Moral Foundations of Canadian Federalism (Montreal and Kingston: M-QUP, 1996), chapters 1 and 10.
    • Herman Bakvis and Grace Skogstad, “Canadian Federalism: Performance, Effectiveness and Legitimacy,” in Bakvis and Skogstad, eds., Canadian Federalism: Performance, Effectiveness and Legitimacy 2nd ed. (Toronto: OUP, 2008), chapters 1 and 18.
    • Richard Simeon, “Plus Ça Change … Intergovernmental Relations Then and Now,” Policy Options March-April 2005, 84-7.
    • Richard Simeon, Political Science and Federalism: Seven Decades of Scholarly Engagement (Kingston: Queen’s University Institute of Intergovernmental Relations, 2002).

    The notes from yesterday’s Toronto350.org termly general meeting are now online, as well.

  27. Readings for today’s ‘Incomplete Conquests’ seminar:

    Quebec’s Quiet Revolution Launches Mega Constitutional Politics

    What were Quebec’s constitutional aspirations from Confederation to 1960? Why did Quebec change from being constitutionally conservative to constitutionally radical and what were the consequences of that change for Canada’s constitutional politics? What light does the Royal Commission on Bilingualism and Biculturalism and its implementation throw on the incomplete conquest thesis? How does the clash of Canadian nationalism and Quebec nationalism affect Canada’s constitutional politics?

    • Brunet, Michel, “The French Canadians’ Search for a Fatherland,” in Peter H. Russell, ed., Nationalism in Canada, McGraw-Hill Ryerson, 1966
    • Cook, Ramsay, Canada, Quebec, and the Uses of Nationalism, McClelland & Stewart, 1986
    • Johnson, Daniel, Egalite ou independence, Les Editions de l”Homme, 1965
    • McRoberts, Kenneth, Quebec: Social Change and and Political Crisis, 3rd ed., McClelland & Stewart, 1988.
    • Royal Commission on Bilingualism and Biculturalism, A Preliminary Report, Queen’s Printer, 1965.
    • Russell, Peter H., Constitutional Odyssey: Can Canadians Become A Sovereign People? University of Toronto Press, 3rd edition, 2004. ch 6.
    • Trudeau, Pierre Elliot, Federalism and the French Canadians, McClelland & Stewart, 1968

  28. I also need to decide if I want to write the comprehensive exam in Canadian politics on May 23rd or August 22nd.

  29. Questions and readings for today’s class with Peter Russell:

    The Political Renaissance of Aboriginal Peoples

    What are the main factors that account for Aboriginal peoples getting a better hearing in Canadian politics after World War II? Why was the Trudeau/Chretien 1969 White Paper rejected by Aboriginal peoples? How important was the Supreme Court’s decision in Calder in reversing the federal government’s policy with respect to Aboriginal peoples? What relationship if any, is there between Quebec nationalism and Aboriginal nationalism? Was there progress towards decolonising relations with Aboriginal peoples?

    • Alfred, Gerald R. Heeding the Voices of our Ancestors: Kahnawake Mohawk Politics and the Rise of Native Nationalism, Oxford University Press, 1995.
    • Foster, Hamar, Raven, Heather and Webber, Jeremy, Let Right Be Done: Aboriginal Title, the Calder case and the Future of Indigenous Rights, UBC Press, 2007
    • Fleras, Augie and Elliott, Jean Leonard, The Nations Within: Aboriginal-State Relations in Canada, the United States and New Zealand, Oxford University Press, 1992
    • Miller, J.R., Skyscrapers Hide the Heavens, Part Three
    • Russell, Peter H. Recognizing Aboriginal Title, ch. 5
    • Weaver, Sally M., Making Indian Policy: The Hidden Agenda 1968-1970, University of Toronto Press, 1981.

  34. Conciseness in writing is a skill academics could perhaps look to journalists or short story writers to learn. I think of the expression, “I would have written you a shorter letter, but I did not have the time”

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