After finishing my undergraduate degree I was accepted into a grad program in the UK. As a Canadian citizen, I had to apply for a UK student visa in order to enter the UK as a student. Two days before my flight left I found out that my visa application had been rejected due to a paperwork mix up.
In a frantic rush I contacted my grad program in an attempt to figure out my options. Since it would take two full month for another visa application to be processed, my grad program asked me to postpone my studies and attend their school in the following year. At the time this was horribly traumatic. I had sold my car, ended a relationship, quit a job, all in preparation for leaving the country and starting a new life in the UK. My bags were packed (quite literally) and I had no where to go.
At a complete loss, I turned to my undergraduate mentor for his advice. I had considered taking this disaster as a sign to delay my studies for a few years to travel and experience the non-academic side of life. He told me that it was important, if I wanted to continue on in academia, that I carry on with my studies as soon as possible – once you lost momentum, he said, it was nearly impossible to gain it back.
At the time I took his advice, waited out my year of limbo, and went back to school the following year. Now that a few years have gone by I don’t necessarily agree with his advice. While it may be true for some people, it doesn’t apply for everyone. Living in Korea for the past year I’ve realized that you don’t have to be in university setting to stay connected and motivated, if you have the will, there’s a way to maintain, and even grow, your momentum anywhere.
Here is my list of five tips based upon my personal experience for staying connected when you’re outside of a formal university setting.
1. Don’t tune out – The biggest mistake I made during my year of limbo assuming that since I wasn’t a student, I wasn’t an academic. Academic reading and writing are habits that must be maintained. After giving these habits up for a year, it was more difficult to pick them up again when I finally went back to grad school.
But this doesn’t necessarily mean that you have to read a journal article every week, or write articles in your free time. There are plenty of more enjoyable wants to stay tuned in to academia. What are these more enjoyable ways, you may ask? The answer brings us to my second tip…
2. Find an online community - The beauty of the internet is that it allows you to find a community for virtually any interest under the sun. You are not alone. A quick Google search can find message boards, discussion groups, twitter communities, and forums for any topic, no matter how niche. The key to maintaining your momentum is to interact with passionate people. Passion in infectious. Let other people infect you with their enthusiasm.
While I’ve had a twitter account since 2008, this is the first year I’ve really embraced it. There’s a fantastic digital humanities community on twitter that’s more than happy to share ideas, discuss work, and mentor early-career academics. Twitter isn’t just for scholars in the digital humanities. There are fantastic twitter groups for medievalists, Canadian histories, political scientists, gender theorists, and nearly any other discipline you can think of.
3. Start a blog - Once you find an online community it won’t be long before you find yourself brimming with ideas. The first symptom of an enthusiasm infection is an over-abundance of thoughts.
Blogging serves two purposes. First, it gives you an outlet for your ideas. Twitter is great, but only so much can be said in 140 characters. Sooner or later after interacting with interesting people, you’ll have ideas of your own that you’ll want to develop. Second, blogging gets you into the important habit of regular writing.
Remember when I said that I tuned out during my year of limbo? I don’t know if I wrote more than 500 words in 365 days. Not writing for a year and then going straight into grad school is like not running for a year and then attempting a marathon. In both cases you probably won’t get very far.
4. Find an offline community - By now you’ll be in fairly good academic shape and you’ll be wanting to flex your muscles. It’s easy to forget this, but there are academic conferences everywhere. Don’t believe me? In September I presented a paper at the Japanese Association for Digital Humanities 2012 Conference. Even though I live in (literally) the smallest town in Korea, I found a conference that perfectly suited my research interests that was close enough that I could attend it over a long weekend and be back to work by Tuesday.
After finding an online community and starting a regular blog I found myself wanting to meet some digital humanities people in the flesh. Online friendships are great, but it was time to cultivate some real ones. I Googled “digital humanities conferences in Asia” and within ten minutes I found one.
If you’re in an English speaking country it’s even easier to find conferences in your area. And this doesn’t mean that you have to present at them, but attending conferences is a great way to make new academic contacts and expand your real-life social network. Plus, conferences are a ton of fun – academics and alcohol make for interesting results.
5. Network, network, network - Not being in school can be a real blessing because it gives you the gift of time. Use your free time to research your next move, reach out to academics you respect and ask them for advice. Twitter is a fantastic place for grad advice, follow things like #PhDchat or many of the other great grad advice accounts.
During my year of limbo I made the mistake of not researching my grad program. I had the time to make sure it was the best place for me, but instead I took it on faith that a school with a good reputation would suit my specific needs as a learner. Networking and research will give you the tools you need to thrive in your next learning environment.
My biggest regret of that year is that I didn’t choose to see it as an opportunity and because of this I lost my momentum. My old advisor was right, losing momentum is extremely damaging to your immediate academic success, but he was wrong that you have to be in a university of maintain your momentum. It’s ultimately up to you whether you gain or lose momentum. Had I realized this earlier, I could have taken a more active role in my academic training and better positioned myself for success in my grad program.
Looking back I should have viewed that year as an opportunity, not as my own personal academic purgatory.
Ryan Hunt
(twitter – @Ryan__Hunt)
