MASTER'S SUPERVISION
INITIAL MEETING
First: I expect that all students interested in working with me will have taken at least one class with me, and done your best work. If this is impossible because of my teaching rotation, I will encourage you to contact me about auditing a comparable undergraduate course.
With all prospective students, we will have at least one initial meeting. In that meeting, I want to find out:
How do you learn best?
What type of feedback serves you best?
What is your degree for?
What kind of scholar do you want to be?
​Based on your answers to those questions, we will decide when/how often to meet, our expectations for those meetings, and when to submit stuff to me.
ABOUT THE EPORTFOLIO
We will produce a firm timeline for the drafting and revision, including all components of the eportfolio. For two-year MAs, this means first drafts of the eportfolio components by January of the second year.
Your "long piece" and all other components of your eportfolio must be directly supervised by me.
I am willing to supervise MA Thesis-equivalent work. When the Thesis was the primary requirement for the MA, this was a 6-hour credit equivalent. It is no longer given "credit" as such, but quality theses will require that level of time commitment. This means establishing as early as possible the committee, plan of work, etc.
EXPECTATIONS
​
I expect you to think about your writing and research processes: retaining the habits and techniques that serve you, and actively seek out
I expect you to understand what your eportfolio is "for," which you will articulate to me and your committee. We will remind you when you forget.
You will continue to update your understanding of the scholarly conversation around your topic. This means devoting time to reading the important journals in your field, setting Google Alerts on your topic, subscribing to relevant listservs or online communities, etc.
You will keep me in the loop as your research takes you to weird, wonderful, and surprising places. Sometimes we will be reviewing written work. Sometimes we will be having Big Meta Conversations About Confusing Stuff. Most of the time we will do both. We will meet biweekly ideally, once a month at minimum. Whenever possible we will schedule face to face meetings -- if your travel or mine prevents this, we will schedule calls or meetings via Zoom.
WHAT YOU CAN EXPECT FROM ME
You can expect an engaged and enthusiastic supporter of you and your work, regardless of your future path.
You can expect me to be clear about my availability as far into the future as I can.
You can expect to get email responses within 48 hours.
You can expect to use me as a sounding board about professionalization: what conferences to attend, doctoral or job applications, etc.
You can expect me to facilitate introductions to scholars in your field to the best of my ability when you request it: in person when we attend the same conference, virtually before you go off to a conference on your own, etc.