I’m a twenty-something PhD candidate @ Indiana University studying rhet/comp! new videos every week 🤍 for collab inquiries: sarahfischerm@gmail.com 🤍 *This channel is not affiliated with the university. All opinions are my own.*
What a wonderful Vlog!! I am so impressed and inspired by your work in progress website! I also have a website for professionalization but you gave me some good ideas and inspiration for other tabs that I can include (for my teaching experience). I hope we get to see the finished product! I also really loved the song choices, especially the one with the lyric "… Will it ever be enough…" I think that is the mantra for every PhD candidate working on their dissertation! Lastly, it was so relatable "Waiting with you" to get feedback from your advisor, feeling "in limbo," and then applying his feedback via notes on what you're going to do next. Really loved this one!
WAIT! So Rita's is NOT a thing everywhere?! It's a northeast STAPLE! WELCOME!! I wish I could taste its gloriousness for the first time again! Also, I love how you balance your dissertation work with self-care--something I'm terrible at! Taking notes!
I love seeing your site! I also used google sites for mine, I've been slowly shaping it over the past few years. If it would be helpful to see it I'd be happy to share it with you! On another note, being late to a meeting even by a couple minutes stresses me out so so so so bad, even though my advisor is chronically late herself! haha Also congrats on the positive feedback on how close you are on that chapter!
Around 21:59 you bring up a great point about the idea of an intellectual community and I am glad this platform is able to give you that especially after COVID I feel like the community that was once there in a general sense is more so lacking now
I have so many thoughts about how TikTok especially has changed the notion of community on social media! I’m sure the pandemic has played an enormous role too. But grateful for the one I have here ❤
Honestly so rude that our bodies percieve unopened feedback as a bodily threat! Glad that your advisor continues to be in your loudest champions, and I'm so excited for you to finish this chapter up!
Always get your oil changed before a long road trip. Advice for everyone. Even if youre likely 1,000 miles away from it. Changing it too often - even eith synthetics- will help to ensure longevity of your drive train and engine parts.
Hi Sarah! I loved this video. You really made me realise how much we need to be grateful for our achievements, something I don't do usually. You really inspired me to do this mid-year journaling and it was needed. Thanks for your content ❤
Hi Sarah! I have a bit of a random question, but I remember you once mentioning in a vlog (now I don't remember which one...) that you're analysing Kaelyn Grace Apple's vlogs and how she explains why she studies African-American history despite not being African-American. Do you maybe know in which one of her videos specifically is she talking about that? I am a PhD candidate as well, and I study African literature and I'm at the point of a crisis right now and feel like just deleting my whole dissertation draft and asking myself why do I even consider myself to have the right to study African literature if I am not African myself... And I remembered now, watching you, that you were once talking about including that case study in your diss and I think I would really benefit from hearing the perspective of another academic who is in the similar situation as me. Thanks :)
Absolutely! I focused on two videos. The first one is titled: “Defending my PhD Prospectus | A Week in the Life of a Yale History/African American Studies Student,” and it is from May 2023, and the second is “A Productive Week in the Life of a Consultant and PhD Student" from Feb. 2023.
I would love to know, how do you know what jobs are open? Is there a mailing list for your discipline, does your advisor let you know, some other way? I'm still a couple years from the job market but I'm so anxious about finding jobs to apply for
There are lots of venues! In my discipline of rhet/comp, there is Rhet Map (rhetmap.org/) as well as MLA Job List (joblist.mla.org/). I am also subscribed to a listserv for Writing Studies where folks post jobs quite a bit. I know some people in the cohorts above me have had some luck with more broad sites like Indeed as well.
I love your vlogs. They are my comfort place for when I'm working on my PhD. Feels like we're hanging out haha. Sounds sad, but I live four hours away from my campus and have mainly done my PhD alone, so it's nice to feel like I have someone else to connect to. I'd love to try understand how American PhD's work. You said you're in your 6th or 7th year? In the UK they only last three years, unless you're doing it part time? xx
Another PhD student here! I’m starting my fourth year this Fall, aiming to finish my PhD by Spring 25 and also be on the job market this Fall. I started following your page as there just weren’t a lot of people doing vlogs as a PhD student! Thankful for your content as it’s been super relatable and knowing I’m not alone. I hope your content can also keep me accountable to maintain my health and mental health as I enter the job market this Fall as well!
First of all, I don't think anyone could ever think of you as ungrateful! You are so humble and blessed! Also, I really loved the trio of categories that you broke down, and chatted about on your bed. Your last segment about what you are grateful for was one of the sweetest things I've ever heard! You and your boyfriend are so cute together! If you could please do a video on your journaling process. That is something that I would like to get into more… I will be starting my fifth year of my PhD this fall and I'm thinking I should've started this much sooner! I would love to hear how you plan your entries… are they more like brain dumps? Do you go by prompts? And if you use prompts, where do you get them? Also, I'm so glad you're going to share your job market experiences with us… I will be starting that soon as well so that is going to be very helpful! Although RU-vid is something that you just do for fun, it is tremendously helpful for us fellow graduate/PhD students. Not to mention, your channel and your voice are very comforting and soothing! Thanks for this inspiring video!
Congratulations, on your accomplishments thus far this year, Sarah! This vlog made me smile so much! You are inspiring! Thank you for sharing your life with us!
On your dissertation--I do think, for me, chapters 3 and 4 so far have been quicker to write! I spent a long time working on chapter 2 especially. When I got to chapter three, I wrote a full rough draft *in a two week dissertation workshop.* I couldn't believe how much I had done in that time. It was all rough, of course, but it went faster than drafting prior chapters. While I waited for feedback on chapter three, my advisor wanted me to start writing chapter four to try and get a draft done before the fall, and since then I've already drafted 12 pages. I'm not entirely sure HOW this momentum is building so quickly but I will not question it in the slightest haha I hope the same happens for you, Sarah! On the job market--I'm entering the job market this fall too and it is terrifying. I'm excited to be working through this at the same time you are and seeing what you vlog for us, however much or little you can! Also, excited to see your website. I am always looking for ways to improve my own, and nobody ever talks about designing academic websites, I feel.
Wishing you all the best with your job market especially with bringing you closer to home. So sweet to hear you say Zach is your safe and comfort zone. You are a very cute couple. Enjoy your vlogs looking forward to your job market journey vlogs and the finalization of your dissertation.
I started an internship in December and the interview process in October felt soooo intimidating since I didn’t have a formal job interview for about 5 years before that. It was a great reminder and practice for when I finish my program and get a big girl job.
I don't know why, but the "more than anything, I just feel really proud of myself" made me tear up. I feel like grad school is made up of a thousand difficult projects going on all at once, and it can be hard to see progress, just because there is always so much more that is still going on. So the fact that you were intentional about recognizing your accomplishments was really inspiring to me. I think I will do a midyear reset of my own! The reflection is a nice way to be present in this period of our lives, and make sure the good times don't get lost in the shuffle. Congrats on the 2 chapters down, and here's hoping the following ones go just as smoothly!
I love the music you used this time ❤ It gave me a bit of summer vibes and emphasised a happy-go-lucky nature that really elevated my mood and helped to motivate me work on my master thesis. Even if life is not always easy, there are also beautiful moments that you can enjoy 😊
Always enjoy your videos, Sarah. You got this--keep going! Also, if you haven't before, check out Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott. Lots of helpful wisdom in there about the anguish of writing and the necessity of shitty first drafts!
hey, just wanted to say how your vids really help me. I'm currently writing an essay for my Masters and honestly feel like throwing my laptop in the bin 🙃 but we gotta keep going and not let the imposter syndrome win! ❤
I started watching your vlogs when I started my grad school journey and kind of fell away from the grad student youtube space for a while, but I'm back! As a PhD student also researching social media, I love hearing about your dissertation and I think it's such an important and fascinating topic. Do you have any of your other writing published online for us curious minds to see (or cite? hehe) congrats on the submission!
Just an English Lit undergrad here and it’s nice to hear someone work through their writing process and not “feel smart”. Often as I write papers or even discussion posts I doubt if my writing and thinking is smart and have always wondered if others feel that way!
Just an idea! A blog is written communication and can be revised before posting. A vlog is moving and cannot be as meticulously edited. The movement , expression and emphasis is much more revealing than a written communication. For example, it does not matter what you do with your hands when doing a blog. The same applies to Facebook as to blogs. No one can see your expression when you are posting. I am sure you already thought of these things. I love your work.
I really enjoy how you share your thought and writing process. It's so helpful. And the body thing - you're so right! I have thought so many times about vlogging or making some kind of videos but I'm so aware of everything about my face and body that I'm unhappy with that I shut that door every time.
it might help, but whenever I need to edit my work, and I feel the ick of going back and reading it, I try listening to it; it makes the process much easier. I use speechify.
While you were wondering what the specific difference between Facebook and YT vlogs might be, I was reminded that RU-vid's tagline is "Broadcast yourself". Idk if that helps in any way, but maybe there's something there about voluntarily exposing yourself to anyone and everyone and how that relates to hyper awareness...? Also, does the fact that in video we're showing ourselves 3 dimensionally and often our own thoughts have anything to do with it...? Anyways, I always enjoy your research talks! ❤
Also, very interesting stuff on the self awareness vs hyper self awareness differences on Facebook and RU-vid! I wonder if you can conceptualize the phenomenon on RU-vid as a multiple of the phenomenon on Facebook, especially since a video can be represented as 24 photos produced in a second, so it feels like when you're on RU-vid, you're performing what you're performing on Facebook, but 24 times a second. Just a thought!
To me, the main difference between selfies and videos are movement and spontaneity. In videos, you move, we see and hear you talking, which brings you to life. As a still medium, photography freezes one instant in time.
Sarah you are so so sooooooo inspiring for me and I really really enjoyed watching today's vlog a lot you are my truly truly inspiration and I wish you have a wonderful weekend😭🥹💓💓
Love the music choice for the vid :) relatedly...I'm considering starting my own channel(!) documenting my diss revisions to monograph process and clicked your referral link for epidemic sound and it says it's broken. could you send me a live one pls? thanks!
