Bearding academics in their dens

[gogmagog]

Well, today I met with Teresa Mangum, who's the bigwig in the department for Victorian serials (which is my projected subject area). I had originally hoped to meet her when I came up for my visit in April, but she wasn't able to meet with me because she had a conference that weekend. So I finally got to meet with her, and she was very nice and helpful.

(I was kind of worried, because when I'd met one of the other Victorianists [Garrett Stewart] in April, he was nice but very intimidating, so I was quivering in my shoes a little as I went in to meet her. I hope I made a good impression, since if I do end up doing Victorian serials I'll probably want her as my advisor and on my comps and/or dissertation committees.)

...it's kind of funny - I'd gotten pretty blase about dealing with my professors in my undergrad by the end, and had no real problem with talking to them or anything, but now that I'm in grad school I seem to have regressed to a primal freshman "OMG DONT EAT ME PLZ" stage. XD

In unrelated news, I love my basement apartment. It's bitter cold outside, but I'm toasty-warm in here because the bottom half of my walls are underground and so it holds in heat very well. :D

Edit: You thought the Tom/Katie news was over. NO SUCH LUCK. Apparently they're bringing a wee little clamlet into the world soon. I wonder whether they'll name it L. Ron. XD

Comments

[dincrest.livejournal.com]

Oh oh oh! And then the spawn of Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes will grow up and procreate with the child of Britney Spears!

[yoshitsune.livejournal.com]

And their unholy spawn will be the Fame-Whore of Babylon! (Let's just hope that so much self-aggrandizing won't cause the world to implode under the sheer pressure.)

[jantalaimon.livejournal.com]

no, no, no, it'll be called "Elrond," and they'll think they're being clever. XD

[yoshitsune.livejournal.com]

Only if they ask Hugo Weaving to be the godfather. XD

[ryuusama.livejournal.com]

Teresa! I remember Teresa. She was my undergraduate adviser for about a year or so (don't bother asking her about me; I didn't haunt the hallway outside her office enough for her to remember me). She's pretty cool, yeah. I know you're doing Victorian studies, but have you had the opportunity to run into Jon Wilcox? He's a British professor who concentrates on Old English and Scandinavian Medieval literature. I had a bunch of classes with him, and he's hilarious.

As for Tom and Katie, my coworker wonders if Tommy's going to claim Katie was actually impregnated by Xenu. Gotta love those wacko religious nuts.

[yoshitsune.livejournal.com]

Actually, Jon Wilcox was the Director of Graduate Studies until this year, so he's the guy I was in contact with and all that for my visit in April. And I've seen him around quite a bit too. I'm hoping to take his Old English courses next year.

It's like the Scientologist version of Immaculate Conception! Their child will clearly grow up to smite the evil science of psychiatry with the devastating intellect he'll inherit from his father. XD

[courters28.livejournal.com]

I love the psychedelic picture on Garret Stewart's page. :P

[yoshitsune.livejournal.com]

He's a bigwig in narrative theory, I think, and his Dear Reader is so famous I'd heard it mentioned a couple of times in undergrad classes. And he was really nice (he was on sabbatical, I think, but came in to meet with me and a fellow prospective student), but he just seems intimidating on first meeting him. I know at one point during that first interview with him he asked me a question and I totally blanked and ended up being all "DURRRRRR I LIKE THE PRETTY PICTURES" (or something equally intelligent). -_-;