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Tips for Passing your Ph.D. Qualifying Exams
In January 2022, I passed my Ph.D. qualifying exam and officially became a Ph.D. Candidate. For those who aren’t familiar with the Ph.D. process, this means that I am ABD, which stands for “All but dissertation.” This means that all that’s left in my program is for me to write and defend my dissertation. A…
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Presentation: Close Reading the Sonic Topology of Instagram Poetry with Poemage
On May 16-17th, 2022, I attended the SpokenWeb Symposium 2022 at Concordia University in Montreal on the theme of “The Sound of Literature in Time.” My presentation was titled “Close Reading the Sonic Topology of Instagram Poetry with Poemage”. In the presentation, I show how Poemage, an open-source visualization tool for exploring the sonic topology…
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How to get a Research Assistant position
When I started my Ph.D. as a part-time student, I knew that I wasn’t going to be able to accept my Teaching Assistant (TA) positions given my other responsibilities: a full-time 9-5 job, extracurriculars, course work and my own research, and spending time with my friends and families. At the time, there weren’t many opportunities…
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How to write a conference abstract
This year, I am the Graduate Placement Officer (GPO) representative for our graduate student committee, which generally means that I work with our GPO to organize and host professionalization workshops for graduate students. As part of this role, last semester I organized and led a workshop on how to write a conference abstract. Here are…
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Top 9 tips for incoming PhD students
Summer is winding down in Canada which, for anyone in academia, means we are gearing up for another school year—and welcoming another incoming cohort of PhD students. I’ve been reflecting on my first year in the program lately and have been speaking with some of my PhD friends about what we wish we’d known heading…
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Reflections on my first comprehensive exam
Last semester, I finished my fifth and final course required for my PhD at the University of Guelph. The fall before (Fall 2019), I passed my written and oral exams for my Secondary Area Qualifications. Here are some of my reflections on the comprehensive exam now that I’m about halfway through the program. Secondary Area…
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Part-time PhD in a pandemic
It’s been a little over a year now since the COVID-19 pandemic hit and we switched to remote work, school, and ways of life. My PhD experience hasn’t been all that typical. I’ve been working full-time and doing my studies part-time, commuting to campus one day a week to work and do school work in…
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Interrogating Augmented Tech Mediation in Mobile Gaming App Pokémon GO!
Written by Abi Lemak & Kiera Obbard.Original post can be found on Medium. Growing up in the 1990s and 2000s, we were, like many of our friends, caught up in the Pokémon hype. We wanted to “catch ’em all,” as the show’s theme song invited — and when Pokémon GO! was released in Canada in the summer of…
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Thinking Forward at IABC World Conference 2019
Right after my first ever DHSI, I flew from Victoria to Vancouver to attend the IABC World Conference 2019 – another set of firsts for me with my first international conference and first time in Vancouver. Meghan met me in Vancouver and we took a cab to our hotel, checked in, and went to grab…
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My first Digital Humanities Summer Institute
June 2019 marked my first time attending the Digital Humanities Summer Institute (DHSI) in Victoria, B.C. It was also my first time visiting Victoria, my first time taking a week-long technical course about a coding language, and my first DH related conference! It was an incredible experience – here’s what I learned. What is DHSI?…