PhD & Post-Ac
A SmartWomen’s Year in Review: Transition (Part IV)
Thank goodness for this obligation opportunity to reflect. And it really is an opportunity. Because meditating on your experiences and coming up…
2018
New writers joined, the summer and writing-desk series ran, and the year closed with a four-part review of what writing in 2018 had been like.
The Writer's Life
A SmartWomen’s Year in Review: Writing Fail (Part III)
I caught my first episode of Netflix’s Nailed It! tonight, and this might either be the perfect metaphor for what I want to say this week, or the…
The Writer's Life
A SmartWomen’s Year in Review: Writing Audience (Part II)
I read about Lynn’s year of writing and my first thought was “that’s excellent! I love when people decide on a path, then walk it despite their…
The Writer's Life
A SmartWomen’s Year In Review: Writing in 2018 (Part I)
“’I don’t know what you’ve got in mind,’ said Pippi, ‘but I’m not the sort to lie around. I’m a thing-searcher, you see.
PhD & Post-Ac
Relationality: Intermingling at Academic Conferences
Thanksgiving is upon us. Hopefully, for all of us, this will be a week of good cheer, warm reunions, and full stomachs.
Teaching
The History Teacher Abroad
Last summer, I mentioned I was heading to a seminar in Cambridge as part of a sabbatical through my school.
Teaching
What’s your Creative Nonfiction Really About?
In honor of National Novel Writing Month , I’m going to tell you another story about the time I taught a nonfiction writing class titled “Writing…
The Writer's Life
The Big Draw: Sketching to See the World
I’ve always considered it a great failing in my education that I never had the chance to take drawing classes, or any art making classes for that…
The Writer's Life
Finding Seeds of Hope in Your Work
When it seems like the world around me is falling apart, sometimes I just feel like throwing my hands up in the air and giving up on humanity.
Teaching
The Newness of Old Things
In the Midwestern state where I live, autumn blew in last week, unexpectedly after what we thought were endless warm days.
The Writer's Life
Self Care for Women Writers in the Age of Kavanaugh
I’m a historian of Atlantic Africa, the slave trade, and Africans in the Americas, so often that’s where my focus is.
Art & Public History
The Expressions of Freedom: Contemplating Anger
Despite being immensely inspired by Raquelle’s awesome post on “overcoming writing stalls” , I’ve had a difficult time being productive this week.
The Writer's Life
Lessons from Smart Women Writers: Overcoming Writing Stalls
“Writing is to academia what sex was to nineteenth-century Vienna: everybody does it and nobody talks about it.” (Wendy Laura Belcher) This is the…
Teaching
Tangled Webs
It’s been more than a decade, but I still remember how excited I felt at the prospect of being a teaching assistant (TA) in graduate school.
Teaching
The Creativity of Project Management & Grants Administration
Smart Women & Co., I am so excited to tell you about my new position as Mellon Partner for Humanities Education Fellowship Postdoctoral research…
Teaching
Ruminations on the End of Summer, and the Start of the School Year
Labor day weekend can be a mixed bag. While I never lament a Monday off, especially to honor workers past, present, and future, this weekend does…
PhD & Post-Ac
A Career Shift, A New Project
I recently read an article on taking time to mourn during career transitions . When your identity is so deeply tied to work and to the…
Teaching
Untitled: Finding a Teaching Style
Angela wrote a fantastic piece last week about finding your nonfiction writing voice. This week, I’m going to branch off from that a little to…
The Writer's Life
The Elusive Nonfiction Writing Voice
I’ve always been somewhat of a giant. Being the tallest kid in every class made me a bit shy, and so I retreated often into my head, where all of…
The Writer's Life
The Smart Woman’s Writing Desk, Part IV
Even though Virginia Woolf’s famous essay about the importance of creative space for women (both public and private) was published in 1929, it…
The Writer's Life
The Smart Women’s Writing Desk, Part 3
About a year ago, I posted these pictures of my home writing space on Instagram. These photos were a part of my virtual “save me from my…
The Writer's Life
The Smart Women’s Writing Desk, Part 2
My turn! I’m excited to give you a peak into my home office this week; unlike Angela , I didn’t clean for you, but I’m just going to go with it.
The Writer's Life
The Smart Women’s Writing Desk, Part 1
I know it doesn’t look like it, because my home desk is an eccentric travesty (or the desk of a maverick, as one of my super kind friends always…
Life & Self-Care
The Smart Woman’s Summer, Part 4: The Siren Song of Summer
As with the season itself, my summer themed blog post has gone through a lot of edits. Most recently it devolved into one sentence that started…
Life & Self-Care
The Smart Women’s Summer, Part 3
Last year, I spent the summer months finishing my dissertation. I was a sleepless madwoman, constantly tapping away at the computer and pacing my…
Life & Self-Care
The Smart Women’s Summer, Part 2
I loved reading about Angela’s summer-so-far and her summer plans . My summer-so-far hasn’t been as exciting in some ways (yet crazy in others),…
Life & Self-Care
The Smart Women’s Summer, Part 1
Summer is in full swing and the Smart Women want to talk about what each of their summers looks like.
Art & Public History
Tools for Resistance: The Importance of Art, Research, and Writing
Although I’ve always tried to take an activist’s approach to art history and fought against the notion that it is inconsequential, there have been…
PhD & Post-Ac
On the Virtues of (Feminist) Mentorship in Academia
While I was sitting out on my friend’s back porch the other day, I knew I had struck gold. The two of us were deep in conversation about my recent…
Books, Film & Reading
Good Company
When the school year ends, I always feel a bit bereft. I love the academic cycle, the fresh starts each fall and again with each term (small…
Teaching
Taking A Risk: Teaching Slavery & Race to Students 50+ Yrs Old in the US South
I’ve just finished teaching what has been one of my most thought-provoking and soul-stirring classes this spring: a class on comparative slavery &…
Life & Self-Care
An Introduction and Becoming the Wave
ALOHA readers of Smart Women Write! I am overjoyed to have the opportunity to connect with you and to write with a remarkable group of ladies on a…
PhD & Post-Ac
Woman on a Mission: My Search for Community in an Academic Gig Economy
The trajectory of my career has been driven by the firm belief that access to education in the arts should not be a luxury and my pursuit of this…
Books, Film & Reading
An Introduction and Leisure Reading as Self-Care
HELLO, readers of Smart Women Write! I am delighted to be a part of this amazing team of writers and excited to share pieces of my life and work…
Teaching
Teacher As Student: Resources
Five weeks. Just five weeks from now, my students will pack up their bags, drop off their laptops at the Help Desk, and clear out from campus for…
Art & Public History
3D Printing & The Digital Humanities
This semester, Vanderbilt’s new makerspace and center for innovation, the Wond’ry, approached us at the Slave Societies Digital Archive (SSDA)…
The Writer's Life
Introducing: Raquelle Bostow
I’m so incredibly pleased to introduce to you the newest member of team SWW! Raquelle Bostow is a truly dangerous woman who has experience as…
Life & Self-Care
The Spaces In Between
There are life-changing moments, and there are life-changing moments. There are the ways you hold those life-changing moments in your memory: that…
The Writer's Life
Choosing Your Next Writing Project
I’m pretty young, and already I have more projects ideas than I will be able to write in this lifetime.
The Writer's Life
On trying not to lose sight of pursuits well-loved
I’m going through a dry spell right now: books sit next to my bed, unopened, and my ebook readers are chock full of titles I’ve planned to get to…
The Writer's Life
Where History is Alive
Actually, I’m not sorry. I’m late with my post because I am on the beautiful Caribbean island of Sint Eustatius for work, and it is so…
PhD & Post-Ac
The Long Twinge of Grief of the Left-Behind
In his novel Paper Towns , author-historian-vlogger-nerdfighter-extraordinaire John Green writes that “It is so hard to leave—until you leave.
PhD & Post-Ac
Looking Out For Yourself in the Academic Gig Economy
Note: want to write with us? See this post and apply by March 10! When you have a salaried academic job, your tasks could fall roughly into two…
Art & Public History
Learning St. Louis
Note: want to write with us? See this post and apply by March 10! The bus bumped slowly through the sprawling shopping complex, squeezing past…
The Writer's Life
A Final Post: Reflections and Thanks to Smart Women Write
Today I am writing to announce that I will no longer be writing regular posts for Smart Women Write. This was a really tough decision to make.
Teaching
The End of Time, and Regeneration
The new year is barely underway, but one major part of my life this school year is about to come to a close: my 20th century world history course.
Art & Public History
Creation & Curation: The Fort Negley Oral History Archive
How a Vanderbilt working group began filming descendants of the builders and USCT defenders of Nashville’s Fort Negley to create an open-access…