For Graduate Students
I am interested in working with PhD students in the following areas: the environmental humanities, animal studies, science studies, gender studies, new materialism, cultural studies, multicultural American literatures, environmental film, literature, and theory. My research areas are here.
My office hours for Spring 2012: Tuesdays12:30-2:30 and Thursdays 12:30-1:00 and 5:00-6:00. And by appointment. Please email for appointment. [Note: sometimes I will need to be in meetings or dissertation defenses during those times.]
Current students: check your UTA email for information! Please use my official UTA email address for all inquiries regarding current courses or letters of recommendation: alaimo@uta.edu. Please do not use Facebook for anything "business" related.
Spring 2012
The Hermanns Lectures, focusing on Animal Studies and the Posthumanities, will be held Friday March 30th, 2012. Students enrolled in my Animal Studies graduate seminar will have the opportunity to hear some of the leading scholars in the field of animal studies and the environmental humanities. Confirmed speakers include: Allison Hunter, Peggy McCracken, and Cary Wolfe, and Neill Matheson. For more information click here!
Graduate seminar: English 6370: Topics in Literature and Environment: Animal Studies. Thursdays: 6-8:50.
This course will introduce the most significant and compelling questions in the emerging interdisciplinary field of Animal Studies by way of theory, literature, film, and art. We will read essential works of philosophy, theory and cultural studies along with a wide range of literature, including "young adult" novels, science fiction, poetry, and novels that take animal perspectives seriously. Readings will include: Linda Kalof and Amy Fitzgerald, The Animals Reader: The Essential Classic and Contemporary Writings; Donna Haraway, Primate Visions: Gender, Race and Nature in the World of Modern Science; Jacques Derrida, The Animal that Therefore I am; Cary Wolfe, What is Posthumanism?; Nicole Shukin, Animal Capital: Rendering Life in Biopolitical Times; Anna Sewell, Black Beauty; Jack London, Call of the Wild; Herman Melville, Moby Dick; Les Murray, Translations from the Natural World; Barbara Gowdy, The White Bone; Eva Hornung, Dog Boy; Philip K. Dick, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? Margaret Atwood, Oryx and Crake; Becoming Animal, Contemporary Art in the Animal Kingdom,ed. Nato Thompson. Students will have the opportunity to attend the Hermanns lectures and hear Allison Hunter, Peggy McCracken, Cary Wolfe, and Neill Matheson speak on animal studies! (We will cancel one class period to compensate for attendance at the Hermanns lectures.)
"Introducting Feminist Materialisms" I taught an intensive doctororal course at the InterGender research school, TEMA, Linkoping, Sweden, with Nina Lykke and Cecilia Asberg, Fall 2012. Click here for more information. I also spoke in the Posthumanities Hub.(For other talks, scroll to the bottom of my home page.)
For students interested in sustainability and environmentalism:
For a wealth of information about sustainability on university and college campuses see the AASHE (Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education) website. You may wish to consider a career in the growing field of sustainability or other environmentally-orented jobs. See Orion's Green Jobs page.
For more information about academic programs, events, and other opportunities to get involved in sustainability and environmentalism at UTA click here for the Mavericks Go Green web pages.
If you are teaching classes related to sustainability or environmentalism, please be sure to tell the Director of the Environmental and Sustainability Studies (ESS) minor so your courses can be considered for inclusion in the minor.
Graduate students interested in the environmental humanities should consider attending the following academic conferences: ASLE (Association for the Study of Literature and Environment), SLSA (Society for Literature, Science, and the Arts), and the newly formed AESS (Association for the Study of Environmental Studies and Sciences). The MLA usually includes panels devoted to literature and environment as well as to science and literature. Graduate students should also read ISLE: Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature and Environment, Green Letters, Configurations, the Journal of Ecocriticism, as well as other journal articles and books pertaining to the environmental humanities. ASLE has a grad student blog here and a FB page here.
UTA graduate students and teaching assistants should check with the University Sustainability Committee and the Office of Graduate Studies for fellowships, research, and teaching support related to environmental studies and sustainability. UTA graduate students interested in Critical Theory should contact Dr. Ben Agger and ask to be included on the Center for Theory mailing list, which will keep you informed of talks and other theory-related events on campus.
Writing and citation resources for all students:
- UTA Writing Center; Take advantage of this resource!
- MLA Formatting: Purdue Online Writing Lab
- Remember that the MLA Bibliography should be your first research resource.
- If you'd like to work on your writing, I would highly recommend Richard Lanham's book Revising Prose.
Graduate students working with me: please remember to include an email address and a home address on every thing that you give me. If you are handing in revised versions of a thesis or dissertation chapter be sure to include a summary of the comments you received from all your committee members as well as a detailed summary of the revisions that you made, noting page numbers. Please include a table of contents of the entire dissertation along with every chapter you submit. Always include page numbers and a bibliography with everything you hand in. Be sure to allow at least two weeks for your committee to read a dissertation chapter, three weeks for an MA thesis, and at least a month for an entire dissertation. When planning your defense remember that you will need time to make required revisions before you defend--do not schedule things too tightly. [Check the graduate school for official deadlines!] Electronic copies are preferable, since they save paper.
Letters of recommendation: be sure to use Interfolio or a similar dossier service. Please allow at least three weeks for someone to write you a letter of recommendation. Be sure to provide a copy of your c.v., dissertation abstract, teaching portfolo and job letter with your request, along with all the information and deadlines organized in a clear, logical way. (Make it easy for people to write the best possible letter for you.). Please note that the only time I can write letters of recommendation for graduate programs, fellowships, or the national job market from September through November 15th. So plan ahead and be organized.
- Timeline for going on the national job market.
- Before going on the national job market you should have published two peer-reviewed articles in scholarly journals, presented papers at a few conferences, accomplished a bit of professional service, developed your skills and experience as a teacher, and have most of your dissertation written.
- 1.Arrange for your dissertation director, and at least one other person to watch you teach the spring before you go on the national job market.
- 2. Write your dissertation abstract, job letter, and c.v. the summer before the market and give them to as many faculty as possible to critique. Ask for and expect harsh critiques.Revise. Revise.
- 3. Polish your writing sample and develop a teaching portfolio.
- 4. Submit an organized set of materials to your letter writers by August and arrange your Interfolio account.
- 5. Study the October MLA JIL and subsequent listings, and apply for positions.
- 6. Send out dossiers and writing samples as requested.
- 7. In November, do mock interviews with faculty, preferably faculty who are not on your committee. Ask for criticism and suggestions.
- 8. Hope for MLA interviews, which happen in January (prepare like crazy if you get them.)
- 9. Prepare talks and questions for spring on-campus visits.
- 10. Keep applying for the post-MLA jobs through the spring and even the summer. [Then begin again: it usually takes a few years to obtain a tenure-stream position.]
- Also, consider applying for postdocs, NEH summer seminars, archival research grants, and other forms of support that will enhance your scholarly credentials.
All graduate students should be aware that it is extraordinarily difficult to obtain a tenure-track job as an English professor. Be sure to research the academic job market years in advance of your search, making use of the MLA, the MLA joblist, the Chronicle of Higher Education, the AAUP, and UTA faculty as sources of information about preparation for your job search, job market procedures and timelines, and the reality of the academic market. All PhD students should make realistic plans at the start of their graduate work--not at the end. No matter how driven you are to secure a tenure-stream academic position it would be prudent to formulate a back-up plan. Community college jobs are plentiful, for example, and many of them pay more than other academic positions.
Take your scholarly and professional training seriously! All PhD students should attend the Hermanns Lectures, other relevant talks at UTA, and every job talk given by job candidates coming through our department. PhD students should also plan on attending several conferences, publishing two academic articles, and joining the professional organizations in their fields. Serving on departmental and university committees, as well as taking on administrative positions, is also a good idea. Be smart and savvy about trends and hazards in higher education: become an AAUP member, read The Chronicle, and MLA's Profession.