Hello, again. Since I wrapped up Breaking ABD in October 2020, a fair bit has happened. Indeed, a fair bit was already happening over the couple months between defending and filing my dissertation and my final post. I’ve had to scan over those final few posts to remind myself where I left things. A bit […]

The conventional place to put “thank you’s” in a dissertation or academic book is at the beginning, and the usual title is “acknowledgements.” Since this is a blog—more of an ad hoc work-in-progress than a premeditated product—the end will have to suffice. And, since I have always intended it to be less formal and more […]

I began this blog four and a half years ago with the intention of both shedding some light on what the lives of people writing their dissertations looked like and chronicling my own progress toward the PhD. The underlying premise throughout has been that writing a dissertation entails a lot more than sitting at a […]

One of the most basic skills of academic research is choosing a topic. It’s something you learn early (even in middle school) and practice often, but it can remain a challenge, even after you’ve supposedly mastered it several times over. Over the course of grad school, I learned that this has a lot to do […]

With the dissertation completed, I’m going to wind up the blog with some posts looking back and reflecting on the ABD journey. I’m starting this last leg with a systematic re-counting of what the timeline for writing the dissertation looked like. This isn’t a how-to post, but I’ll include some general observations at the end […]

I have now defended by dissertation (successfully) and have filed it with the university’s dissertation office. The ABD journey is at an end. But what comes next? In terms of the intellectual project that the dissertation represents, this really isn’t the end but the beginning of a new phase. My plan, which is the norm […]

If you’ve followed this blog for some time or are otherwise in-the-know, then you are aware that the ‘ABD’ in the title stands for “All But Dissertation.” This glorious designation is conferred on doctoral students who have completed their preliminary requirements and “only” have to finish the dissertation in order to earn that much better-recognized […]

For me, one of the most memorable parts of the first-year paper that all students in my program have to write was a footnote that appeared on page two of my final draft. My paper was on Jinan’s history during the 1850s and 1860s, specifically the organization of defenses against invasions by different rebel groups. […]

Probably the biggest struggle of preparing job documents has been working out how to explain my dissertation succinctly and compellingly to readers who, in many cases, have very little knowledge about Chinese history. I’ve also had to confront how terms or ideas that are familiar to me can be stumbling blocks when readers encounter them […]

One of the more grueling and dispiriting parts of the job application process last year was “tailoring” cover letters for specific applications. Some general rules, like length and formatting (2 pages, single-spaced) apply to all cover letters, and there are some sections you can reuse across applications. However, writing an effective cover letter requires you […]