English Department Releases Newsletter For Graduate Students

The Utah State University English Department has released its first issue of In Medias Res: A Newsletter By, For and About Graduate Students as Professionals.  The newsletter is designed to help graduate students enter professional academic life and is available through the department’s Web site.

 

In Medias Res is Latin for “in the middle of things” — which reflects a graduate student’s role in academics and the newsletter, said associate professor of English Evelyn Funda, faculty director of the newsletter.

 

After conducting a survey of current Utah State graduate students, In Medias Res was developed to help students with their main concerns of graduate school. The newsletter includes different sections on how to become published, demystifying graduate school and writing curriculum vitae.

 

“The newsletter is part of the department’s effort to mentor graduates in direct and formalized ways in their pre-professional lives by giving them first-hand experience,” said Funda.

 

Forthcoming issues of In Medias Res will be written primarily by current Utah State graduate students, to allow students to get experience with an “in-house” publication.

 

“I remember at the end of my Ph.D. dissertation defense meeting I jokingly asked the members of my graduate committee if this was the point at which they would show me the ‘secret handshake’ of academia,” said Funda. “They laughed, said ‘sure, sure,’ and then promptly adjourned the meeting — without offering any insight into the nuances of a scholarly life.”

 

Funda said the newsletter is an attempt to offer all graduate students not any coded handshakes, but rather, a clear map for navigating the tricky waters of a professional scholarly life.

 

For more information on In Medias Res, including how to participate in future issues, call (435) 797-3858.