Diss-Stress

It is Monday, May 3, 2021.

The end of the university semester doth approach. The familiar rituals of thesis defenses, final exams, piles of grading, and graduation regalia have already begun to season my social media feed.

I have a lot of academic friends.

I have been in graduate school, this round, since August of 2009. 2009! It will be 12 years this fall. I made great progress through the PhD program. Coursework. Seminars. Teaching Internship. Exams. All of that was done by 2013, when I proposed my dissertation to the Department of English Studies at Illinois State University.

I am Gina Cooke, A.B.D.