Discussions (2)

MANY years ago, I wrote a short paper titled Advice for Graduate Students (Kuehne, 2006). One of the things I wrote was to get to know your school and to embrace new mascotts, new sports teams, etc. I still think this is true, but times surely have changed. Many graduate programs are now online and students may never step foot on the brick-and-mortar campus until graduation (if they even attend graduation). Still, getting emotionally connected to your "new" school doesn't hurt. This doesn't mean you leave your previous school(s) behind. It means you make room for another alma mater. I still root for UTSA, but I also root for FSU. I also root for my "work alma mater" (Auburn). Being invested emotionally is part of life and helps with the "from-to" transition that many of us make, often multiple times in our lives. Many may now have class through the postage-stamp lens called Zoom, but your school and your peers are not in a vacuum, neither are the friends and colleagues you find along the way. As Ignatious A. (2023) suggests on Linked In, "Join the Community." 

Ignatious. A. (2023). Top Ten Things that Every PhD Should Do at Least Once During Their Degree. Linked In.  https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/top-ten-things-every-phd-student-should-do-least-once-antony/

Kuehne, J. M. (2006). Advice to Graduate Students. Ala Breve, August/September, 22. 

You may think sitting for 8 hours on a Saturday is vital for your success, especially at the end when you're finishing those edits on the umpteenth dissertation draft... It's not. Trust the medical research (see links below for just a few examples). Get up and move. When your watch or phone prompts you, don't just waive your arm to get the prompt to disappear. Get up, walk outside, get water, get the mail, do something for 5-10 minutes that involves moving. 

• How do you keep track of your physical health?

• If you're not already doing this, what small first step could help you do this?

Medical Research Examples

Why Is Sitting so Bad for Us? > News > Yale Medicine 

Are You Sitting Too Much? | Houston Methodist On Health 

Adverse Effects of Prolonged Sitting Behavior on the General Health of Office Workers

Hazel's (2022) article shared some alarming research statistics about doctoral-level students. Over 40% of PhD students who participated (N = 3352) showed indicators for moderate to severe depression or anxiety.  Perhaps even more alarming, 33% showed indicators for suicide risk. Similarly, over 40% of their participants said they felt having mental health problems during the Ph.D. was normal. From the article, One student told us: “There is a common belief … you have to suffer for the sake of your PhD, if you aren’t anxious or suffering from impostor syndrome, then you aren’t doing it "properly”.

• What are your thoughts about this?

• What are you doing to take care of your own mental health?

Hazell, C.M., Niven, J.E., Chapman, L. et al. Nationwide assessment of the mental health of UK Doctoral Researchers. Humanit Soc Sci Commun 8, 305 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-021-00983-8

Hazel, (2022). ‘You have to suffer for your PhD’: poor mental health among doctoral researchers – new research. The Conversation. https://theconversation.com/you-have-to-suffer-for-your-phd-poor-mental-health-among-doctoral-researchers-new-research-174096 

We forget that stress can sometimes come from forgetting to do something until it's needed. Stay on top of updating your CV. When you do something that needs to be listed, take the time to add it. Even if it's not in the right format (i.e. not in "APA Style") put the content there so you can update it when you need to submit it. 

1. When you receive an acceptance to a conference -- add it immediately. Make that part of the process. 

2. When you submit a paper, add it to your "submitted for publication" list. When it's accepted, move it. When it's printed, add the date it was printed (or printed online). 

3. When you're nominated, receive an award, receive an honor, update the CV. 

4. Make it part of your daily chores (or weekly, or whatever). 

5. Faculty Handbooks or policies on creating your dossier are often included on different institutions' websites. Auburn University's faculty handbook is found here: https://www.auburn.edu/academic/provost/faculty-handbook/ 

   • If you want to see what is required for the "AU Dossier" format - go to Chapter 3.6.5 C. THIS LINK might take you directly to that place (page: "Chapter 3-63"). The CV outline starts on page: Chapter 3-64 under "Scholarly Contributions by the Candidate."

   • CVs often include your philosophy of education and your diversity, equity, and inclusion statement (though this might be a separate part of an application).

Literature Review Tools

The Auburn University Library has a page specifically for Citation Managers -- or ways to collect and organize related literature. Here are three that are popular/most used. 

• Medeley - https://www.mendeley.com/ - FREE (with more storage space for a price)

• Zotero - https://www.zotero.org/ - FREE (with more storage space for a price)

• Endnote - https://endnote.com/ - You can download the full version as an AU student (https://auburn.edu/auinstall). After you graduate... you can use the free Endnote Basic, or pay for the full version of Endnote, or perhaps your employer will foot the bill. 

Data Analysis Tools

You will need to access data analysis tools. For short term, you can log in through the AU library to access, or find ways to use free or less expensive tools. 

• Take note of the AU Library's DataSpace where you can get help with specific software.

• Access the Remote Desktop Service through the AU Library which includes access to these software titles: SPSS, NVivo, and a bunch of other stuff.

• You can also use some free or less-expensive options:

  • Qualitative

    • QualCoder - https://qualcoder.wordpress.com/how-to-use/ 

    • Qiqqa - https://jimmejardine.github.io/qiqqa-open-source-website/

    • Taguette - https://www.taguette.org/ 

  • Quantitative

    • Excel - If you're using a Windows Machine, turn on the extra statistics tools

    • AnalystSoft StatPlus - https://www.analystsoft.com/en/

      • Free version - "LE" does quite a bit and probably is worth downloading before purchase.

      • Full version is relatively inexpensive for a single $60 fee. On Windows it integrates into Excel as another "tab." On an Apple computer, it opens in a separate window, but can still be used with Excel. I've used it for MANY years and never paid again to use it. 

    • Obviously SPSS (https://www.ibm.com/products/spss-statistics) is the software many people use. Don't buy it before you ask if AU can provide it for you!

Why this topic? 

Time and time again, when people move into faculty roles, they are flying ... much like the first year of teaching, they are excited, nervous, overwhelmed by responsibilities, overwhelmed by learning policies, procedures, politics, and work-place culture. 

Which areas in our professional lives require significant attention to detail? Why?

How does this transfer to these areas?

• Courses

• Writing

• Dissertation

• Publication

One thing people who read and review others' work dislike (A LOT) is a lack of attention to large and small details. 

When people fail to do this, and fail to do it repeatedly, this implies to your colleagues that you may not care about the process, and also their time.

These people will vote to let you stay or to make you go, to publish your paper or not, so make it easy on them to find things. 

Let's look at some of the details that particularly frustrate ME (your friendly music education professor) :-)

• 3D Printing 

• Artificial Intelligence (AI) -- Things like ChatGPT, DALL:E, but in music...

  • AI Music Generator - SOUNDRAW 

  • Jukebox (openai.com) 

  • Boomy - Make Generative Music with Artificial Intelligence 

  • AIVA - The AI composing emotional soundtrack music 

• Technology and Access -- technology can move students forward and leave students behind.

• Virtual Reality Zoom-like Classrooms -- how will/do these innovations affect music consumption and music teaching?

• Ethics and Technology -- it's fair use, but a lot more. 

• Will AI take away your ability to think creatively? That is, if you rely on AI (technology) to help you "think," are you actually learning to think?

• This week's discussion: what do you do that takes you "away" from the responsibilities of work and coursework? 

• Why do you do these activities?

• How do you feel when you "come back" from these activities?

What Holds You Back as a Writer?

• Time, Organization, Fear and Freeze, Self-Doubt, Exhaustion are just a few things that get in our way as we write, or try to write.

• Discuss your limitations when you need to write, but find yourself doing any- and everything else.