Kimberly Hirsh

Woohoo, I think I wrote the introduction of this article, yay me. Back to chipping away at the lit review…

Here’s me in 2018 unknowingly arguing the key finding of my dissertation: information literacy models should include creation.

🔖 Read No One Makes a Living on Patreon.

Oh hey I got so excited about becoming Dr. Hirsh that I forgot to share photos of my Data make-up test on my non-cosplay accounts. Here you go! 🖖🏻#Trekkie #StarTrek #StarTrekTNG

Y’all is Kevin Feige okay? Has he ever, you know, been outside? Somebody should probably take him to a park.

I’m playing with CSS to get spoiler-text hidden unless selected on my website. Let’s see if it works! I’m putting double pipes around it so people browsing in dark mode know where to highlight.

|| This is a spoiler. ||

Could I create a more elaborate solution to this problem? YES! But I’m not really interested in doing so.

Adam Grant’s article There’s a Name for the Blah You’re Feeling: It’s Called Languishing has been floating around different places I spend time online and Austin Kleon wrote a great response, I’m not languishing, I’m dormant.

On Kleon’s Instagram post about this, a commenter quoted Aaron Burr’s line in the Hamilton song “Wait for It”: “I am not standing still, I am lying in wait.” This was my first thought on seeing Kleon’s post about this, as well.

The definition Kleon shares of “languish” and the more clinical/sociological definition Grant cites focus on ill-feeling. Kleon says that because languishing is antithetical to flourishing and he’s not attempting to flourish, he’s not languishing.

I’m definitely in a downtime stage of life, having just pushed through what I call a “Chariot moment,” based on the Tarot card The Chariot, which is my fave and also all about the hustle. I’m in more of a Hermit place right now. I even just had a conversation with W. about possibly spending most of the month of May in PhD recovery, only applying for jobs that are AWESOME, waiting to pursue freelance gigs until I start to feel a bit better.

To me, languishing implies unused potential. I have a bunch of art supplies languishing in a closet in my house. Grant sort of hints at this meaning, but the dictionary definition and Kleon’s response certainly don’t consider it.

So I’m not languishing.

Another commenter on Kleon’s Instagram post suggested that the book Wintering: The Power of Rest and Retreat in Difficult Times is a good read for thinking through this. I just borrowed the eBook from my local library and if I enjoy it, I’ll probably buy a hardcover copy. (One of the biggest changes in my life since the start of the pandemic is that I buy way more new hardcover books and I almost always buy them from one of my local bookstores.)

I’m lying in wait. If a great opportunity comes along, I’ll pounce on it. But like a cat, I’m conserving my energy.

And like a plant, I’m not ready to come up yet.

Feel free to apply other metaphors to the same ideas.

I’ve read Katie Rose Guest Pryal’s The Freelance Academic twice now. It’s a great book. I’ve taken notes on it and highlighted all over the place but I feel like I haven’t internalized the notes. So I thought I’d blog some notes, highlights, and marginalia. This blog post is no substitute for reading the book, so if this information seems useful, be sure to check it out!

The Freelance Academic Manifesto

Originally posted on Dr. Pryal’s blog.

1. Get paid for your work.
2. Live in a place you love with people you love.
3. When you find yourself being lured back to your department for a temporary gig, remember: They’re never going to let you in the club.
4. Stop applying to academic jobs.
5. Remember that you are not alone.

Things to Do

• Read books “about how higher education has changed and how how people have dealt with these changing conditions.” p. 13
• “…read everything you can about how to start making money for the hard work you do.” p. 14
• “Take a course on how to pitch ideas to writer’s markets that pay, either through online courses or by hiring a successful freelancer friend to teach you.” p.18
• “…hire an academic career coach, who specializes in helping people transition out of the academy.” p. 18
• Finish outstanding academic commitments such as papers.
• Write your goodbye letter.
• Figure out what you’re good at by making a list of your superpowers.
• Make a list of things you’re an expert in.
  • Add topics you might want to write about.
  • “…figure out who would be interested in reading what you have to say in these areas.” p. 138
  • Some ideas: trade magazines, in-house blogging or copywriting.
  • Make a list of at least 10 story ideas so you can choose 1 to pitch.
  • After you’ve pitched and written one article, pitch a series.
• Learn about running a business.
  • “Find out what the going rates are in the private sector for what you do. Think about the rates that you should be charging, and start charging those rates. And remember, when you set your rates, you have to add 30%.” p. 123
  • Pay yourself a steady paycheck.
  • Standardize the services you offer.
  • Technology
    • email
    • data storage (hard drive/cloud)
    • laptop
    • email signature
  • Library access
    • Find out if you can use your university library with something like a community membership.
  • Online presence
    • Update social media profiles
    • Get a Facebook business page.
    • Get testimonials from clients and put them on your website and social media profiles.
  • Business cards
  • Business structure
    • Consider incorporating.
• “Hire an academic career coach.” p. 18
• Professionalize yourself as a non-academic.
• “Get your research out there, just as it is.” (p. 42)
  • Make your research publicly accessible on your own website and on “open-access repositories that are indexed on Google.” p. 39
• “Create an internet presence.” (p. 43)
  • Learn “about website design, coding, and hosting.” p. 24
  • Change your website from a CV to an online portfolio.
    • “Buy the URL (web address) that is your name.” (p. 43)
    • Create one page for your education and experience.
    • Create another page for your publications.
      • Link your publications to your repository page.
    • Add a blog.
      • Share your blog posts on social media.
      • Blog about important things.
      • Establish your areas of expertise on your blog.
      • When blogging, “Be honest and always link it to the larger trends and structural issues.” p. 32 (quoting Lee Skallerup Bessette)
    • “Put a bullet point on your website about your experience with grant writing or professional writing.” p. 117
  • Make connections on Twitter and Instagram. Network and share your scholarship.
• “Share your ideas – widely.” p. 44
  • “…put yourself in a position to engage publicly with your research.” p. 39
  • Figure out which publishing venues “are interested in which genres.” p. 44
  • “Take a course on how to pitch ideas to writer’s markets that pay, either through online courses or by hiring a successful freelancer friend to teach you.” p. 18
  • “Read the magazines you want to write for. Learn who the editors are by reading their work.” p. 45
  • “Start pitching articles in your area of expertise that are ‘pegged’ (tied) to current events.” p. 45
  • “Reach out to your freelance academic colleagues and ask for help” coming up with creative solutions to problems. Also ask your coach. p. 51
• “Build a community, whether online or off, of others who are trying to do work similar to yours.” p. 80
• “…always have a clean, up-to-date résumé ready as a safety net.” p. 174

Things to Read

• To Write or Not to Write, Kelly J. Baker
• Should Academics Write for Free?, Sarah Kendzior
• Hanging Up on a Calling, Rebecca Schuman
• Love and Other Secondhand Emotions, Jacqui Shine
• On Graduate School and “Love,” William Pannapacker
• The No Baby Penalty, Elizabeth Keenan
• The Responsibility of Adjunct Intellectuals, Corey Robin
• What’s the Point of Academic Publishing?, Sarah Kendzior
• Thesis Hatement, Rebecca Schuman
• Sexism Ed, Kelly J. Baker
• Why Everybody Loses When Someone Leaves Academe, Erin Bartram
• Instead of Gaslighting Adjuncts, We Could Help Them, Annemarie Pérez
• Don’t Fear the Résumé, Rachel Leventhal-Weiner
• The Black Boy Looks at the White Boy Norman Mailer, James Baldwin
• Student Arrested after Crawling into a Duct to Steal an Exam, Christopher Mele
• Getting to Yes: Negotiating Agreement Without Giving In, Roger Fisher and William Ury
• What is BATNA? How to Find Your Best Alternative to a Negotiated Agreement, Guhan Subramanian
• Academic Waste, Kelly J. Baker
• How the University Works, Marc Bousquet
• Build a Career Worth Having, Nathaniel Koloc
• Why Freelancers Need a Nonpayment Law, Sara Horowitz
• How to Craft a Pitch, Kelly J. Baker
• Recommended Reading and Resources starting on p. 175

People, organizations, and resources to look up

• Kelly J. Baker
• Jennifer Polk
• Beyond the Professoriate
• Rebecca Schuman
• Sarah Kendzior
• Elizabeth Keenan
• Erin Bartram
• Rachel Leventhal-Weiner
• Editorial Freelance Association (publishes The Freelancer newsletter)
• The Freelancer’s Union
• Who Pays Writers?

Highlights

Am I always tired because I’m:

A) a newly minted PhD recovering from dissertating
B) the parent of a young child
C) a person living with chronic illness
D) about to turn 40
E) all of the above

(Pretty sure the answer is E.)

It’s probably going to be a little while before I get my full dissertation up online, so I thought I’d go ahead and post my acknowledgments here.

Immediately after the graduation ceremony at which I received my MSLS in 2011, I told my advisor that I would probably be back for the PhD sometime. Six years ago, I made good on that promise. Since I started the Master’s program in 2009, Sandra has been a constant mentor, colleague, and friend. Thank you so much, for more than I have the words to say.

I would like to thank my committee for their guidance and reflections from our first meeting to discuss the topics for my comprehensive examination package until today. Your support, especially as I navigated completing a dissertation during a global pandemic, has been invaluable. Casey, your advice and friendship has made this road so much easier than it would have been otherwise. Crystle, your work quite literally inspired this work and I’m grateful to have had you on my committee offering the unique insights from your own research. Heather and Brian, your ideas and questions have strengthened this work significantly. Thank you all. Thank you to my participants for sharing your experiences and insight with me. I can’t wait to see what you’re wearing when we can all go to cons again! Thank you also to the cosplayers who attended the November 2018 Final Fantasy: Distant Worlds concert at the DPAC. You sparked the idea that led to this dissertation.

I am grateful to the UNC Graduate School, SILS, IMLS, and the NSF for supporting me financially for six years and enabling me to work on incredible research with amazing colleagues like Dr. Maggie Melo and Laura March.

I’m thankful for my improv friends, who made sure I had fun during the first year and a half of this thing and served as guinea pigs for some of my earliest research.

I am so grateful for the families and teachers I met at Nido Coworking + Childcare. You are still my village. I want to thank my parents for instilling a love of learning in me and my siblings for enduring my pedanticism. I am grateful to all of them, as well as to my in-laws, for staying with Michael so I could attend class and write. Thank you extra to Laurie, who cared for Michael during the writing stage. Without your help, I would not be graduating in 2021.

Thank you to Michael, my big kid miraculous earth angel, for making me smile, filling my heart with so much joy I often think it will explode, and for being a living reason and reminder to do things besides school. And thank you to Will, who not only made sure I had shelter and food during this whole process, but also introduced me to the world of Final Fantasy and the beautiful music of Nobuo Uematsu, without which we never would have attended the concert that inspired me to choose this dissertation topic. I was able to do this whole PhD thing because I had you to catch all the balls I dropped, to remind me that we would get through it together when I was sure I couldn’t do it, and to make me laugh.