Tag Archives: graduate school

Part 1: Why the Jews and Perché Venezia?

07 Friday Oct 2016

Posted by in School and Work

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So, as usual, I didn’t get to follow the schedule I’d planned for starting this new series because life and that paper chaseee. But here we are now. Ok, this first post will mostly be a background about why this Catholic, Army-brat from Georgia became interested in Judaica studies (didn’t even know that was a thing until 2011) and how a seminar paper from 2012 became a thesis chapter in 2013 and has impacted my life more than I could have ever fathomed. This initial post is more about me than about Jews in Venice (if that’s all you’re here for, just wait for part two-there will be no personal stuff in that one), but I will link to my original paper and the L.A. Times article about the same topic from last year. Part 2 will be an updated summary of my paper/thesis chapter with some new material and commentary.

I am going to start by saying I knew NOTHING about Judaism. Zero. Zilch. Nada. I knew Hitler killed millions of “the Jews” in the Holocaust, that Jews didn’t believe in Jesus, and that they didn’t eat pork, but that was the extent of it. I know about Christianity because that’s the religion my parents are and therefore how I was raised (mom’s Baptist non-denominational and my dad is a non-practicing Catholic). I know about Islam because I had several Muslim friends (see also: hung out with an Imam’s son in the back of his coffee shop after school for a few weeks my Junior year) in Tulsa and I became more curious about that religion when my dad was deployed to Iraq. I’ve learned about Christianity in Sunday School since I was 3 years old and I learned about Islam through independent study, friends, and a couple of university classes. But guess what? In all my travels and all the moves, I had not ever met a Jewish person-to my knowledge.

Circa 2006 or 2007, I went to Alabama with my mom and we had lunch with her uncle. He knew I was interested in history and gave me a jump drive with our family tree on it. He was an amateur genealogist and had traced my mother’s, father’s, mother’s family tree. I never looked at the jump drive, but he passed away in the Summer of 2011 and I thought I’d better check it out. I opened up the document and to my surprise, he traced the family back to the 15th century in Bassano del Grappa, Italy! After some Googling, I saw that research had been done by other people who thought the family were exiled Jews from Spain or Portugal. I obviously thought it was cool, but didn’t really dig any further. When I started graduate school in 2011, I took a class about Venetian History and learned about the ghettos and a little bit about the Jewish population there. A new student arrived the following Fall and we became friends-it turned out she was Jewish. It just so happens that I signed up for a History of the Reformation class with her and the professor was Jewish too (hold on to your shorts, this will get trippy in a little bit). We had to come up with a paper topic and since I always tried to piggy-back my research paper’s off one another, I thought I would expand upon research I’d already done about Jews in Venice.

**Grad School pro-tip: I highly suggest finding a broad topic you like before you start graduate school and using that to guide all of your seminar papers. It turns out my broad topics were Italian Politics and Judaism. I went to two universities and took 25+ classes and was able to spider-web my papers and expand upon a few core topics each semester. (Obviously, I took unrelated courses like Carribbean History and Russian Cinema for which I wasn’t able to research anything related to these topics, but you get what I mean.) If I ever got nervous about using my own prior work, I’d just cite myself and link to my paper on Google Docs, but as far as I know there is no academic dishonesty in this approach and it will cut down your workload tremendously because you’ll be familiar with a group of sources and have already researched a topic that you can just expand or reframe in your next class.**

As a result, I wrote a seminar paper entitled: Jewish Life in Early Modern Venice: Migration, Segregation, and the Economic Necessity of Jews in Venice. I worked really hard on this paper and was proud of it. (SN: This paper contains the least amount of passive voice I could possibly use-so if you have issues reading things written in passive voice you best skidaddle on out of here now…also, this was my first real seminar paper, so excuse the errors and also realize I am NOT AN EXPERT of Judaica-sorry in advance). After some issues with my thesis committee and topic, in 2013, I decided to build upon this paper and some research I’d done about Venice in another course. This paper became a chapter in my thesis (I wrote more about it during my trip to Italy in 2014) and I got into the Ph.D. program at UNT shortly afterward. I left UNT, I had this chunck of research/writing, and a tangential connection to some family history. So, that’s the end of it, right? Nope.

In 2014, I went to Italy and got to visit all the places I’d talked about in my thesis. From the place the first Venetian settlers came from, to the town where my family came from, all the way to the Jewish ghetto itself! Later that year when I got to New York, I quickly found a job in Riverdale, an affluent-and largely Jewish-suburb in the Bronx. I began working for a family as a companion to a lady with Alzheimer’s. I soon found out that her daughter-in-law was from Fort Worth, Texas. The following year, upon meeting her in-laws, I asked them if they knew the Jewish professor who was on my thesis committee (not just because he was Jewish-I’m not that redneck-but because I knew he was an active member of the Jewish community in North Texas) and helped guide my research. It turns out my new bosses’ in-laws were very well aquainted with that professor I took the class with way back in 2012. Then, early this year, I logged into Facebook and had several notifications. 3 or 4 friends that knew about my seminar paper and thesis had linked me to the L.A. Times artilce about the history of Jews in Venice! I found out shortly afterward that I wasn’t accepted into a Ph.D. program, so I really thought that was the end of all this history stuff, but it turns out I wasn’t quiteee done.

As part of my job, I go to a Jewish Senior Center multiple times a week and earlier this year I met a member of the senior center who is an Afghani-Sephardic Jew from Israel. We became close friends, and in the past 6 months my research about Judaism has increased ten-fold (peep my IG if you’d like to see my interactions with the Jewish community in the Bronx). While I’ve branched out beyond Venice, I am still finding new sources which connect to my thesis!

So, a family tree given to me in Alabama in 2007 and viewed in 2011, led to a seminar paper in Denton, Texas in 2012, and a thesis chapter in 2013. An application to a Ph.D. program using this chapter as a writing sample brought me to New York City in 2014, where I found a job with a connection to two Jewish families in Fort Worth, Texas and the Bronx, New York. This new job led me to a Jewish Senior Center and a new friend from Israel, who just so happens to be an expert in the field of Judaica. Here I am, 4 years after writing that first paper and just last week I found yet another connection between Venice and “the Jews”…

*Next up: Let’s talk about the modern day divides within Judaism and the history of Jews in Venice/their importance to the Venetian economy!

*Probably next weekend…

The Grad School Struggle was Real…

21 Wednesday Sep 2016

Posted by in School and Work

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So, I’m annoyed, y’all.

First, let me tell you a lil’ story. I grew up in Georgia and Hawaii. Two states with a rich history of separatism/self-determination movements (Georgia in the Civil War, obviously, and Hawaii after the overthrow of Queen Lili’uokalani). Growing up in these two states (and with my mom’s family being from Alabama), I was well versed in the idea that people often do not feel represented/enfranchised under the rule of national governments. I remember seeing Mililani Trask on Oceanic public access programming and realizing there were many people in the United States that wanted self-determination and did not particularly feel like a national government satisfied that need. Fast forward 10 years. I went to Spain in 2008. When I got back one of the guys who I went on the trip with changed his Facebook profile picture to the words “Sinn Fein”. I was like, what is that? I found out it’s an Irish political party that advocate(s/d) separation from the U.K. and the establishment of an independent Irish nation. So, I obviously kept researching and realized separatism and dissatisfaction with national governance is a huge issue all over the world. There are separatist political movements everywhere, even in Italy. I went to Italy for the first time in 2006 and I’ve been back three times since. I fell in love. I want to live there and plan on retiring there if I don’t get to live there in my younger years. Anyway, through my research I learned that there was an active culture of separatism in Italy-both Eurosceptic movements and movements which advocate the separation of northern Italy from southern Italy. In 2011, I was accepted to UNT for their M.A. program. I concentrated on Modern European History. I was dead set on studying post-World War II European Political History and specifically the history of regionalism and the rise of separatist, self-determination movements like the Basques, Catalans, Padanians, Irish, etc.

Well, I went into graduate school completely ignorant of the process. I didn’t know anyone that had gone to graduate school for any degree other than for early childhood education. I thought I was going to be taking classes from experts and they were going to lecture me regarding what they knew about historical events and help me explore my interests. I thought it would be several hours of fascinating lectures a week, about different geographic areas and eras and then independent study about my interests. I didn’t realize my studies would be dependent on what area the faculty focused on in their own studies and I also didn’t realize my studies and pursuit of my interests would be dependent upon the faculty’s publication schedule, sabbaticals, conference presentations, travel, etc. I also was unaware I would be expected to digest 300-600 pages of historic texts every week and churn out book reviews about topics that I was not particularly interested in or that I knew little to nothing about previously, with very little lecture time (where my auditory learners at, yo?). So, I wanted to study Contemporary (see also: post-WWII) Italian Political History and it turns out no one in my department focused on that. One professor worked on WWI and WWII Italian Military History, but that was the extent of it. My favorite professor focused on Medieval Italian history and said she could stretch to Early Modern, so that’s what I went with. After writing a really interesting seminar paper about Jews in Venice for a Reformation course (I am going to tell y’all all about it in another post soon) and taking a class about crime in Venice, I decided on Venice for my thesis. I wrote about the decline of Venice leading up to Napoleon’s takeover in 1797, including the importance and decline of the Jewish community in Venice. You can guess what that meant: no study of separatism in post-WWII Europe and no Political History outside of the context of Military History.

I got into the Ph.D. program at UNT but after a few personal issues, a lack of funding (which the University has since remedied for current Ph.D. students, thankfully), and the realization that I wasn’t going to get to study the topic I wanted to study, I left after two semesters. I applied to several other Ph.D. programs but wasn’t accepted to any of them. NYU accepted me to their M.A. program in World History so I took the plunge and moved up here. NYU had tons of classes about Contemporary Italian History and Politics and several other interesting areas like Fascism, Labor History, etc. While schedule conflicts with required courses and my job kept me from taking many of the classes I would have liked (like this kickass Italian History through Film class regarding Fascism w/Dr. Ben-Ghiat), I got to take several fascinating courses. My experience at NYU was much more rewarding in that sense. I still had to read 500+ pages a week and write book reviews about topics I didn’t care about, but I got to spend much more time on topics I liked and had many more resources for studying those topics. I will say, my time at UNT really saved me when I got to NYU! Having a firm grasp of the Habermasian Public Sphere and the importance of the Enlightenment on society and politics in Europe (I was so lucky that this was my first class in graduate school way back in 2011) as well as knowing how to “graduate read” and churn out reading responses was a godsend. My first class at NYU was a Ph.D. level course (unbeknownst to me and the other M.A. student that signed up) and I wrote an end-of-term paper about the failure of transnationalism in Europe and in Italy in particular. This paper became my Masters Essay (a mini-thesis NYU requires for History M.A. students). I took other courses about the ambiguity of the definition of Europe/European, the rise of Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy, and a seminar course about American Labor History. I wrote several papers about Italian-American Fascism, Fascism in South America, European identity, and many other interesting topics. I again applied to several Ph.D. programs before I left NYU and was not accepted to them, so that was it.

So, why am I annoyed? I got my degrees, I got to move to New York City, I have a job… Well, fast forward a few months more and guess what? Foreign Affairs, Bloomberg.com, Boingboing.net, The New York Times, and The L.A. Times have all published articles about which topics? The history of Jews in Venice, the failure of transnationalism, the coming referendum in Italy, Fascism (both the ambiguity of the definition and Italian-American Fascism), and Brexit (aka the failure of the European transnational project). All things that directly relate to or overlap with what I wanted to study or have studied and written about over the last half decade! I’m annoyed I wasn’t accepted to a Ph.D. Program since the topics I’ve written about all relate to things that are obviously publishable and would have helped advance current discourse. Please be sure to check out those articles because they are all interesting. But, now that I know my interests and ideas are valid and relevant to current discourse (one of my thesis committee members at UNT strongly disagreed, so that L.A. Times article gave me life, haha!), I want to keep writing about them, even though I am no longer a student. In the coming months, I will post links to my original papers from 2011-2016 and then summarize, fix, modify, rehash, and expand upon my theses. All of the papers relate to the current political environment in Europe and Italy specifically or historical events that I find interesting.

So, now that you know about my academic journey in graduate school, join me! Let’s talk about stuff and *things!

*1. I will write in passive voice. 2. As you’ve already noticed, I have issues with comma placement and other thangsss (Hawaii public schools for the win!) so feel free to let me know if I make a grammatical error; know that I am aware of my ignorance and the probability that I’m going to master commas or anything else is pretty slim at this point in my life. 3. I will engage in debates and appreciate corrections. 4. If you attack rather than converse that’s fine and dandy but I won’t respond. 5. These posts will not be on a schedule and I do have another travel series planned which will interrupt this one in December/January!

#40for40NYC : Closing out the Summer!

23 Wednesday Sep 2015

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So, as I wrote in the last installment, I have to extend this into the Fall because I unexpectedly ended up working two jobs and taking a class this summer, which meant I could not take any trips and I only had Sundays to do activities. Even so, I have done several more activities and have a few other things in the works, so we will get to 40 eventually! So far, there have been 4 posts: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, and Part 4 in the city. I am over 20 things now: I went to Central Park, Battery Park, Times Square, the Puerto Rican parade, the Pride parade, Tuff City Tattoos, Little Italy, the 9/11 Memorial, the New York Botanical Gardens, Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn, the Waldorf Astoria, Coney Island, Galanga Thai, Social, Lille’s, Uva, Junior’s Bakery, Emilia’s, saw some sailors during Fleet Week (even though I didn’t get to go to any events), saw Junior Brown at City Winery, Stone Street, Wave Hill gardens, Grand Central Station…

I have exhausted Arthur Avenue and Little Italy! I have been there several weekends because it is so convenient and there are so many reasonable places to eat. I’ve checked out: Emilia’s, Pasquale Rigaletto, Cafe Parisienne, Domenick’s, Artuso’s Pastry, Palombo Cafe, Bronx Beer Hall, and Blue Wave! Each of these places is worth taking a trip up to the Bronx. I still have a couple of restaurants that I need to visit (specifically, Zero Otto Nove), but I will update when I get to check them out. I am going to dedicate a whole post to the restaurants on Arthur Avenue because I don’t want to use too many restaurants as activities!

Since I last wrote, besides chillin’ on Arthur Ave, I went to my first Italian festival and visited Harlem for the first time, went to Wave Hill, went back to Coney Island, took a ride on Metro North, went to Little Ireland, and saw 3 movies!

The Italian festival and visit to Harlem was definitely the highlight. With just the cost of a metro ride to and from the Bronx and a few dollars on refreshments, I had an awesome day of fun and culture for $25!

The dancing of the giglio on Pleasant Avenue is definitely something to check out. It is hosted annually by the Giglio Society of East Harlem! According to Wikipedia the Giglio weighs three tons! It was so interesting. There was signing, eating, dancing, socializing, all in a suprisingly spiritual and prayerful environment. I thought the statue would be lifted and walked from its resting place to the Church of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel just once. Little did I know, it would be “danced” up and down the route many, many times, with each lift being dedicated to a certain person! It was such a fun thing to see and the mood was wonderful with people coming into the neighborhood that grew up there, but had since moved away. There are dozens of booths with games, coffee, drinks, Italian foods and desserts! Obviously, to keep it below $40 you’ll have to pay attention, but I got a small bag of pastries, a drink, and espresso, for around $15!

   
    
   
   

After the parade I went with a group to Patsy’s Pizzeria for a late lunch. It is a little costly if you go in and sit down and have a full meal, but there is a window out front where you can buy pizza by the slice for super cheap! Going to the parade and having a slice or two will give you an ENTIRE day of fun and a meal for around $25!

I work and live in the Bronx, so Wave Hill was kind of a cheat activity. I’ve been several times this summer. I have a friend that is a member, so I used their guest pass, but entry is only $8 on regular days!

It’s a gorgeous, historic location to watch the Hudson River, picnic, get some sun, look at some pretty flowers, and just relax in the Bronx! There is a cafe/restaurant, but I didn’t try it out. There is also a gift shop and the gardens also host numerous activities year around-which you can view on their site!

   
    
    
 I also returned to Coney Island ($10).

I took the train down, bought a drink and some chips at a bodega, got some sun on the beach and took the train back home. It is obviously INSANELY crowded during the summer, so this isn’t a great activity to do alone because you can’t swim if you have stuff to leave on the beach, but it was stilll nice to get outside and people watch!

  
Metro-North is also a bit of a cheat activity, but then again, if you like trains and scenic views (or if you have children that like trains), I highly suggest it. There is a station close to Wave Hill too! I believe rides are at most $10 each way (depending the time you get on the train and your ultimate destination), but it is definitely worth it. I am partial to the Hudson Line to Croton-Harmon. If you want to check this out, I suggest going during the early afternoon because there are peak hours and off peak hours (which fall between rush hours) and you are charged less during off peak times! Going along the Hudson River there are nice views of nature and architecture. I’ve gotten off at a few stations and think the Yonkers station is really neat! It is totally old school, with wooden benches, a waiting room-it’s like an old movie-and you are in Yonkers so you can walk to shops or restaurants and then hop back on the train into the city! The Harlem Line is also great-there is a station called Wingdale that lets you off at the abandoned State Hospital, which is a great piece of spooky architecture! So, for around $20 you can explore the suburbs of NYC or travel hours away and really get into nature!

  
I know one of my 40 activities was going to the movies and I’ve done it…times 3…but I don’t feel like any of the movies I saw were worth rave reviews. I saw San Andreas, Trainwreck, and Southpaw. I am NOT an action flick fan, but I thought I’d check out San Andreas because a friend wanted to see it. I laughed the ENTIRE movie-I’m lucky I live up here in NYC now, because people all freely make noise during the movie. Of course, The Rock was as hot as ever, but the supporting actresses were horrible and the story is SO unrealistic. I did like that Paul Giamatti was in the film. I have a soft spot for award winning actors that act in random movies for fun (and a pay check, haha)! 

*Spoiler Alert*

The part where the boat is able to go through sharp ass debris, speed over bodies and metal, go through a building, and then his daughter is unconcious for like half an hour after drowning and then magically comes back to life had me DYING! So 2/5 for effort and sexy Dwayne Johnson!

Trainwreck was meh too…sorry, not sorry…I was SO excited because I havevn’t seen a good comedy in forever, but I wasn’t impressed. I LOVED Bill Hader and his character-he was by far the best part-and I did like the other story lines with Lebron and the father, but I didn’t think the movie was very funny, at all…3/5 for casting/production budget!

Finally, I saw Southpaw. While this was the best of the three, it was still underwhelming and lackluster. Cinematography and casting were GREAT, but the writing and pacing were NO good. Rachel McAdams, 50 Cent, and Forrest Whitaker’s characters had like zero development even though they were major parts of the plot. It was also extremely predictable! If you’ve seen one boxing movie, you’ve seen this one.

*Spoiler Alert*

McAdams and the character Hoppy each had two or three scenes before they were killed off! I am so confused why you would have two characters that are supposed to have such important impacts on the main characaters of the film and really move the story foward, yet writers give like 5 minutes to develop said characters. Makes zero sense. The production was good, not excellent, but good. I did notice that it was produced by Chinese companies, which I haven’t seen before. That was interesting and did have an influence on the film (especially the fight scenes), but I would love to know why this particular film was a Chinese-Hollywood coproduction. 3/5  for casting and production once again.

I was really hoping to see a movie like Foxcatcher that would inspire a great review, but I didn’t. I have high hopes for Black Mass, so check back in a few weeks!

Lastly, I’ve been to Little Ireland in Woodlawn several times. There are tons of pubs and restaurants to check out and it is definitely a cultural experience. I thought there were no more native Irish communities in NYC (I thought they all disappeared last century), but I guess with the economic downturn in Ireland a lot of young Irish people have immigrated to Woodlawn. Accents and beer! An old lady also gave me a bunch of free Catholic swag when I was up there! Definitely worth a train and Uber ride north to see an old/new side of New York history!

   
   
I’ve started back to school, but I am back down to working 4 days a week, so I have some more time to explore. I am going to a big concert in October and am currently looking for 10 or 15 more activities! I will write another installment after my concert! Talk to you guys then!

10-Step, 10-Ingredient, Chicken (or Vegan) Thai Fusion for $2.55!

19 Friday Sep 2014

Posted by in Food, Personal and Fun

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The following recipe makes 8 servings at <$2.55 a piece!

Ingredients

All ingredients are organic, and vegan (excluding the chicken)!

  • 1 Pack 365 Everyday Value brand Spaghetti: $1.25
  • 2 Organic Chicken Breasts (omit or substitute for vegan/vegetarian recipe): $5.50
  • 1/2 Container Baby Bella Mushrooms: $1.50
  • 1 Container Baby Corn (fresh, not pickled): $4
  • 2 Cups Mixed Stir-frying Vegetables (i.e. broccoli, red bell pepper, green onions, water chestnuts, snap peas): $3
  • 1/4 Large Onion: $.35
  • 3 small cloves of garlic: $.10
  • 1-2 Tablespoons Soy Sauce: $.50-$1
  • 1 Bottle 365 Everyday Value brand Peanut Sauce: $3
  • Black Pepper: $.20
  • Red Chili Flakes: $.25
  • If you aren’t a fan of spicy flavors, omit the red chili flakes and black pepper and add roasted, unsalted cashews or peanuts for a more nutty flavor. Kaffir lime, ginger, bean sprouts, and basil are also tasty ingredients, found in many Thai dishes, that will add flavor without adding spice.

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Price: $20.25/8=$2.53 per serving!
Time: <35 minutes
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Notes
*All ingredients were purchased at Whole Foods in NYC. Prices were calculated by dividing the price by the amount/number of servings I used and rounding up. i.e. an onion costs $1.34 and I used 1/4th of it. $1.34/4=$.33 and rounded to the nearest nickel is $.35. The price of spices are very liberal estimates as I don’t have access to a scale.
*For an even cheaper version, substitute fresh ingredients for frozen and buy in bulk.

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Moving in a New York Minute aka Three Weeks of Hell: Part 2

30 Saturday Aug 2014

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I’m sure you’ve gathered by now that nothing in New York City is simple.

What I thought was a 4 day search that ended in 3 possible apartments, quickly turned in to a 3 week saga and many angry phone calls.

After my awesome day of seeing 7 apartments and applying for 3, I hit a brick wall. I can’t say why, but I do believe that the agent I was passed off to in Riverdale was not a proactive as he could have been.

With $1200 cash in his pocket and all of the required paperwork from my cosigner/guarantor and I, I don’t understand why all 7 apartments fell through.

He didn’t contact me for days and despite many texts and calls from me, I didn’t find out until the middle of the following week that I hadn’t gotten my dream apartment and the 3rd apartment in my queue was already rented. By the end of the second week, I thought I was only waiting on the second apartment. One of the other apartments I saw was still available, but it was my last-ditch option. I saw the second apartment I was waiting on listed online and I got my mom to call and ask about it and it turns out it was rented. So, after all of that previous work, two weeks later and I was literally at square one.

I panicked and started cruising site after site to find anything and everything.

I applied to a Christian dorm at the NYSUM in Queens (I highly suggest applying if you are moving to NYC-it’s only $5000 a year). I never heard back from them, but I do think it’s a good option, so check it out!

I looked on ACME Listings and found several other listings and my mom found a guy online that was renting out a room in his apartment. I called my agent at Rapid Riverdale and told him that my cosigner and I were coming back to the city and we were ready to look at as many apartments as possible and sign leases ASAP.

My mother and I rented a car, packed it up, and drove to New Jersey.

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The next morning we woke up at the crack of dawn and took the train in to New York. I had set up an appointment with another real estate agent, but the train to New York was stuck on the track for over an hour and I missed my appointment. We made our way to Rapid Riverdale and my agent took us to see an apartment. It was in Riverdale, but far from the train and $100 over my new budget and $300 to $400 over my original budget. We went back to the office to wait for another agent to take us to a few other viewings and there were signs on the front of the office advertising one bedrooms for under $1200 a month. I asked my agent and he acted as though he knew nothing about it, but asked another agent named Serin!

Serin rocked! He came into the room where my mother and I were waiting. By this time I was pissed that my agent had let 7 places slip away and that I had to find listings for us to go see, when I was paying HIM a broker fee. So, I just spoke up and told Serin that I would take anything under $1200 that I could move into immediately. Serin took my mother and I to look at a huge place in the Bronx. It was a one bedroom that could be two, in a Dominican neighborhood, and was $1175 a month. We went to see two others and I told them to put my application in for 3 of the 4 apartments we saw (we saw a janky one near Yankee Stadium). My mom was NOT happy with any of them, except the one in Riverdale, and was especially not happy about me living in the Bronx alone.

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