This is a bit of a personal post, musing about my future because I’d appreciate some advice from you wizened lot.
Originally I wanted to wrap up my undergrad studies in early this school year (I attend a university with quarters rather than semesters), but I’ve decided to graduate in Spring 2007. Then I’ll finally receive the BA degree I designed in my beloved creative writing, gender studies, and science fiction. This will give me time to get minors in anthropology and English literature. Part of my reason for my delay is because I got two jobs on campus (writing for the Associated Students paper and teaching seminars to freshman in the same program I went through) and must be a student to participate in these jobs (plus I’m super excited about them). I’m also afraid of heading out into the big bad world, and I love school and can’t imagine anywhere else I’d rather be right now.
Because I love school, I want to keep going with it. I thought about staying in school longer and getting a double major in anth or English, but I think I’m ready for something harder. I want to go to grad school, preferably beginning in Fall of 2007. I eventually want to get my doctorate, maybe be a professor when I grow up.
I’d really like to work with virtual worlds–MMORPGs in particular–and posthuman theory from a feminist perspective. Edward Castronova and Nick Yee meet N. Katherine Hayles and Donna Haraway. I don’t even know what department that would fit under! Nothing interests me more, although English lit (specifically SF/F & cybernetic fiction like House of Leaves or Gravity’s Rainbow), feminist theory, cultural anthropology, creative writing, and of course video game theory are in there, too.
So, where does a feminist cyborg begin looking for the right schools? Of course, there is that GRE business to study for, too. Please, beloved readers, tell me what to do!
Cross-posted on NG+.
I’m not familiar with many schools, only the one I went to, University of Iowa. MMORPGs could fall under Cinema & Comparative Studies there, I think. I managed to have a paper tying a video game into a narrative theory class (that professor noted other grad students were doing projects on games too), and took a class on US film and “cinematic TV,” so there are plenty of professors who are pretty open. Rob Latham is a great professor on SF lit (he had a great New Wave SF class that had a nice and informative section for feminist SF fiction), and the UoI library has a pretty extensive collection of fanzines now. The creative writing department, as is well-known, is top notch. So there’s my biased plug. 😛
Good luck in your search!
With your mix of interests I think you definitely have to check out the University of California at Santa Cruz, especially UCSC’s program in the History of Consciousness.. From the web site:
I’m currently in the Master of Arts in Liberal Studies program at the University of Missouri Kansas City. It’s sort of a design-your-own curriculum kind of thing, and I’m using it for cartooning and comics, so I’m sure you could make a case for gaming. The program also feeds into an interdisciplinary PhD for those who are interested. Also, it’s comparatively inexpensive to live in Kansas City, so you won’t have to feel like you have to be constantly working in non-school jobs just to survive, to the detriment of your studies.
Information on the MALS program is available at http://www.umkc.edu/umkc/catalog/html/as/lbrl%2Dst/
If you’ve got a little math or computer science, look at Janet Murray’s CV. She’s the author of Hamlet on the Holodeck, and the second smartest person I’ve ever met. I can’t find a current university affiliation for the smartest, Tom Meyer, of WAXWEB fame, but it’s worth a little search time.