Advising corner

On this page, I'm collecting resources and documents I've put together over the years to advise both undergraduate and graduate students in their journeys at the university.

If you are a prospective graduate student, please reach out to me to discuss your interest. I'm particularly interested to work with students to work on West African agrarian change or environmental politics, with the potential to collaborate on projects. The CSU Sociology department has a robust group of environmental sociologists and scholars of food and agriculture and we offer both MA and PhD programs. Our program does not admit students to work with a single advisor, but admits students into the program as a whole based on their fit with the department.

Research proposals and grants

The best resource I've come across on research proposals is Michael Watts' brilliant essay: "In Search of the Holy Grail: Projects, Proposals and Research Design, But Mostly about Why Writing a Dissertation Proposal is So Difficult." Find it here: https://sigi2016blog.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/wattsmichael-insearchoftheholygrail-2.pdfFind For grant writing to support dissertation research, start doing your research early. Talk to advisors and do research to f

Tips for grad school work-life balance

Jessie’s Tips on Time Management and Work-Life Balance in Grad School First of all, all of this advice is subjective, based on my own experience. And I could do a better job myself of following all of this. But I wanted to share these thoughts on how to survive and thrive in graduate school. Of course, many other factors can make or break grad school experiences, from the realities of grad student poverty (due to horrifically low stipends paid in many social science programs,

College advice for undergrads

Jessie’s tips for college students: Often, students arrive at university and are expected to quickly adapt. There’s a lot to figure out, from passing classes and making friends to setting up a new life. I want to offer a few thoughts on how to do well in college classes. I recommend you ask many of your professors for advice on this. Since most professors spent eons going to school, we’ve learned a few things about how to do well at it. So in this post, I will give: Some