2020 has been rough for us all. So when my husband and I set down to our two person Thanksgiving dinner last night, I really had to think about what I was thankful for. I ended up focusing on big picture things: we have a roof over our heads, good food, and one another. And we’ve been lucky that none of our immediate family members have been diagnosed with COVID-19.
But it got me thinking about what to be thankful for in my academic life as well. It’s been a tough year. Not as many job postings for full-time positions, journal articles delayed for various (but logical) reasons, conferences canceled, and the biggest of them all for me: not meeting my students face to face.
So what exactly do I have to be thankful for, academically speaking? Well, upon reflection, quite a few things:
1. Losing my part-time retail job due to COVID gave me time. It gave me time to research. It gave me time to write. And it gave me time to edit. And now I have an article ready to submit in the next couple of weeks. I wouldn’t have had that time in the “Before Times.”
2. At the end of the spring semester we had a department gathering in the English department. It usually takes place on a Thursday when I can’t always get to the city, so I don’t usually go. This spring it was held online in a virtual setting. As a result of that I heard about my colleague Shelly Eversley was the new interim chair for the Black and Latinx Studies Department. So I reached out to her to get involved in one way or another in the department. She ended up hiring me to teach a summer class and a fall class in the department. And in 2021 I will be teaching all three of my courses in Black and Latinx Studies. This is a big move and one I am very excited about.
3. My podcast went through some changes, and while it was tough for a bit, it gave me the opportunity to meet and work with a great number of people who have now appeared on Why Do We Read This?. I have had guests ranging from my sisters, my husband, and my best friend, to fellow English professors, podcast hosts, and online fans of the podcast. This has helped me see the literature I cover in so many different perspectives and I’m here for it!
4. I bonded with a fantastic group of Academic Fangirls. We meet once weekly via Zoom for 2-3 hours just to write. Well. Mostly to write. We also catch up with one another and check in with each other about our writing, our schedules, and our lives in general. And we geek out over shared fandom feels. It’s a nice way to blend friendship with productivity. And, we’ve got a project in the works. I can’t say much about it quite yet, but I hope to share more soon. This is something that never would have happened without the circumstances of 2020.
So while, yeah, this year has been… let’s just say, not the greatest. There are things I was able to come up with to be thankful for – even in my academic life. I still miss teaching in person and seeing colleagues face to face, but it hasn’t been all bad, and for that I’m feeling thankful.
