Hello everyone and happy New Year! I am still working very hard on my novel and making progress on it, although progress in recent months has been slower than I had hoped. Despite being focused on writing my novel, I have also been working on a few drafts of posts for this blog, which I will hopefully post in the not-too-distant future.
I am also now waiting to hear back from the PhD programs that I applied to. Although it is still very early, the Graduate Group in Ancient History at Penn has already asked to interview me for their program. This is an encouraging sign, but it doesn’t necessarily mean that I will get into that program (or any other program), since they have invited me for an interview both previous times I’ve applied and I have not received an offer of admission either time. So far, I have not heard anything from any of the other programs.
You only need one acceptance…and you certainly deserve it.
Best of luck on the novel and the applications Spencer!!
I may have commented before about this, but I’ve been on several hiring and approval boards at universities for MA, PhD, and Dean candidates. Many of these programs really want to see production and results, i.e., what can you do for them? They also like to see an enrollment history of different universities, but not too many. It’s very business-minded, which I’ve found to be unfortunate. Sometimes, your best option is to enroll at a program that you like but for a second Masters or as a Student-At-Large, or even another Bachelors. You then get to know the staff and they get to know you, and you can work on getting some publications out there as well as building your academic credentials. I’m not sure what your publication history is though, other than the blog, but most of these programs want to see something tangible and that is often your major competition: people that have more publications than you. So, while I hope this round works for you, you might want to look into lesser programs now so you’re not waiting another year – assuming you try again. Student-At-Large programs are designed partially for this purpose. I’ve done that myself to great success!
I’ll read that novel once it’s published!
What are your post drafts about? Of course it’ll be great to see you post again (besides updates) after so long.
Wishing you all the best in your life’s journey! You have a rare talent and I hope it gets its chance to shine.
Hello, it’s Alex Mann from Quora if you remember me. I had a quick tidbit I think you’d be interested to hear. I am not sure how to make contact but I’d love to fill you in. As one of the best historians to write on Quora, it’s some juicy information you’d enjoy knowing. alexmann152@gmail.com– I’d email you but don’t know how. As proof- check my Quora bio.
Miss you on Quora but I enjoy reading your content here.
Quora doesn’t deserve them.
By the way, Spencer, your “Image Information” page (https://talesoftimesforgotten.com/image-information/) still hasn’t acknowledged the change of the header image from a painting of Zeus to a mosaic of Odysseus.
Although this has nothing to do with the content of the post, I wanted to congratulate you on a couple of your posts that I just read—they were very educational for me. One of the articles I read was about “race” in Greece and the Roman Empire, so I also wanted to commend you for the patience you show in addressing certain topics. Especially in these times of rising racism and the strengthening of conservative cultural wars, where discussing these issues without being a white supremacist earns you a direct pass to being labeled “woke” or “politically correct.” It’s a shame that spaces like those in that post get filled with racist fools.
greetings from colombia.
Thank you so much! I really appreciate your positive feedback! It makes me feel good to know that other people are finding my posts educational and useful. The article you reference here is one I wrote a long time ago and I would probably write it a bit differently today, but I would keep the general thrust of it the same.
What do you plan for your next few non-update posts here to be about?
I am currently working on a review post about the film The Return, which I finally managed to watch last month. I meant to publish that post a few weeks ago, but I haven’t finished it yet. I also have a post about the shift that has taken place in online classics communities over the past decade that I’ve worked on on-and-off recently and I have a bunch of other draft posts I’ve started writing in the past year that are in various stages of incompletion.
I’ve been slow on finishing those posts partly because I’ve been busy with other things and have mainly focused on the novel, which is currently around 80,000 words. It is progressing slower than I initially hoped, but I have the story definitively worked out and the first roughly 50,000 words or so are pretty well polished. I’ve done a lot of rewriting, reworking, and revising. I’m really pleased with how the story is turning out and I think it will be a very good story when it is finished; it is just taking longer than I hoped it would.
I also have good news, which is that I have received my first ever offer of admission to a PhD program! The main reason why I haven’t posted an update about it yet is because I don’t know if I will have funding yet, so I am trying not to get overly excited. I let myself get prematurely excited last year and ended up being disappointed, so I’ve told myself that, this year, I won’t celebrate until I have an actual funding letter in hand.
What are those other draft posts about?
Hi Spencer, I came across your site while searching for images of the Muse statues excavated at Thessaloniki. I was wondering if you have any more images of the Muses besides the one in your blog post from 2023. I know it’s a long shot, but if you have any handy, I’d greatly appreciate it!