Wednesday, March 12, 2008

From Boilermaker to Bruin: The Journey Begins

It's official: as of July 1, I will be a Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow in Jewish American Literature at UCLA. The teaching load is extremely light, and I will have ample time and resources for research.

But, more importantly, I will have warm weather. I've had my fill of Midwestern winters. A couple of weeks ago, as a matter of fact, I slipped on the ice while carrying my little dog. When we fell, I crushed pretty much every bone in his little foot. Now, post-surgery, I will be taking care of him for the next six weeks. He's my little invalid.

We both look forward to the impending move back to Southern California. I don't want to live in a place where ice forms on the ground--very dangerous. This week is spring break, here at Purdue, and the weather was typical for this time a year: snow showers and highs of 35 degrees.

6 comments:

Unknown said...

Wow, mazal tov! What fantastic news! So will you get a chance to work on turning diss. into a book, or move onto other things? How exciting!

Monica said...

Yes, that is my first order of business--to turn the diss into a book!! Definitely exciting, but now the pressure is on...

Insignificant Wrangler said...

Congrats Monica- is it a one year or multi year post-doc (i.e., how long until you have to hit the market again?) What will you be teaching?

Meg and I are also looking forward to a warmer climate, as are our recently neglected dogs.

Monica said...

It's a 2-year postdoc, so fortunately I don't have to go on the market again this fall. I'll be teaching one class in Jewish American literature (during one quarter), and then one other class during another quarter of my own design. Haven't decided what to do yet...

Crazy--it seems that all of us Purdue folks are heading toward warmer weather. Thank G-d...

Anonymous said...

welcome back to cali....

Monica said...

Thanks, Mykel :)