Graduate school in normal times is a stressful experience for many. A study in 2018 found 39 percent of the respondents experiencing moderate to severe symptoms of depression. This compared to 6 percent of the general population. These are not normal times--a two-year long pandemic with lockdowns, isolation, changing protocols on campuses and personal losses. Add divisive politics, racism, climate concerns, and war, and even the most optimistic among us have days we struggle. Another research study in mid-2020 at … [Read more...] about Event Announcement: Cultivating Mental Health in Grad School
graduate school
Making God a Priority In Grad School: How to Avoid the Spiritual Comb Over
As we enter the truly frenetic part of the semester, ESN writer Scott Santibanez shares a humorous and wise reflection on making time for God in grad school. Browse Scott's other work for ESN here. Biographical Note: Tito Scott Santibañez is a slightly balding adjunct professor at Emory University. As a volunteer physician, he has provided medical care for underserved populations for nearly 25 years. He also has a doctorate from seminary. … [Read more...] about Making God a Priority In Grad School: How to Avoid the Spiritual Comb Over
How Did You Do It? Faith and My Dissertation
Last fall, I defended my Ph.D. dissertation, and in May I attended my graduation at Virginia Tech's Blacksburg campus. My studies were challenging, especially since I was changing my discipline, from engineering to Science and Technology Studies (STS), which is built around a core of history, sociology, and philosophy. Fortunately, I had some advantages as a “non-traditional” student. First, I was accustomed to research and writing after a long, successful career as an engineer. Second, my STS interests ran deep. And … [Read more...] about How Did You Do It? Faith and My Dissertation
Encountering God in the Liminality of Graduate School, Part 2
In the first part of a two-part reflection, Scott Santibanez shared some theological reflections on the liminal space of graduate school. In Part 2, he shares some of his own story. It was 1991, during the summer between my first and second years of medical school. I was in the basement of a Christian clinic in Times Square. The clinic provided free medical care for homeless people in New York City. I was filling up a tub with warm soapy water so one of our homeless clients could soak his feet. And I loved doing … [Read more...] about Encountering God in the Liminality of Graduate School, Part 2
Encountering God in the Liminality of Graduate School, Part 1
I once had a seminary professor who liked to talk about something he called liminality. The term comes from the Latin word limens, which means “threshold.” Liminal space is a place of transition, of waiting and not knowing. People who are in liminal space exist in the threshold between their previous life and a new one. “It is the doorway or portal between statuses,” anthropologist Jack David Eller writes, “the road that links the origin and destination.”[1] With its years of training and preparation, graduate school … [Read more...] about Encountering God in the Liminality of Graduate School, Part 1