Gretchen Ellefson is currently finishing up her PhD at Northwestern University, and will be starting a new position as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Languages and Philosophy at Southern Utah University in the Fall of 2019. She likes thinking about language as a social phenomenon and what social and political constraints govern communicative exchanges.
What are you working on right now?
My dissertation! I’m finishing up the last chapter of my dissertation (it actually falls in the middle, but it’s the last one I need to finish), in which I consider how views of shared agency can shed light on the normativity involved in conversations and, in particular, conversational contexts.
What do you like to do outside of work?
I like to cook, bake, and garden. There is nothing like working with your hands to get my mind off of philosophy and remember that the world is filled with things outside of my head!
What would your childhood self say if someone told you that you would grow up to be a philosopher?
“I didn’t know that was an option but it checks out.”
What are your goals and aspirations outside of work?
I have two primary goals and aspirations: 1) to have a well-balanced life that includes leisure, and 2) to do meaningful activism and advocacy work to make the world a better place.
I have not been in the profession all that long, compared with many people, but already I have seen that academic work has a way of taking over all of your life. I did some labor organizing of grad student workers during my time in grad school, and I was struck by how many people whose work directly touches on issues of labor, class, and political systems were so overtaken by their work they had no time left to actually do the political and activist work that their academic work should directly entail that one ought to do. To be clear, I am not innocent of this — I have done much less in the way of activism and political organizing than I would like. But I have come to realize that this job is a job. An extremely cool one, and one that I care deeply about and put a huge amount of myself into, but it’s still a job. I need a life outside of this job, and that is surprisingly difficult to do! So as I begin a new position, I am hoping I can make some time for myself and some time for the political causes that I care deeply about.
What’s your top tip for APA members reading this?
I’m just finishing grad school, so I now have a head full of thoughts about grad school that I’d like to share, so I’m going to direct my response at graduate student members. I’m also going to cheat a little and give a short list of things to make grad school more manageable instead of one top tip:
It’s okay. Everyone feels this way. Maybe not everyone, but a lot of people. You’re not weird.
Talk about it. Find some fellow grad students who you connect with—they can be in other departments, they can be at other schools, but it’s really great if they can be in your department—and talk regularly about what is great and what is horrible in grad school.
CONSIDER THERAPY EVEN IF YOU THINK YOU DON’T NEED IT. I have no diagnosed mental illness, and I don’t think I need a diagnosis. As a relatively mentally healthy graduate student, I benefited hugely from going to therapy during grad school. It helped me work through my school-related insecurities and frustrations, and it was an opportunity to give myself time and space to process through all of the other stuff that I consistently ignored because all of my mental energy was spent on philosophy.
Please, for God’s sake, do not keep avoiding writing That Cool Thing You’ve Been Thinking About For a Year But Don’t Have Time For Because You’re Writing Your Dissertation (Which You Don’t Like Very Much). I spent two years trying to write a dissertation that just did not work for me. The whole time, I had this paper that I REALLY wanted to write that I put on the back burner because I felt like I wasn’t making enough progress on my dissertation. Turns out when you’re really excited about something, it’s much easier to write, and it can pretty naturally grow into a larger project. Working on that paper gave rise to the dissertation I’m now finishing.
This section of the APA Blog is designed to get to know our fellow philosophers a little better. We’re including profiles of APA members that spotlight what captures their interest not only inside the office, but also outside of it. We’d love for you to be a part of it, so please contact us via the interview nomination form here to nominate yourself or a friend.
Dr. Sabrina D. MisirHiralall is an editor at the Blog of the APA who currently teaches philosophy, religion, and education courses solely online for Montclair State University, Three Rivers Community College, and St. John’s University.
Talking always helps. If we all did it therapists would be out of a job. Rock on Gretchen. And tend to that garden.
I love this. Thanks for your advice to grad students — it applies to faculty as well!