[PDF] Download ¸ Grace Period: A Memoir in Pieces | by ↠ Kelly J. Baker

By Kelly J. Baker | Comments: ( 616 ) | Date: ( Dec 10, 2019 )

How do you build a life after failed dreams and missed opportunities Kelly J Baker finished her PhD in religion and imagined that she would end up in the tenure track job for which she trained She had done everything right written a provocative and well researched book, given presentations at national conferences, published articles, and created and taught a number ofHow do you build a life after failed dreams and missed opportunities Kelly J Baker finished her PhD in religion and imagined that she would end up in the tenure track job for which she trained She had done everything right written a provocative and well researched book, given presentations at national conferences, published articles, and created and taught a number of popular classes Doing everything right, however, doesn t guarantee anything if the career you trained for is no longer sustainable The economic depression in 2008 gutted the job market for tenure track jobs in the humanities, so she couldn t find her dream job and worked instead as an adjunct and later a full time lecturer But after five years of job rejections and a new baby on the way, she decided to take a year off to figure out if the career she trained for was actually the life she wanted Grace Period A Memoir in Pieces are the essays that she wrote to make sense of how her life went off track Expanding on her popular Chronicle Vitae column of the same name, she documents her transition out of academia and the emotional turmoil of rebuilding a life beyond what she had prepared for Instead of telling an easy story about her exit from the academy into a brand new post academic career, Baker resists smoothing over the hard reality of transitions, the importance of waiting and anticipation, and the realization that the lives we imagine for ourselves are tenuous at best and often are impossible to achieve.

  • Title: Grace Period: A Memoir in Pieces
  • Author: Kelly J. Baker
  • ISBN: null
  • Page: 293
  • Format: Kindle Edition

About Author:

Kelly J. Baker

Kelly is the author of Gospel According to the Klan The KKK s Appeal to Protestant America, 1915 1930, The Zombies Are Coming The Realities of the Zombie Apocalypse in American Culture, Grace Period A Memoir in Pieces, and Sexism Ed Essays on Gender and Labor in Academia.She s also the editor of Women in Higher Education, a feminist print monthly, and a freelance writer with a religious studies PhD who covers religion, higher education, gender, labor, motherhood, and popular culture She s written for The New York Times, The Atlantic, Killing the Buddha, The Rumpus, Sacred Matters, Chronicle Vitae, Religion Politics, Washington Post, and Brain, Child When she s not writing assignments or wrangling two children, she s writing a cultural history of zombie apocalypses and making her way toward a collection of essays about endings and other disasters.

Comments Grace Period: A Memoir in Pieces

  • Book Riot Community

    Have you ever had a plan for your life not go the way you had hoped? Have you spent weeks or months or maybe a decade with a particular future in mind, only to have that future fail to happen, leaving you unmoored and lost and unsure what to do? Kelly J. Baker has. And even though I know it’s painful (been there!), I can’t help but see a big upside in her case: this lovely book. In a series of vivid and beautiful essays, Baker uses her changing relationship to academia to reflect on “grace [...]

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  • E.P.

    I read many of Kelly Baker's essays about her transition away from academia on Vitae when they first came out, so of course I had to read them all when they were published as a collection. In "Grace Period," Baker chronicles her--frequently bitter, angry, and desperate--transition out of academia to the alt-ac world.It's hard to explain academia, like war, to those who haven't experienced it. For those who've never been on the front lines or in the trenches, the intensity, the desperation, and t [...]

    Reply
  • Titus Hjelm

    I was an admirer of Kelly's work when she was still in academia. Although acquaintances at best, her decision to leave made me see how privileged I happened to be. These essays trace that process of letting go ('grace period'), but also paint a vivid picture of the struggle of settling into a new life as a full time writer. It's a courageous thing to let go of something that you've not only invested time and money in, but that is something you love. It's an even more courageous thing to write ab [...]

    Reply
  • Herb

    I'm not a fan of the assembled-blog book as a genre, but this one is interesting primarily because it really is a sequential, slow motion understanding of how one's career never develops. The least interesting essays are sort of a wallowing, a tell-don't-show exposition of "I'm so tired" or "I'm trying to have some gumption even when I don't feel like it." But the most interesting are about specific interactions with specific people over specific projects, in which we can see how dubious she's b [...]

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  • Richard Newton

    I hate the title "Quit Lit," and it's a misnomer for what this book is. Grace Period's a travel narrative through the strange world of the academy and the even more haunting world of our own memories. Baker made the inspired choice to record her trip without having a sense of the destination and mind, and she's left the junctures of the journey for us to come to appreciate just as she has done. When I think of the subtitle, I can't help but think of the shards of a mirror. Baker is by no means b [...]

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  • Margy Levine Young

    An emotionally no-holds-barred journey of Baker's changing narrative of her own lifePeople talk a lot about how the stories of lives change from generation to generation. Here's an eloquent window into Baker's construction of a new narrative of herself independent of the received trajectory of the "successful" academic. But it's not just trading one tidy narrative for another. It's about abandoning a tidy narrative for the rich ambiguity and complexity of 21st century life. Sure, one could tell [...]

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  • Katie

    Baker writes that 'Optimism is a hard habit to kick,' but in GRACE PERIOD, she shows readers how to move on from work that's done them wrong with thoughtfulness, and yes, with grace. A dynamic, meditative book for anyone who has changed careers or contemplated doing so.

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  • Mare

    A wonderful memoir in which the author documents her journey from graduate student to academic job candidate, to contingent faculty, to independent scholar. So good I read it in one sitting

    Reply
  • Shannon

    Sometimes shows it's roots as a collection of blog posts but it's otherwise a good look into the post academic life

    Reply
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  • [PDF] Download ¸ Grace Period: A Memoir in Pieces | by ↠ Kelly J. Baker
    293 Kelly J. Baker
  • thumbnail Title: [PDF] Download ¸ Grace Period: A Memoir in Pieces | by ↠ Kelly J. Baker
    Posted by:Kelly J. Baker
    Published :2019-09-20T04:43:11+00:00