Working “holidays” and the double-bind of academia — Last week I was in Zürich, Switzerland for a small academic conference. Academics often travel during the summer holidays for conferences, where they present their current research and hear presentations from other scholars in their field. The conference circuit is an essential part of academia. Many PhD programs consider delivering…

Maybe things would be easier if I could channel “bitch” — I’m standing in a train station in Italy. I’ve just gotten off a four hour train after an eight-hour flight and I am exhausted. …

A person who attracts bad luck wherever they go — From German “Pech” (“bad luck”) and “Vogel” (“bird”), ein Pechvogel is a truly unlucky person: a human jinx: a walking disaster. In 2015, I received a scholarship from the Deutsche Akademischer Austausch Dienst (DAAD) to study German in Munich. I’ve always been lucky when it comes to applications: in those…

Why would I be offended that they think I’m trans? — My sixth-grade bully, Angela, thought the most hurtful name she could call me was “man hands.” For weeks, Angela tortured me with snide remarks about my “manly” hands, how I “manhandled” everything I touched, and how I was big and clumsy, and unfeminine. This was one of the first times…

Babysitting for a divorcing couple should come with hazard pay — When I was seventeen years old, I started working for a young mom, Mandy, with a two-year-old son. Mandy and little Ethan lived in a Bungalow on Sunnylea Drive, right around the corner from my childhood home. Mandy’s husband Jeff worked for an oil company out in Alberta and was…

Spring Essay Writing Contest response — a memory — It was the long weekend: May 24th. I remember the date distinctly. We had a neighbourhood barbeque every year to celebrate Victoria Day, with fireworks in the evening set off from the centre of the cul-de-sac. It was a quiet street. Young families settled there, grew up, moved on when…

An announcement and an explanation — In 2015, my first novel, Out of Order, was published with Dreamspinner Press. It was a NaNoWriMo novel, meaning it was written in just one month — November 2012. It’s hard to believe that was over ten years ago now. I was 17 years old. I revised the hell out…

A review of adulthood — sort of — I am writing this on my 28th birthday. When I turned 27, I made this TikTok: Not much has changed since then, if I’m honest. I mean, I did recently submit my doctoral thesis. Now I’m in this post-submission limbo, waiting for my viva examination. With graduation (hopefully!) looming…

Everything they say is a bad-faith argument — I recently came across an article that nearly made me roll my eyes out of my head. I don’t want to give it more oxygen, so I won’t link it here. The title reads: “This is Why I Will Never Take Feminism Seriously.” …

A Life Milestone Update — Being a “student” has been part of my core identity for most of my life. For the last four-and-a-half years, my social media bios have all proclaimed me to be a proud postgraduate student at Trinity College Dublin. Before that, it said Brock University Student for five years. …

When I was 12, I made 3 fake Facebook profiles that could have gotten me into serious trouble — Content warnings: catfishing, suicide, internet predators, child sexual abuse material Picture this: The year is 2007. My family has dial-up internet and I have to ask permission to use the family computer, which runs on Windows 95. It takes three minutes to connect. …

I’m on a boat aaand, it’s going fast aaand… — As part of my partner’s Ph.D. program, he has to spend three months abroad interning at two labs in Sweden. Though I am also rapidly nearing the end of my own Ph.D. program (ABD!), …

It’s more like a pet than an appliance, really — Humans are hard-wired to find anything cute. Even things that don’t have a face can light up those centers of our brains that go “Awww.” My Roomba is a black disk that makes an unreasonable amount of noise as it shimmies across my floor, missing every visible dirty area. …

I’m struggling with insomnia, but I’m taking steps to sleep better — For the past few months, I’ve been on a journey to increase the quality of my sleep. I have always struggled with insomnia, but as I get older I have come to realize that getting enough (and good-quality) sleep is vital to both my health and my productivity. …

What does it mean to be part of a generation? — In late 2019, I started teaching in an Irish high school. At 24, I didn’t feel all that different from the 13-year-olds I was mentoring at first, but it soon became clear that we were very different. My references went over their heads — even to what I thought were…

If this is what my natural period is like, I’m pissed off! — Catch up on Part 1 (side-effects) and Part 2 (cravings). I was on the birth control pill from the age of 10 until just before I turned 27 this past March. When I reached menarche at just nine years old, I experienced a host of debilitating PMS/PMM symptoms that necessitated…

After 17 years, I’m meeting the woman I am without hormonal contraception — for the first time — Missed Part 1? Read it here. I am now a little more than one month off the birth control pill, after having taken oral contraceptives near-continuously for seventeen years. …

Yes, autistic adults have sex lives — we’re not children! — It took me a while to discover and come to terms with the fact that I am autistic. Autism is criminally underdiagnosed in girls, leading to women getting diagnosed later in life, if ever. …

An old wives’ tale steeped in fact — When I was twelve, I began to lactate from my right breast. I could also feel a lump, perhaps the size of a marble, just under my nipple. I made an appointment with my doctor, who recommended I switch to another birth control pill immediately. I was taking Yasmin, a…

When it comes to sexual harassment, assault, and abuses of power in academia, we need to name, shame and kick ’em to the curb — In 2017, just after having presented a paper at my first academic conference, I was cornered in a dark stairwell, alone, with a man’s crotch an inch from my face, and had masturbation explained to me in graphic detail. For over a year, I questioned the validity of my discomfort…