This roundtable serves as a direct continuation of "Navigating Graduate School," from last year's PAMLA conference in Palm Springs. One of the most mystifying parts of graduate school that can seem intimidating to a prospective student is what happens after your qualifying exams. You're done with coursework. You've gone through your qualifying exams. You are now considered 'All-But-Dissertation,' or ABD. What happens? While graduate handbooks will helpfully detail requirements for dissertations, prospectus meetings, etc., the experience of navigating the terrain between qualifying exams and the job market can feel abstract.

The roundtable seeks presentations from graduate students that are past the qualifying exam stage as well as early career academics (Assistant Professors, Lecturers, etc.) that can speak to life as a PhD candidate. It aims to demystify the liminal terrain of what happens while you write your dissertation. While ABD candidates will likely spend a significant amount of time on their dissertation research, there are also many other aspects of graduate life that cannot be ignored.

As this session's aim is to be capacious in scope and topic, potential proposals can address the following (and I stress, you are not limited to the topics below):

· Writing and/or planning the dissertation

· Preparing for the job market

· How does one professionalize effectively while balancing research?

· Work/life balance: what can you nourish outside of academia?

· Balancing teaching and research

· Service work: what do you get involved with?

As this is a roundtable, you are allowed to present in a roundtable even with a traditional paper acceptance! Please do not hesitate to submit an abstract. Please submit abstracts of at least 150 words to this link: https://pamla.ballastacademic.com/Home/S/19622

The deadline has been extended! All abstracts are due by June 30, 2025, or until the roundtable has enough submissions to constitute a full panel. If there are any questions, please reach out to the roundtable organizer via jmaramot@uci.edu