In this workshop, Professor Rodríguez will share her strategies for completing a long-term project with graduate students and interested faculty. She will present on two specific technological tools that she has relied on to complete her last two monographs. The first is Zotero, a free database management system that can function as a searchable repository for teaching and research notes. And the second is Scrivener, a writing software that is specifically designed for longer writing projects. Scrivener is a relatively low-cost writing platform that allows all aspects of a project to live in one contained space. The structure and specific tools of Scrivener makes it a particularly powerful tool for dissertators who often struggle with trying to wrangle multiple aspects of a project whose shape is still in development. Finally, Professor Rodríguez will talk about strategies for developing a sustainable writing practice for the dissertation and beyond.

Juana María Rodríguez is the recipient of the Berkeley Outstanding Graduate Mentor Award and has led similar workshops with colleagues and students at Berkeley and on other college campuses. A Professor of Ethnic Studies, Gender and Women’s Studies, and Performance Studies at UC Berkeley, she is an award-winning author of sexual cultures, racial politics, and the many tangled expressions of Latina identity including the books Puta Life: Seeing Latinas, Working Sex (Duke UP 2023); Sexual Futures, Queer Gestures, and Other Latina Longings (NYU Press 2014); and Queer Latinidad: Identity Practices, Discursive Spaces (NYU Press, 2003).

Sponsored by Literature, History, Ethnic Studies, Critical Gender Studies, Institute for Arts and Humanities, Chicanx and Latinx Studies, and Office of the Vice Chancellor for Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion