Posts by: Emily VanBuren

7 Apps for Cataloguing Your Home Library

By On June 13, 2014 · Leave a Comment

Emily VanBuren is a PhD student in history at Northwestern University. You can find her on Twitter at @emilydvb or at her blog, dighistorienne.

Summer is just around the corner, and I’ve been drawing up a list of all the things I’d like to accomplish before next academic year. It’s a […]

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Open Thread: Should You Blog Your Dissertation Research?

By On May 23, 2014 · Leave a Comment

Emily VanBuren is a PhD student in history at Northwestern University. You can find her on Twitter at @emilydvb or at her blog, dighistorienne.

I’m wrapping up the second year of my PhD in history, and it’s been a big one. This year, I figured out what I’m writing my dissertation about. […]

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Taking It One Step at a Time: Breaking Apart Big Tasks

By On April 2, 2014 · Leave a Comment

Emily VanBuren is a PhD student in History at Northwestern University. You can find her on Twitter at @emilydvb or at her blog, dighistorienne.

Three different people, completely unbeknownst to one another, wisely pointed me toward the same book back when I first started graduate school: Anne Lamott’s Bird […]

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Eight Noise Apps to Battle Distraction

By On March 28, 2014 · Leave a Comment

Emily VanBuren is a PhD student in History at Northwestern University. You can find her on Twitter at @emilydvb or at her blog, dighistorienne.

I’ll just get it out there: I’m a complete grump when it comes to noise in the library. I mean, I’m a really unreasonable, hypercritical, expects-too-much-of-others curmudgeon. My […]

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5 Strategies for Organizing Notes for Comprehensive Exams

By On February 19, 2014 · Leave a Comment

Emily VanBuren is  PhD student in History at Northwestern University. You can find her on Twitter at @emilydvb or at her blog, dighistorienne.

Preparing for comprehensive examinations is daunting. There is no way around it. Here at GradHacker, we’ve featured tips regarding studying for comps, tackling the written exam format, […]

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Photo of "L" shaped desk with chair.

7 Tips for Creating a Home Workspace

By On November 18, 2013 · Leave a Comment

Today marks the first day of our “Share your Workspace” GradHacker photo contest. From now until Nov 21st (11:59 pm EST) you can submit photos of your workspace(s) to win one of five fabulous prize packages from our sponsors. Winners are selected based on number of public votes, so be sure to share your workspace […]

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Building a Research Database with DEVONthink Pro Office

By On October 2, 2013 · Leave a Comment

Emily VanBuren is a PhD student in History at Northwestern University. You can find her on Twitter at @emilydvb or at her blog, dighistorienne.

My name is Emily, and I’m an evidence hoarder. Really. I’m an historian by trade, and like many other researchers, I have a tendency to accumulate messy […]

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7 Tips on Being Interdisciplinary; Or, Learning from John Watson and Sherlock Holmes

By On September 23, 2013 · Leave a Comment

Emily VanBuren is a PhD student in History at Northwestern University. You can find her on Twitter at @emilydvb or at her blog, dighistorienne.

In Arthur Conan Doyle’s A Study in Scarlet (1887), John Watson meets Sherlock Holmes for the first time and struggles to figure out what it […]

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Five Reasons Why a Sense of Humor is Crucial to Grad School Success

By On August 7, 2013 · Leave a Comment

Emily VanBuren is a PhD student in History at Northwestern University. You can find her on Twitter at @emilydvb or at her blog, dighistorienne.

When you first start graduate school, it seems like everyone has a piece of helpful advice to impart: Don’t procrastinate. Take your vitamins. Make an […]

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