Writing Your Dissertation During a Pandemic
In March 2020, I began to work on my dissertation with a defense date of May 27th, 2020. The pandemic had just hit, former President Trump was ramping up his anti-science rhetoric in full swing, protests over the horrible murder of George Floyd erupted all over Los Angeles, and I began a new teacher assistant gig teaching regression to the newest cohort of UCLA psychology graduates students, which was decidedly going to have to switch to online instruction last minute. There were sirens blaring up and down the freeway next to my apartment at all hours of the day, my phone was constantly buzzing with news updates that always seemed to chip away at emotional resources, and the students I worked with in class were struggling with crippling isolation, anxiety over world events, and trying to learn advanced material at the same time. I shadowed this experience, trying to relearn everything I had forgotten, fighting my own concerns about the state of the world, and was trying to find a way t