First Year Perspectives and Advice from IRT Alumni

We asked recent scholars in the IRT 2023 Cohort to share their experiences during their first year in graduate school. Here’s what they had to say…



Hi! My name is Sarah Brokenborough, and I just wrapped up my first year in the joint PhD program in Art History and Latin American Studies at Tulane University in New Orleans. I moved to New Orleans right after finishing my MA in the History of Art in London. I thought I had a pretty solid idea of what I wanted my PhD dissertation to look like. But over the past year, my coursework has really broadened my research interests. I presented at four conferences, an on-campus symposium, and even travelled to Berlin to present at a workshop at the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science. Connecting with other PhD students and faculty helped me see how my interdisciplinary research fits into ongoing conversations in the field. Tulane has been incredibly supportive. My two home departments provided several travel and research grants. 

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