Grad School Propaganda
Read my thesis!
Happy 2026! I launched Why’s World four years ago on this day in 2021. In my first post, I wrote about how I wanted to use this newsletter to share what I was reading, watching, and listening to. Nearly 70 newsletters later, I think I have done that and then some. Although my posting schedule has slowed down over the last two years, I still love coming back to this blog, or my “column,” as I think of it in my head.
I spent most of 2025 finishing my Master’s degree in Media Studies. Moment of brutal honesty: doing an MA was not my first choice. In 2022, I applied to do an MFA in Creative Writing and was rejected from the only program I applied to (L O L). I applied to the same MFA program the next year, only to be rejected AGAIN (L O L O L). But this time, I had the foresight to apply to a backup MA program, the only place where I received an acceptance.
Although it wasn’t the exact program I envisioned myself in, I had an amazing time in grad school. Even though I wasn’t doing an MFA, I still learned how to read more critically, write more convincingly, and strengthen my research skills. I gained amazing opportunities, like a research internship and presenting my thesis at a national conference in my field. Plus, the government of Canada gave me a significant amount of money to do it (still cannot believe this).
Although I did not leave the program with a manuscript of a novel or short story collection, I did come out of it with something equally cool: a thesis! Titled “AI Goes to Hollywood: Artificial Intelligence in the 2023 WGA and SAG-AFTRA Strikes,” this project takes the most recent Hollywood strikes as a jumping-off point to tell the story of how technological shifts have informed labour actions by screenwriters and actors for nearly a century. While the tone is more academic than my writing for this newsletter, it’s still a great read for anyone interested in the history of film and television. You can now read it here.
In 2026, I hope to finish a non-fiction book proposal, write a short story or two for fun, and keep sharing all of my pop culture favourites on Substack.
Thank you to anyone who has read and supported my writing over the years. You can keep up with me by responding to this email, or by following me on Letterboxd, Goodreads, and Instagram (although I am trying to be on the latter much less often this year in an attempt to Repair my Brain).