Stanford University Press Blog

Pushing the Bully off Your Shoulder

Author of How to be Sort of Happy in Law School Offers Seven Ways to Beat Imposter Syndrome

KATHRYNE M. YOUNG

CC0 via Pixabay

I have something in common with Kristen Bell, Maya Angelou, Tom Hanks, and Sonia Sotomayor.  Or perhaps I should say, I have someone in common.  He sits on our shoulder and whispers little insults: “You are so clueless.”  “Everyone can tell you’re out of place.”  His name is Imposter Syndrome, and he’s a real bully. 

He hung out with me every day when I was a law student.  I couldn’t speak in class or talk to a professor without his incessant yammering.  And even now, he shows up: in faculty meetings, at conferences, or when I’m about to speak to a big group.  “What are you even doing here?” he hisses.  Writing about him in How to Be Sort of Happy in Law School was a little helpful, actually—it turns out, he hates the spotlight. 

Alisa Lebow on Filming Revolution

Stanford University Press Digital Projects is proud to present a glimpse into the making of our newest project,  Filming Revolution. Alisa Lebow speaks to the wisdom, effort, curation, and collaboration that went into this project.

ALISA LEBOW

Filming Revolution in action.

Over thirty filmmakers, archivists, activists, and artists were interviewed for Filming Revolution in two research trips to Cairo, the first in December 2013, the second in May and June 2014. The first set of interviews occurred just after a long and arduous military curfew was lifted, part of the state of emergency declared after President Mohamed Morsi was deposed and approximately one thousand of his Muslim Brotherhood followers were massacred by the army in Rabaa Al-Adawiya Square in August 2013. The second set of interviews was conducted during the election and inauguration of President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi. In both cases, the spirits of most of the people interviewed were low in relation to the political scene but less so in relation to the creative arena. As we’ve seen in Egypt and elsewhere, revolution is not a singular event, nor does it happen in a matter of days. It is an ongoing process that tends to be monitored in political terms but has many other facets. Even as the political classes work to reconsolidate their power, on the cultural level the power of creativity should not be underestimated.