Calvin Ho (@calvinhyj) is a PhD student in Sociology at the University of California, Los Angeles. He researches skilled labour immigration policies in Western countries. Through the Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellowship program at UCLA, he also mentors minority students planning to pursue doctorates in the humanities and social sciences.

Calvin is an avid blogger and in this post he will tell you how blogging can help you with your PhD writing. If you want to see how PhD students blog, have a look at our page of PhD blogs. Take it away Calvin!

Academics don’t often talk about how they write. By how, I mean the nitty-gritty how. Sure, you may set up your laptop in a coffee shop and open up a Word document, but how do you go from blank page to finished thesis?

One strategy is to write blog posts. Many academics are wary of…

US Secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson has extended Haiti’s designation for Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for an additional 18 months. The extended designation is effective January 23, 2016, through July 22, 2017, Caribbean News Now reports.

Current TPS Haiti beneficiaries seeking to extend their TPS status must re-register during a 60-day period that runs from August 25, 2015, through October 26, 2015. US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) encourages beneficiaries to re-register as soon as possible once the 60-day re-registration period begins. USCIS will not accept applications before August 25, 2015.

The 18-month extension also allows TPS re-registrants to apply for a new employment authorization document (EAD). Eligible TPS Haiti beneficiaries who re-register during the 60-day period and request a new EAD will receive one with an expiration date of July 22, 2017. USCIS recognizes that some re-registrants may not receive their new EADs until after their current EADs…