My Mom said this to me the other day. Seriously. I was whining and crying about my thesis. After about 5 minutes of sympathy (which is is about what you get in my family before you are told to suck it up and move on) she said:
"Seriously Shelly. Just git'er done"
Another friend recently told me that writing a thesis was just like factory work, you just pump out a product that meets the minimum standards you need it too.
Part of me hates this, I want my thesis to be perfect, and to change the world. I want my friends and family to read it and be awed by my genius. The reality is that it really is slog time and I just need to finish it, I can perfect it when I publish it. I am just plugging away. Some things I write knowing they will be completely scrapped later, but I just have to get something on the page because you can't perfect what isn't there.
Still a long way to go, but thanks Mom, I am no longer aiming for perfection, I am just trying to git'er done.
Tuesday, June 29, 2010
Saturday, February 20, 2010
Hamlet the Grad Student
Sometimes, my creativity gets the best of me and gives me a little procrastination inspiration. Here is what I think Hamlet would say if he were a grad student (a religion grad student in particular).
O, that this too too solid essay would finish
Organise and resolve itself into a thesis!
Or that the Committee had fix'd
Their canon 'gainst grad-slaughter! O God! God!
How weary, stale, flat and unprofitable,
Seem to me all the uses of this study!
Fie on't! ah fie! 'tis an unfunded research,
That grows to seed; theories rank and gross in nature
Publish it thusly. That it should come to this!
But two months to the deadline: nay, not so much, not two:
So excellent an advisor; that was, to this,
Socrates to a Plato; so harsh my editor
That he might not ignore the errs of grammar
Mark my paper too roughly. Heaven and earth!
Must I quote Orsi? why, McCutcheon would critique him,
As if increase of appetite had grown
By when it fed on free food: and yet, within a month--
Let me not think on't--Frailty, thy name is funding!--
A little month, or ere those dollars ran cold
With which I called for money from my poor father,
Like Niobe, all tears:--why he, even he denies me--
O, God! Foucault, wants discourse of knowledge,
Would have deconstructed longer--Derrida with Gramsci,
My committee’s theorists, but no more useful to my paper
Than breasts to a bull: within a month:
Ere yet the salt of most stressed-out tears
Had left the flushing in my strained eyes,
I defended. O, most wicked speed, to post-doc
With such dexterity to ambiguous questions!
It is not nor it cannot come to good:
But break, my heart; for I must get my tenure.
I also want to caveat: my thesis committee is great and very helpful, this poem reflects the expereinces of other grad students as well who have dealt with less helpful committees. I should also note, Dad would probably give me money if I cried, but then he would make fun of me for crying. I also think I get suck-up points for comparing my advisor to Socrates, even though my advisor is much smarter :D.
O, that this too too solid essay would finish
Organise and resolve itself into a thesis!
Or that the Committee had fix'd
Their canon 'gainst grad-slaughter! O God! God!
How weary, stale, flat and unprofitable,
Seem to me all the uses of this study!
Fie on't! ah fie! 'tis an unfunded research,
That grows to seed; theories rank and gross in nature
Publish it thusly. That it should come to this!
But two months to the deadline: nay, not so much, not two:
So excellent an advisor; that was, to this,
Socrates to a Plato; so harsh my editor
That he might not ignore the errs of grammar
Mark my paper too roughly. Heaven and earth!
Must I quote Orsi? why, McCutcheon would critique him,
As if increase of appetite had grown
By when it fed on free food: and yet, within a month--
Let me not think on't--Frailty, thy name is funding!--
A little month, or ere those dollars ran cold
With which I called for money from my poor father,
Like Niobe, all tears:--why he, even he denies me--
O, God! Foucault, wants discourse of knowledge,
Would have deconstructed longer--Derrida with Gramsci,
My committee’s theorists, but no more useful to my paper
Than breasts to a bull: within a month:
Ere yet the salt of most stressed-out tears
Had left the flushing in my strained eyes,
I defended. O, most wicked speed, to post-doc
With such dexterity to ambiguous questions!
It is not nor it cannot come to good:
But break, my heart; for I must get my tenure.
I also want to caveat: my thesis committee is great and very helpful, this poem reflects the expereinces of other grad students as well who have dealt with less helpful committees. I should also note, Dad would probably give me money if I cried, but then he would make fun of me for crying. I also think I get suck-up points for comparing my advisor to Socrates, even though my advisor is much smarter :D.
Thursday, February 4, 2010
Compassionate Academics
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/montreal/story/2010/02/02/que-rochefort-hearing.html#socialcomments
and
http://thestar.blogs.com/.a/6a00d8341bf8f353ef01287636a9a7970c-pi
Yes, there are douche-bags out there who want to celebrate a Marc Lepine Day.
Sometimes as an academic I put on a pair of rose coloured glasses. I spend most of my time with men who respect me intellectually and am surrounded by friends who support my choices, be they to pursue my career goals or have a family without judging me for either.
Outside of Academics though (and in some parts of it to be honest) I forget that there are still bigots out there who hate, who hate muslims, who hate women, who hate Black people, disabled people, the list goes on.
As an academic and a person who believes in higher power, I believe I have a responsibility in my research to disseminate ideas of compassion. I don't do academics for the pay (what pay?) or the glory, I do it with the hope that maybe an idea of mine will someday trickle down into common parlance, and people will think, and try just a little to learn about a group they don't understand before rushing to a judgement.
So today I salute gender studies scholars, who take the time to make us question everything we know about gender. Who make us aware of privledge. Who work to remind us that men and women aren't that different, and when we are different, that's OK, and it should never be seen as a basis for hate.
And to clear the record, I have met and studied some of the most passionate and intelligent gender scholars in the world, and while some of them are controversial, they all advocate compassion. So if I ever meet that man hating feminist women's studies proffessor who advocates killing off all men that the people commenting on the CBC article seem to be so afraid of, I will let you know. Because he she exists, she is a bigot, not the norm.
and
http://thestar.blogs.com/.a/6a00d8341bf8f353ef01287636a9a7970c-pi
Yes, there are douche-bags out there who want to celebrate a Marc Lepine Day.
Sometimes as an academic I put on a pair of rose coloured glasses. I spend most of my time with men who respect me intellectually and am surrounded by friends who support my choices, be they to pursue my career goals or have a family without judging me for either.
Outside of Academics though (and in some parts of it to be honest) I forget that there are still bigots out there who hate, who hate muslims, who hate women, who hate Black people, disabled people, the list goes on.
As an academic and a person who believes in higher power, I believe I have a responsibility in my research to disseminate ideas of compassion. I don't do academics for the pay (what pay?) or the glory, I do it with the hope that maybe an idea of mine will someday trickle down into common parlance, and people will think, and try just a little to learn about a group they don't understand before rushing to a judgement.
So today I salute gender studies scholars, who take the time to make us question everything we know about gender. Who make us aware of privledge. Who work to remind us that men and women aren't that different, and when we are different, that's OK, and it should never be seen as a basis for hate.
And to clear the record, I have met and studied some of the most passionate and intelligent gender scholars in the world, and while some of them are controversial, they all advocate compassion. So if I ever meet that man hating feminist women's studies proffessor who advocates killing off all men that the people commenting on the CBC article seem to be so afraid of, I will let you know. Because he she exists, she is a bigot, not the norm.
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