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Dissertation blues in a majorly cheerful key, pt. 1

Woohoooo! Current scoreboard in the Collie’s advancement to dissertation candidacy game: HRRC approval (as in: the ethics committee): a decision is promised to me by the end of the month at latest, and… Dissertation committee approval: three out of three — DONE!! :-D I’m getting very excited about this — it’s so wonderful to see…

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Proposal committee approval score: 2 out of 3! :)

Another ‘squeeeeeee!‘ moment for me this morning! I opened my email inbox to discover that my second (of three) committee members has approved my proposal — woohooo! Lots of really great suggestions and critiques too, which are both really helpful and a relief to receive — that tells me that my proposed research actually engaged…

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Proposal passed by my committee chair!

Eeeeeeee! I am SO pleased — just got the email from my dissertation committee chair that she’s passing my dissertation proposal on as acceptable! Now I can send it on to my other two committee members — and soon: ONwards to dissertation researching and writing! :-D Also extremely exciting is what the Chair wrote in…

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Field notes on disturbing ethical questions, part 2

Just as the worrying realities of Field notes on disturbing ethical questions, part 1 are starting to really register as I read, there’s a quote in the book that hits me hard: Because feminism has challenged the pose of neutrality and objectivity that for so long governed positivist social science, it has forced us to…

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Field notes on disturbing ethical questions, part 1

I’m eating lunch and reading one of my methodology books and scaring myself. It’s Feminist Research Practice: A Primer, 2nd edition. Sharlene Nagy Hesse-Biber is the editor. Don’t get me wrong — it’s an excellent book full of really well-written articles on precisely the things I should be considering in order to write a good…

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Gleeful news! :-D

Whew! Got my definition for indigenous hammered out adequately, I think — thank heavens! It’s been a pretty good couple of days so far, in fact, which makes me very happy. There’ve been a few really nice or fun things that’ve left me pretty pleased with how life is going. Admittedly, I wish I could…

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Definitional angst during the dissertation blues

Due to the subject matter of my dissertation and proposal, I’ve had to include a Glossary. Dear heavens, what a headache. Here’s my introduction to the Glossary, with reasoning: Because of the ever-changing nature of the English language, the definitions of words can be slippery to pin down. This issue is compounded when particular words…

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Finding the source of dis-ease

Butter chicken for dinner tonight — yum! It’s in the crockpot and starting to make the house smell delicious. Combined with the fact that it’s summer and my proposal deadlines are all stalled until my adviser returns from her (well-deserved) vacation, that means I find myself with a bit of writing time on my hands,…

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Happy riffing on de dissertation bluez

Just a few happy-making things today! Most pleasingly, things are progressing well, I think, with my dissertation proposal — woohoo! I’ve sent in the rough drafts of the Introduction, Methodology, and Literature Review, and received commentary back. In all the cases there’s a lot of polishing to do, of course, and a few bits where…