Ending
We didn't necessarily plan it this way, but Rachel and I apparently decided to celebrate the end of our semesters (and my first year) by eating Southern food. Last night we had blackened catfish with banana pudding for dessert, and then this morning we had country ham biscuits for breakfast. Mmm, country ham.
I've ended up the year at a very different place than I thought I would, I guess. I went in thinking I would be studying pop culture, but over the course of the year I got angry at almost everyone who studies pop culture academically and my emphasis on pop culture and politics became basically just politics. Now it looks like my thesis is going to be, on a certain level, about public opinion on budgetary matters. This all makes me feel weird given my evangelicalism about pop culture, but I think it's good. My writing about pop fits much better into a critical tradition than it does into the current academic environment. With pop culture, I was frustrated because I couldn't seem to find a place to fit in. With politics, though, I'm disagreeing with established ideas, but I'm not rejecting them entirely, plus I'm finding support from well-established scholars whose work I see myself as building on. I don't know quite why that is--maybe the nature of politics makes careful disagreement more acceptable than in cultural studies? At any rate, I feel like there's a place for me in academia given the way I study politics, but not so much given the way I study pop culture. I'm not going to stop writing about it, and there's already a certain market for my writing on that subject, which isn't the case for politics. So it's good.
Next week Rachel starts doing things again, and I will start on the various projects that got sidelined this semester. Writing and music ahoy, hooray.
I've ended up the year at a very different place than I thought I would, I guess. I went in thinking I would be studying pop culture, but over the course of the year I got angry at almost everyone who studies pop culture academically and my emphasis on pop culture and politics became basically just politics. Now it looks like my thesis is going to be, on a certain level, about public opinion on budgetary matters. This all makes me feel weird given my evangelicalism about pop culture, but I think it's good. My writing about pop fits much better into a critical tradition than it does into the current academic environment. With pop culture, I was frustrated because I couldn't seem to find a place to fit in. With politics, though, I'm disagreeing with established ideas, but I'm not rejecting them entirely, plus I'm finding support from well-established scholars whose work I see myself as building on. I don't know quite why that is--maybe the nature of politics makes careful disagreement more acceptable than in cultural studies? At any rate, I feel like there's a place for me in academia given the way I study politics, but not so much given the way I study pop culture. I'm not going to stop writing about it, and there's already a certain market for my writing on that subject, which isn't the case for politics. So it's good.
Next week Rachel starts doing things again, and I will start on the various projects that got sidelined this semester. Writing and music ahoy, hooray.