Quick-how-things-are update
I haven't been updating here much lately, which is usually a sign of not doing much work! But actually I've been pretty productive:
In January, I got some lecturing work for this semester, which starts on the 23rd of this month. I'm doing six consecutive Fridays until 30th March, teaching qualitative methods to second year degree students, and critical social psychology to graduate diploma students. I'm preparing for this by going to see M lecture tomorrow, and by doing one of her lectures next week. So that's going to be taking up a lot of my time over the next couple of months, and I'm not going to expect much, if anything, of myself in terms of research progress. It's going to be really useful though, both in terms of forcing me to do some structured reading, and in terms of experience/CV stuff. And I think it will also be really good for me to get into uni more often, will help me feel more part of things I think, and more connected to other PhDers.
I also talked with C about a video booth project for BiFest next month, which will hopefully produce some useful stuff for the community as well as acting as a pilot for some of my stuff.
I listened back to the tapes from my pilot sessions in Nov, and did some thinking, and I've been really inspired by Alison Rooke's work, which is taking me in some interesting new 'everyday' directions.
I had a really useful supervision with M last week, which was great in terms of setting targets and priorities. Basically the plan is as follows- concentrate on lecturing in Feb and March, with a detour via the video booth project. Work up further pilot projects for BiFest in May and the bi activists weekend in June, and BiCon, and while doing this, start to plan a very very draft-with-lots-of-holes-in-it methodology chapter, to be written for the end of the summer, perhaps along with a similarly tentative lit review, and use these as foundation for fieldwork later in the year.
So, I feel like I have direction and purpose in what I'm doing, and I'm into it, and this is good. I'm a bit nervous of the lecturing, especially the grad dip stuff, as i) they're postgrads and ii) I don't know much about some of what I'm lecturing on, but M and P and fellow student A are all being very reassuring about It All Being Fine, and I'm sure it will be. I think I'll feel a lot better once I've done a lecture or two. It's like going back to school after the summer used to be- every year I'd be convinced I didn't know how to teach, but as soon as I walked into my first lesson, I'd be fine.
In January, I got some lecturing work for this semester, which starts on the 23rd of this month. I'm doing six consecutive Fridays until 30th March, teaching qualitative methods to second year degree students, and critical social psychology to graduate diploma students. I'm preparing for this by going to see M lecture tomorrow, and by doing one of her lectures next week. So that's going to be taking up a lot of my time over the next couple of months, and I'm not going to expect much, if anything, of myself in terms of research progress. It's going to be really useful though, both in terms of forcing me to do some structured reading, and in terms of experience/CV stuff. And I think it will also be really good for me to get into uni more often, will help me feel more part of things I think, and more connected to other PhDers.
I also talked with C about a video booth project for BiFest next month, which will hopefully produce some useful stuff for the community as well as acting as a pilot for some of my stuff.
I listened back to the tapes from my pilot sessions in Nov, and did some thinking, and I've been really inspired by Alison Rooke's work, which is taking me in some interesting new 'everyday' directions.
I had a really useful supervision with M last week, which was great in terms of setting targets and priorities. Basically the plan is as follows- concentrate on lecturing in Feb and March, with a detour via the video booth project. Work up further pilot projects for BiFest in May and the bi activists weekend in June, and BiCon, and while doing this, start to plan a very very draft-with-lots-of-holes-in-it methodology chapter, to be written for the end of the summer, perhaps along with a similarly tentative lit review, and use these as foundation for fieldwork later in the year.
So, I feel like I have direction and purpose in what I'm doing, and I'm into it, and this is good. I'm a bit nervous of the lecturing, especially the grad dip stuff, as i) they're postgrads and ii) I don't know much about some of what I'm lecturing on, but M and P and fellow student A are all being very reassuring about It All Being Fine, and I'm sure it will be. I think I'll feel a lot better once I've done a lecture or two. It's like going back to school after the summer used to be- every year I'd be convinced I didn't know how to teach, but as soon as I walked into my first lesson, I'd be fine.