A Milestone Reached!
Nearly two years ago, I started thinking about a PhD on fanfiction and discourse theory. In October 2010, I officially started it, full of naive enthusiasm that I would plunge headlong into this project I had conceived, with no particular regard for - or knowledge of - what a PhD looks like and the conventions.
As of yesterday - February 2012(!!) I have actually gotten to the bit where I get to --- wait for it ---- START DOING THE RESEARCH!
First, there was the lit review. That took a good year. What with the having to know what's been done before, and the theory, and explaining why your work is different and new and your theory is a good idea. Then there was the methodology. It turns out there has to be, well, a system. That is systematic. And stuff. Then there was the ethics and review process, I already knew that I would always ask permission before quoting any fanwork, because my experience in fandom and my general ethical inclinations say it would be wrong not to, but there was a whole process with forms and obligations and stuff, including a question on whether my work would deal with 'human tissue samples'. :S. And then it turned out my uni was giving me the opportunity to teach media and journalism to undergrads, which is good because I need money to live and experience to get a full-time position someday. And so there was training, and lesson making and giving, and things happened. So it turns out there was, to put it lightly, more to this PhD business than I thought.
Nonetheless! I have a lit review. And a methodology. They are too long. At some point they will have to be reduced. Now, my plans shall come to fruition! I get to do research of....reading fanfic! :D :D :D
Okay, it's not quite that simple. Quite a lot of the fic isn't fic I would read for fun. And there's a LOT of organization, statistics, tagging, etc. BUT SOME OF IT IS WORK THAT IS AWESOME AND FUN AND TAKES ME FUN PLACES. And! I have a researcher page:
http://www.cardiff.ac.uk/jomec/contactsandpeople/phdstudents/fathallah-judith.html
I really don't think I look like myself in that picture. I normally have glasses on for one thing. But the college wanted black and white head-shots for some reason. Suitably intellectual looking, perhaps? Oh, and I've converted two other PhD students at the dept. to start watching Supernatural. Both like. One called it 'the most homoerotic thing I have ever seen in my life' at which I ROTFL.
Some say there is a downside to working academically on a text you love, but I think once you've had enough training in English lit/media studies academia, you can't really turn *off* your critical faculties. Like the fan in me can squee even whilst the academic considers a statement as problematic - I'm working on the discursive formation 'Race' at the moment which is really engaging both those lenses. (There is, however, a slight inconvenience that whenever I write 'Misha Collins' or 'Castiel' I have to restrain myself from adding the parenthesis 'I would').I can also see a silver lining to the catastrophic Fail of Megaupload, in that we have an example of how the structures of law/technology impacts fan discourse. I hope everyone backed their podfic up. I did mine, and am slowly reuploading to Mediafire. If Mediafire dies...I cry. (=
On a less professional note: LOVED this week's eppy. Now SPN, that's more like it. Hunting, brotherly bonding, LOLs, and a case. That is what I'm talking about.
As of yesterday - February 2012(!!) I have actually gotten to the bit where I get to --- wait for it ---- START DOING THE RESEARCH!
First, there was the lit review. That took a good year. What with the having to know what's been done before, and the theory, and explaining why your work is different and new and your theory is a good idea. Then there was the methodology. It turns out there has to be, well, a system. That is systematic. And stuff. Then there was the ethics and review process, I already knew that I would always ask permission before quoting any fanwork, because my experience in fandom and my general ethical inclinations say it would be wrong not to, but there was a whole process with forms and obligations and stuff, including a question on whether my work would deal with 'human tissue samples'. :S. And then it turned out my uni was giving me the opportunity to teach media and journalism to undergrads, which is good because I need money to live and experience to get a full-time position someday. And so there was training, and lesson making and giving, and things happened. So it turns out there was, to put it lightly, more to this PhD business than I thought.
Nonetheless! I have a lit review. And a methodology. They are too long. At some point they will have to be reduced. Now, my plans shall come to fruition! I get to do research of....reading fanfic! :D :D :D
Okay, it's not quite that simple. Quite a lot of the fic isn't fic I would read for fun. And there's a LOT of organization, statistics, tagging, etc. BUT SOME OF IT IS WORK THAT IS AWESOME AND FUN AND TAKES ME FUN PLACES. And! I have a researcher page:
http://www.cardiff.ac.uk/jomec/contactsandpeople/phdstudents/fathallah-judith.html
I really don't think I look like myself in that picture. I normally have glasses on for one thing. But the college wanted black and white head-shots for some reason. Suitably intellectual looking, perhaps? Oh, and I've converted two other PhD students at the dept. to start watching Supernatural. Both like. One called it 'the most homoerotic thing I have ever seen in my life' at which I ROTFL.
Some say there is a downside to working academically on a text you love, but I think once you've had enough training in English lit/media studies academia, you can't really turn *off* your critical faculties. Like the fan in me can squee even whilst the academic considers a statement as problematic - I'm working on the discursive formation 'Race' at the moment which is really engaging both those lenses. (There is, however, a slight inconvenience that whenever I write 'Misha Collins' or 'Castiel' I have to restrain myself from adding the parenthesis 'I would').I can also see a silver lining to the catastrophic Fail of Megaupload, in that we have an example of how the structures of law/technology impacts fan discourse. I hope everyone backed their podfic up. I did mine, and am slowly reuploading to Mediafire. If Mediafire dies...I cry. (=
On a less professional note: LOVED this week's eppy. Now SPN, that's more like it. Hunting, brotherly bonding, LOLs, and a case. That is what I'm talking about.