My adviser and me at the UCSC grad commencement on Friday.
Just to make it official, I have completed my PhD in history. This last term has been pretty bizarre. I was furiously editing and (more to the point) formatting my dissertation up until a few days before the little croc was born and I've been firing off e-mails and paperwork since then to insure that the degree actually showed up on time. Commencement was stressful, wrangling logistics for visiting family and worrying that Plan C was going to go ballistic (she didn't - she slept almost the whole time), but it ended up being very nice and we had delicious pizza afterward.
Now I'm in a funny position. I have three reasonably well-known scholars advocating on my behalf and a couple of publication pseudo-opportunities. That said, once I'm done teaching this summer, I have precisely nothing waiting for me - no teaching jobs, no postdocs, nothin'. Over the next 12 months, I will either land something and remain an academic, or I won't and I won't.
Either way, I am happy and relieved to finish the degree. I know a lot about modern European intellectual history now.
Now I'm in a funny position. I have three reasonably well-known scholars advocating on my behalf and a couple of publication pseudo-opportunities. That said, once I'm done teaching this summer, I have precisely nothing waiting for me - no teaching jobs, no postdocs, nothin'. Over the next 12 months, I will either land something and remain an academic, or I won't and I won't.
Either way, I am happy and relieved to finish the degree. I know a lot about modern European intellectual history now.
3 comments:
You and Beecher both have satisfied looks on your faces. Congratulations on an ending with fancy clothes and speeches.
what, no crazy Medieval style hat?? Congrats!! And also congrats on the little one being so good. :) Happens so rarely...
First off, congratulations! A lot! That's just generally awesome, and I hope you are suitably proud of your accomplishment.
Jumping wildly to other undertakings, one of the things I keep hoping you'll find appealing at some point is writing up some of your knowledge for the lay person. In particular, in a style similar to the way you impart your knowledge of history when talking to friends.
I don't know exactly how a publisher would place something like that from a marketing standpoint, but I do believe it would be very entertaining and could be a really good thing for people at large if a few more of us had a better grasp of the historical framework of the situations we find ourselves in. And I think your style of explanation could facilitate a lot of us who aren't ready to just wade into the textbook format of History gaining that understanding.
But most importantly, again, congratulations!
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