What I Did On My Summer Vacation: PhD Student Edition

This summer, I had a lot on my To Do list:

• Complete comp reading for Methodology/Folklore, Middle English, and Early Modern
• Revise dissertation prospectus to reflect comp reading
• Revise Virgin Mary and Devil article and submit
• Turn Grimm and La Llorona conference paper into journal article about translation in television
• Expand Captain America article for Sequart into book chapter on Captain America as working class hero
• Start dissertation
• pull close reading passages and analyze (Round 1)
• historicize these readings (Round 2)
• add in other scholarship, both responses to, and footnotes (Round 3)

Given that tomorrow is the 1 August, and that my university obligations start 12 August, it seemed like a good time to stop and take a moment to reflect on "What I Did On My Summer Vacation."

I completed all of my comp reading for all three areas I am testing in, and notified committee members as well as sent them revised copies of my prospectus. I had a meeting with one of my committee members, and I feel pretty good about it.
I have pulled most of my close readings for my dissertation and have started the analysis, waiting on just a few ILL to finish Round 1. Have also started to pull scholarship for my dissertation (in addition to what I had on my comp reading list). I have a filing box that I'm using to keep track of primary and secondary sources.

The dissertation is up to 47 pages as of yesterday, and I've identified sub-headings, ways to organize my chapters, so I'm feeling good about that. As of today, I continue to be on track for my five pages a day progress on the dissertation.

I have not made as much progress on my other writing goals this summer, but have blocked out the weekends in August to get these things done, so hopefully by the end of August all of this will be finished as well.
I'm finishing my course work this semester, and it's just three classes, so my schedule is pretty light (plus teaching two). I also have nothing scheduled on Friday, so I'm setting Friday aside for dissertation writing.

So, here's the plan for the next year:

• This fall, other than courses, and tweaking the dissertation drafts from this summer, I don't have a whole lot of writing on my plate, so I've scheduled time to work on my Revising Milton book project. 
• While Palgrave liked the proposal, they won't publish it because/until I have a terminal degree. However, I've decided to write the book as I had scheduled this year because this will be a "light" year (before heavy revision mode for dissertation), and that means that it will be finished and ready to resubmit to them in May 2016 upon graduation.
• I comp in February. I should know results by the first week in March if not earlier. 
• I plan on defending my prospectus as soon after that as I can schedule (March?).
• As soon as the prospectus defense is done, I want to have first complete drafts of CH 1, 2, 3 of the dissertation to give to committee members (April at the latest).
• I've applied to present at both Medieval Academy and Kalamazoo. My focus this year is medieval specific conferences, and next year the focus will be on early modern as prep for the job market.
• By the end of spring semester 2015, have second drafts to committee members based on their feedback.
• Spend summer working on revisions from that, as well as revising the introduction, and writing the conclusion.
• Also spend summer prepping job market materials for applications in the fall

So that's been the work portion of my summer.
I wanted to be able to go home and visit Dad, but it's $1500 to drive home and back, and I just can't afford it. Nehi and I have spent a fair amount of time playing and hanging out. And I've upped my routines to focus on a healthier lifestyle.
I think it's been a productive summer all the way around, and I think I've accomplished  lot. I think too that a big reason WHY I've been able to accomplish so much is because of my planning.

I know a lot of people encourage time off from work during the summer, and I agree. Everyone needs time to recharge. But I'm on a tight schedule, and want to make sure I'm in a good position next fall for the job market, so I'm pushing it.
I hope everyone had a great summer, and is excited about the start to their new semester!

Starting the Dissertation- Finding the Texts

Yesterday I officially completed my reading for my comprehensive exams. I've emailed my committee members the final lists, and my revised prospectus based on my reading.

So the next step is to start writing the dissertation. I have a two step plan:

1. Pull close reading passages from primary documents and analyze them 
2. Go back and add scholarship based on these readings

Chapter 2 focuses on the physical description of the Devil, and Chapter 3 on his personality/actions. I've combined these two markers for Chapter 3 because his personality as tempter for example cannot be separated from his actions as tempter.
Since my argument is that the devil of these texts as the folkloric devil I am focusing on popular texts only (vernacular), texts that would have been known to the "folk". 
Middle English:

• Genesis B
• William of Malmesbury Chronicle of Kings (I have the J.A Giles translation, but need the original)
  
• [Thomas Aquinas]
• Legenda Aurea/The Golden Legend need Caxton's version
• Piers Plowman B Text, Harrowing of Hell
• Shewings of Julian Norwich
• The Castle of Perseverance
• Parliament of Fiends
• The Book of Margery Kempe
• Prose Merlin
• York Corpus Christi
• Sir Gowther

Early Modern:

• Discoverie of Witchcraft
• English Faust Book
• Doctor Faustus
• Edward II
• The Honourable History of Friar Bacon  
  
• Demonologie
• The Merry Devil of Edmonton
• The Death of Merlin
• The Devil is an Ass
• The Devil's Charter
• The Late Lancashire Witches
• The Goblins
• Paradise Lost 

The early modern texts are easy- I have all of them. However, the issue I'm running into is finding original Middle English versions of those texts. I have Middle English copies of the highlighted texts, but am having a hard time finding the others. I've noticed in a lot of scholarship, the argument is based on summaries of a text without a close reading (or specific citation). Since specific word choice/descriptions are key to my argument, I need to originals.
A search of the library (even for ILL) has not turned up anything.
So, can anyone point me in the direction of originals for the Middle English texts I need?
Thanks in advance. 

Summer Weight Lost Fiasco Week 8

Classes ended in May, and it was the end of some very stressful months. Stress and lack of sleep can contribute to weight gain, particularly around the waist- which is what happened to me.

My stress increased when I went to put on summer shorts I hadn't worn in nine months and realized that they didn't fit. A quick check with the tape measure punctured my hopes that the shorts had shrunk in the drawer- I now had a 36" waist instead of my 33". Other than the fact that as a PhD student I don't have the money to buy new clothes because I've put on weight, there's the health issue that waists larger than 35" in a women represent health risks.

So, time to take action.

• Starting in the middle of May I made sure Nehi and I were taking two walks every day (have only broken 2-3 times due to weather). Our walks (depending on heat) are .6-1 mile/walks. 
• They say work out until you sweat, then 30 minutes after that (but does this still hold in the desert where you sweat as soon as you exit your door?) 
• To get through classes, I was easily drinking a Coke a day. I cut all those out. No soda- except for a single can of grape soda (natural sugar) on Fridays as a treat.
• I thought I was eating pretty well during the year, but have since stopped eating all processed foods, and have increased my fruits and vegetables.
• I eat breakfast (either cereal and fruit, or fruit and milk milkshake)
• Lunch is usually a sandwhich (cheese and tomato with olive oil mayo or peanut butter and jelly or hummus and cucumber pita). No chips, no nothing.
• I drink water all day (blech) except for two cups of coffee in the morning and a glass of milk with dinner
• Dinner varies, but I eat twice as many vegetables as anything else. I eat meat maybe twice a week. I don't eat a lot of starch. Usually dinner is a salad or pasta with veggies. I steam stuff, I don't cook with oil or butter or salt.
• I've never been a big dessert person (maybe once a week) and it's either a fruit pie slice (homemade) or fruits.  So that's not something I can really cut out.
• Also read that vitamin D can help, particularly with belly weight loss, so now take 1000 whatever vitamin D pill every morning.

The end of June (6 weeks for those counting) saw no decrease in my waistline.

So, what next?

• Started the 30 Day Ab Challenge. I'm on day 16 and while I'm sure my abs are getting stronger (as evidenced from me wanting to throw up when I finish each night), but again, no loss of inches on the waistline. I also read that ab exercises do not "spot reduce" so while I'm core strengthening, it won't result in losing any of the inches off my waist.

Since I'm not losing inches I've started looking at other things. The basic math of increase calorie burning, decrease calories makes sense to me, but the rest of the information out there is crazy.

• Cut all carbs
• Don't cut carbs, just focus on whole grains
• Eat more fruits and vegetables
• Cut fruit because of the sugar content
• Drink green tea
• Don't drink tea

I am depressed. Both because of the extra weight and I'm not exaggerating when I say I have no money to buy new clothes for school starting in a month.
I know they say it can take eight weeks for habit/health changes (which it's been) but also that you can see 1-3 lb weight loss per week. So which is it? I recognize it's possible that I'm converting current fat to muscle, and once that happens the muscle helps to burn more fat.

Still depressed.


I have a month to go until classes start.
Any one have tips about how to jump start my weight loss?

Comp Reading Has Eaten My Brain (and is ruining Harry Potter)

You know comp reading for your PhD exam has eaten your brain when you can't even watch the Harry Potter marathon on ABC Family without your work creeping in.

ABC Family is showing all the Harry Potter movies this weekend, and it makes great background for working. Order of the Phoenix is on, and I was watching the scene where the rules are nailed to the wall of Hogwart's. I started thinking about Martin Luther's 95 Theses. Could these scenes in the movie, as more and more rules get posted, be read as a anti-Reformation text? Particularly in light of the ritual (read Popish) laden culture of Hogwart's.

So that's my random thought for Sunday morning.

Methodology as Folklore

Last week I met with one of my committee members to discuss my Methodology and Folklore reading list which I finished a few weeks ago. This meeting consisted of an hour of quizzing about everything I'd read on my list. Usually lists are divided into primary and secondary sources, but because my goal was to examine both the folkloric texts and the methodology associated with them, we collapsed the list, and centered it around Dundes' work.
If you knew my committee member, you'd understand how important it is that I managed to respond to everything lobbed at me. He's one of the smartest people I know, and doesn't accept anything less than genius. I was happy with how it went and his brief comment of, "You obviously know all the material" is the equivalent of being called a rock star.

He's told me that he will have three comprehensive exam questions and the break down will be one that is about the reading, one that is specific to my topic, and one that is completely out of left field.

Before our meeting broke up he said that he wanted me to think about how methodology functioned AS folklore. One of the arguments I brought up during our meeting that I was struck with how compartmentalized folklore work was- formalists OR historical context OR psychoanalysis OR whatever...whereas it made more sense to me to combine approaches- to identify the form (tropes/motifs), then place the text within a specific historical/cultural moment, then look at what is repressed or hidden, and WHY at that particular moment certain fears or anxieties would be present, then panning back to look at the big picture to look at what all of that says about that moment and what work that text was doing.
I also think that in regards to folklore we can only analyze that frozen moment, and have to avoid making generalizations based on single artifacts.

So back to my committee member's question- I was thinking that one way to approach it would be something like the chart below, to analyze their works through the same approach I'm proposing with folkloric texts.

Author	Work/Ideas	Historical/Cultural Moment	What it says/work being done
Dundes
Propp
Foucault
Bakhtin

 This approach would allow me to look at the story told in each work, and the larger work (as Dundes says) that work is doing.
I still have some working out to do to tease out what this looks like, but those are my initial thoughts.

More to come.

Fake Facebook Friends

Last week the Internet was talking a lot about the study done on Facebook last year that attempted to manipulate people's emotions by altering the information on their newsfeed. The ethics of the study, as well as whether it violated the privacy of the people have been the focus.

And those are all great questions that should be asked and addressed.

But it got me thinking about something else.
I have 117 friends on Facebook, mainly because I limit accepting friend requests to people I actually know. Last week, I also had a blow up fight on Facebook, as someone I went to college with took severe issue with my rant against a new law in NC that allowed prayer in school. He was ignorant, couldn't make an argument, and just kept going, long after I had stopped responding. The next morning, as I read his posts, continuing past when I went to bed, I got to thinking- why was this person a friend? We obviously don't share the same beliefs, and he showed himself to be an ass. So I deleted him.
But it was a stop and think moment. I have people on my friends list from high school and college- people who I know, but before that friend request hit my inbox, I hadn't heard from in years. We didn't keep up. We don't talk now. I don't have phone numbers for them, or mailing addresses. Last summer, I saw one of them in person. And it was awkward- we had nothing to say to each other. We read each others' newsfeeds, so technically we knew what was going on in each other's lives, but when face to face, there was nothing to say. That doesn't seem like a friend to me.

A friend to me is someone you call and talk to on a regular basis. Who you make arrangements to see when you can. Someone you care for.

Looking at my friends list, I have people from high school that I am politically opposed to, and whose views I find not just offensive, but ignorant. There are theatre people who made no effort to stay my friend when I left theatre- many who didn't try to be my friend when I was still in theatre, and lived in the same city as them.

When I left theatre, and then during Mom's long illness, a lot of my friends fell to the wayside.

Now, there are some people on Facebook that I'm glad I found. I enjoy seeing their lives, and seeing how they are. I make an effort to send them messages, and tell them that I'm thinking of them. It's a wonderful way to keep up with far-flung friends. And it lets my Dad, 1,951 miles away, keep up on Nehi activities. I also have had some crossover from Twitter, and these people (despite never having met them) I do consider friends because of our levels of interaction and common interests.

Facebook has several "levels" of friendship you can set people:

• Smart lists like work, school, etc. and set what gets shared accordingly
• Acquaintances just means you see less of their posts than you do your friends'
• Restricted: Can only see things you make public
• Limited has been mostly replaced by restricted

Here's what I wish I could- just delete, delete, delete. Take the list down to real friends, friends I make an effort to stay FRIENDS with. But the sad state of modern social media is that it is easier to set someone to a restricted list where you don't have to see them, they can't see you, than it is to deal with the drama of deleting them. Because after you delete them (perhaps with a time delay, because they're not really paying attention to you because...not your friend) you invariably get the "Why did you delete me?" message. And the answer of "we're not really friends" never goes well. And yes, I recognize it's a coward's way out.

One of the reasons that I'm sure this is on my mind is that grad school is a lonely business. Every advice column tells you to make sure you have a support system in place. I have Nehi. I don't have friends here. I don't have people to talk to. And that's okay. But my lack of face to face friends here has made me think about friends, or lack thereof.