Onward?

Ok, so I am on to my data collection and have been since September.  This means getting folks to talk to me for an hour and then transcribing what they say.  Sounds fairly easy, right?  Ha.  From previous experience I know that it takes just about one hour to transcribe 15 minutes of conversation.  Let's see: 12 hours of interviews=180 hours of transcription.  No problem!  The interviews have been superlative and full of humor and surprises.  Thanks to all of you who have had "the chat" with me, and to those of you with whom I've yet to speak.  Looking forward to it, all of it.

So will I get anything done this summer?

Found out today that our first study abroad program from Dance at my university has the green light.  I head to Turin, Italy in July to spend three weeks with another faculty and five students!  Sounds great, right?  My goal:  get something, anything, done while in transit.  This could be reading an article, writing in my research journal, or transcribing interviews.  Dare I be this productive on a "vacation"?  You know you are an academic when . . .

Fishing for money

So, I have started to fill out scholarship applications, but money for doc students is tricky.  Hoping to score a little cash to help out as my committee was pretty insistent that I forge forward fast and furious like.  Add interviews, transcription, and reading to the mix of four courses this fall with about 310 students and I will be totally fried by December.  Yup, the reward for good work is more work.  Oh well.  At least I will be gettin'-r-dun.  Donut, please.

Flying to Texas one more time

Well, I traveled to Texas this past week (thanks J&K) to meet, officially, with my Dissertation Committee.  My prospectus was approved, signed, and sent along.  Earlier this semester my IRB was also approved.  So now the plan is to send out consent forms to the lovely folks already involved in my research and cross my fingers that they will have time to interview via phone this summer.

The fun part is having done all of this stuff since last June was also moving house nearly 2,000 miles, starting a new teaching post, and managing three large sections of a new course - some 350+ students.  Fun.  Fortunately, I have great support.  Makes all the difference.