An Overall Good Day
Yesterday was a good day. I received lots of positive news in addition to successfully defending my thesis. First, the good news.
First, I received notification that I had a paper accepted for presentation at the Columbia/NYU Graduate Conference in Philosophy, which is happening Apr. 1 and 2. So, it looks like I will be doing a bit of travelling that weekend, going to visit Michigan on the Thurs. and Fri. and then flying over to NYC for Sat. and Sun. The Columbia/NYU is a very prestigious grad conference, which is a good thing. In addition, I should have heard about my Columbia application by then, so the trip could double as a visit for admissions purposes as well.
Second, UIC confirmed their fellowship offer, so this ups the ante at UIC.
And the defence went well. I wasn't sure what to expect, but I was not surprised by the format. Basically, I presented a 5 minute overview of the thesis and then my 3 committee members engaged me in an hour-long Q&A session, primarily asking for clarification or exploring some of the implications of my thesis. This was a very profitable time as it forced me to clarify some of my thesis' shortcomings and project how further research might strengthen the overall project. At the end, everyone but the committee members was dismissed ('everyone' here includes myself, Barb, and another faculty member of the dept) and the committee had a short deliberation. I was called back in, congratulated and handed a signed approval form.
Some have asked me if I was relieved after the defence. In some sense, yes. It's nice to put aside a year-long project and move on to something new. At the same time, the thesis can only be a work-in-progress and my awareness of its shortcomings makes me hesitant to 'finalize' it by submitting it to the Thesis Office as a public record of my work. Thankfully, the new stuff is mostly aimed at plugging up the gaps left by the thesis or just generally continuing what was started in the thesis. So, in some sense, while I am putting my thesis aside as a self-contained work, I am not putting my research aside.
First, I received notification that I had a paper accepted for presentation at the Columbia/NYU Graduate Conference in Philosophy, which is happening Apr. 1 and 2. So, it looks like I will be doing a bit of travelling that weekend, going to visit Michigan on the Thurs. and Fri. and then flying over to NYC for Sat. and Sun. The Columbia/NYU is a very prestigious grad conference, which is a good thing. In addition, I should have heard about my Columbia application by then, so the trip could double as a visit for admissions purposes as well.
Second, UIC confirmed their fellowship offer, so this ups the ante at UIC.
And the defence went well. I wasn't sure what to expect, but I was not surprised by the format. Basically, I presented a 5 minute overview of the thesis and then my 3 committee members engaged me in an hour-long Q&A session, primarily asking for clarification or exploring some of the implications of my thesis. This was a very profitable time as it forced me to clarify some of my thesis' shortcomings and project how further research might strengthen the overall project. At the end, everyone but the committee members was dismissed ('everyone' here includes myself, Barb, and another faculty member of the dept) and the committee had a short deliberation. I was called back in, congratulated and handed a signed approval form.
Some have asked me if I was relieved after the defence. In some sense, yes. It's nice to put aside a year-long project and move on to something new. At the same time, the thesis can only be a work-in-progress and my awareness of its shortcomings makes me hesitant to 'finalize' it by submitting it to the Thesis Office as a public record of my work. Thankfully, the new stuff is mostly aimed at plugging up the gaps left by the thesis or just generally continuing what was started in the thesis. So, in some sense, while I am putting my thesis aside as a self-contained work, I am not putting my research aside.
posted by David Wiens at 12:20 p.m.
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