Taking a quick break from paper-writing to update... I am flying back to the 'States on Saturday for winter break! I'm really excited to get home for a bit (though not so much about the prospect of facing snow), but right now it's more stressful than anything. I have been quite busy lately-- "so what else is new?" you ask-- with rushing around trying to finish up my current chapter before I leave on Saturday. Last week, also, was largely taken up with academic schmoozing.
My PhD is part of a larger project, called "Globalisation, Empire & Culture." There are three PhDs-- Sean, James, and myself-- and one post-doc-- Fiona-- in this project, which is headed by Lionel, who is also my direct supervisor. Anyway, the project got a big grant from the Andrew W. Mellon foundation, which has given us a lot more opportunities for travel and reseach than we'd have otherwise. Part of that grant, though, went to funding a workshop/seminar week, where two professors from other universities came to give talks and workshop papers with us. The two profs, Dr. Hilmes and Dr. Putnis, were very cool and immediately insisted on being called Michelle and Peter. The talks and the workshop were very good, but they also took up most of my week.
Of course, another essential part of any academic meetup like this is the food. On Monday, we had an introductory lunch, where we all ate at the nicest campus restaurant. Thursday night, after Michelle's second talk, I got invited to dinner with Peter, Michelle, James, and (James's supervisor) Simon. We went to one of the nicer (and most expensive!) restaurants in Galway. Friday night, after out workshop, all of us went first to a pub for a couple drinks, then to another really nice restaurant, and finally to a fancy hotel bar for a glass of brandy.
Ah, the glamourous life of a graduate student. They don't let us out of the basement often, but we do get out, it's all fancy parties and rich food and brandy.
Ok, back to the Word-document grindstone. (My friend Cooper, who is a math PhD, says "Back to the math mines." But there's really no equivalent for a humanities-literature-theatre-history person, is there? Back to the theatre history mines? Doesn't work so well.)
