Academic Life I

Having been away for about 6 months and working on my PhD for a good 5 months or so, it's come to my attention that I haven't really wrote anything about that process on here.

I came to ARCSHS with an idea to do research on young people and new communications technologies, looking at romantic and sexual development. It was an idea that I had put into a breif research proposal about a year before I arrived and hadn't looked at much since. So when I started, I had a lot of ground to cover and not a clue about where to start.

After a bit of mucking around in literature about technologies and some consultations with my supervisors I started to focus in more and more on literature around the internet and what's happening with people on it. After awhile I came to realize that I had narrowed in too much and the research questions I was considering from the literature where too small. So I changed my focus and started to bring sexuality into the mix. This helped me to clarify what it was that I wanted to look at. I started reading more about youth and romance and sexuality and became really interested in subcultures, and in particular binge drinking.

Again I took a step back and went back to reading about sexuality. I also started to ready some theory articles. The last few weeks I have been emerged in a particular article that has to do with agency and obesity. I've been working through the article, sentance by sentance, applying it to my own thinking and research interests. The theoretical framework of this particular article provides some really interesting parallels to where my own thinking has been, but it's a very complex and dense read so working through it and figuring out how the various nuances can be worked into my own project is a very consuming task that takes up a lot of time and mental energy.

In a similar vein, there's some really interesting work being done on sexual ethics education and young people here in Australia, in Sydney. I got a chance to hear a presentation on some of the results of this research and chat with the main researcher. So there is an opportunity there for me to link my own research up with some of what she's doing, which is really exciting but adds on a whole other level that I will need to work through and have only just begun to get into.

I met with my supervisors today to discuss the theory article I've been stuck into and they were really happy with how I'd progressed with it and thought it through on my own. Now they want me to start thinking about writing up my proposal and preparing for my panel presentation.

How the PhD process works is that the first 9-12 months is spent working on a literature review, familiarizing yourself with your area of interest, figuring out what your research questions will be, thinking about what types of methodology you want to use to best answer those questions. Then you write up a research proposal which is presented to the department at a panel discussion. The panel is an opportunity for everyone to hear about your research and ask you questions about it, to give you feedback on your thinking, and while it is an experience that produces a great deal of anxiety, within ARCSHS it is a very colleagial experience and you get a great deal of support and encouragement from the centre.

After your proposal has been accepted by the panel, you are granted candidature. Then you submit your ethics application to get clearance to actually do the research. This takes about 8 weeks to get approval, plus how ever many weeks between the panel and when you submit ethics. Once you have ethics approval, that data collection can begin.

In my case, what I am planning to do is a nation wide online survey of young people. So it will be largely a quantitative project, though my survey will include a number of open ended questions that won't be quantifiable (meaning, I won't do statistical analyses on them but will look for common themes in the responses and explore what is said, and what is not said, in them).

After, and partially during, the data collection phase comes the data analysis and the actual writing up of the PhD. This happens during the 3rd year. Then once everything is written up, analyzed and put together in a satisfactory manner (there's a lot more in that than that) you submit and your PhD is marked.

So there you have it. I'm about 5 months in and am at the point where I have to start considering what I want to say in my actual research proposal. The aim is to have my panel presentation in early November, which I think is a bit of a lofty goal, but it does give me a deadline and a goal to orient my activity around, and I work well within that kind of a parameter. It's exciting and nerve wracking, but here I am, doing what I've wanted to do for so long, in an incredibly supportive environment. What more can you ask for?

Winter Wonderland

Heating's gone
We are freezing
In the house
Frost is forming
Not a beautiful sight
We're bundled up tight
Living in a winter wonderland

Gone away is our heating
Here to stay, nope it's fleating
It comes and it goes
Along with cold toes
Living in a winter wonderland

In the kitchen we can trap the heat in
Then pretend that the house is warm
She'll say: you have all the blanket
I'll say: No man
But you can get some more while you are up

Later on
We'll conspire
As we dream by the fire
To face unafraid
The beds we have made
Living in a winter wonderland

In the kitchen we can trap the heat in
And pretend that we are nice and warm
We'll have lots of fun in the warm room
Until we have to leave to go to bed

When it rains ain't it thrilling
The cold wind gives a chilling
We'll bundle up and pray
The heating guy comes our way
Living in a winter wonderland
Living in a winter wonderland
Living in a winter wonderland

4 months and counting

It appears I have been slacking off on my blogging! My excuse is that I have been busily making progress on my PhD and haven't had anything much to report on. Well, other than the inner revolution of me figuring out what it is exactly I'm researching. It turns out my interest is in youth sexual cultures and how this landscape has changed/is changing because of new electronic/communication media. And it seems my timing is either perfect or off by about 6 months.

Today I was talking to one of my supervisors and he informed me of an academic journal that is looking to do a special edition that would basically be entirely dedicated to topics of interest and relevance to my own research. I would love to write a peer-reviewed article, that would be great! Problem is, I don't have anything to write about other than what other people have written about. Maybe if I get my ass in gear I could write a theory paper (that would require me actually reading some theory though). And while the article deadline is a good ways away, it comes right when I'd be starting to get my data in. There is a possibility of co-authoring a paper with someone else from the centre, namely, my other supervisor, but she's on vacation at the moment. So, we are sitting on that one for the moment.

The other academic thing going on is that there's going to be an IASSCS Conference in Vietnam in April 2009 that has a whole range of topics also of particular interest and relevance to me. I imagine that me and every other researcher at ARCSHS will be submitting an abstract for this conference, so that should be interesting. This is the same organization that hosted the conference I presented at in Lima, Peru last year. I think this time I'll see about doing a poster presentation and focus it on what I am proposing to do with my research. So we'll see how that goes as well.

In non-academic news, we've finally got internet set up at home now. Woohoo! We are both enjoying the convenience of being able to pop online to check something out whenever the mood strikes. This also means that I will be more available on Skype (though the time difference leaves something to be desired). I will also at some point in the nearish future get around to posting some more resent pictures on Flickr. Bear with me!

Well, we're settling into a chilly winter here in Melbourne and I keep getting to hear about the beautiful summer weather in Canada. I guess the fact that it's winter and the temperature is averaging 12-16 degrees is pretty sweet though. I do think that my mind will be completely blown come summer here....when I get to hear about all the snow and sub-zero temperatures back home. I may even come to miss the snow. But I wouldn't hold your breath on that.

Tipping, Cartels, and Extreme Poetry

Life on the Melbourne front is continuing on rapidly. I feel like I've been here forever and am always quite surprised at how short of a time I have actually been here for. I take that as a sign that I have settled in nicely. Speaking of niceties, our heating mysteriously started working shortly after it stopped, and has actually been working better than it did before it broke.

I seem to be making progress on the academic front. I'm not sure in what direction, but there's definitely movement. These things are not straightforward and linear, so I choose to believe I am progressing in some sort of potentially meaningful way. I've started my Research Assistant job and that's going along at a steady 7 hours/week, as per my scholarship requirements. My RA job keeps things interesting and helps me distract myself from the perils of my own academic scholarship (a good thing, to be sure).

I want to share some of the more humorous happenings of my academic surroundings, particularly, my involvement in the ARCSHS footy tipping pool. My colleague Geoff and I got a late start into the season, and neither of us knowing anything about the AFL, quickly found ourselves floundering at the bottom of the tipping ladder. Well, Geoff, who is notoriously proactive, suggested we get together with a third, also floundering, party, Henry, and workshop our tips in an effort to improve our standing.

This tactic has been working quite well for us, though we were quickly uncovered by the Head Girl and our newly formed cartel duely reported to the rest of the centre. Not that our tactics have been stopped, they continue quite fruitfully. The cartel cannot be stopped.

A proud tradition of ARCSHS footy tipping is submitting your tips in poetry form. I do not think that my colleagues were aware of my notorious submitting-answers-in-mad-poetry skillz, but I am well seasoned in aggressive statistical poetry writing. Let me share with you the fruits of my poetry and cartel labours, as per round 8.

The new cartel of Henry, Joni and Geoff are really working on this together and have begun their ascent up the ladder with two 7s and an 8, that’s looking like a system that works and they even did some poetry writing. Joni gets top billing for tips in verse:

Perhaps I should be reading and writing
Instead of tipping on sweaty men fighting

But as a part of my acculturation
I am learning the sport of this great nation

I may not be a statistician
But I work on my tips in the hope fruition

Conclusions on these were not easily made
Predicting the future is not why I’m paid

Collingwood and Hawthorn will win their match
While Richmond and Brisbane go down the hatch

Kangaroos and Adelaide surely win the game
While Essendon and Fremantle feel the shame

Now, having gotten my tips out of the way
Finally I can get on with my day!

And so it continues...

I am not so happy to report that after about 2 weeks of having functional indoor heating, our heating has once again stopped working. We will be without heat for at least another week and are negotiating (or trying to) with our landlord for a reduction in rent so we can purchase firewood. And things were going so well.

The bugs continue to take residence in our home. I believe I've now seen 3 separate species of cochroaches, and several scary looking spiders. I've also seen a large centipede and a bug that can only be described as what I imagine the devil would look like if the devil was a smallish insect. Not that this bug was particularly devilish in behaviour. It was too high up for me to do anything about and then it was gone.

Joining the bugs are some furry friends. Mice, possums, rats, who knows. I'm not going to be the one to open the cupboard while I can hear them violently trying to chew through the tupperware container the dog food is in.

Aside from the continuing adventure that is my housing situation, things have been going pretty smoothly. I've been making progress with this whole PhD thing and am not, at this moment, feeling particularly lost. I may even know what I'm doing. Maybe.

The weather here hasn't been too bad, although now that our heating is gone unless it's over 20 I'm probably going to bitch about it. We're getting a bit of rain, which is good considering the water crisis. I got laughed at today because I am wearing a warm sweater, a scarf, and a wool hat. Our office tends to get chilly, especially since I'm sitting right by a window, and I'm fighting off a cold so I feel totally justified dressing like it's -10 instead of +16.

I have officially gotten my work visa and will be starting my 7 hour a week job as a Research Assistant to Dr. Gary Dowsett (who is largely responsible for my being here, so it seems fitting that I should be working for him) next week. I am looking forward to having the extra money and actually being able to get ahead a bit.

Mostly it's business as usually for me right now. I don't have anything special or exciting happening at the moment, though, like most days, I am planning vacations. I'm hoping to go to Tasmania in the summer (whenever it gets too hot in Melbourne) for like a week, and I am planning a trip to India with my friends Laura and Jeff for next year. I promise nothing, but I may also be planning a trip home. You will all have to wait until, oh, October, to find out more about that! Mwahahahaha!

ALSO ***I have posted my Melbourne pictures on Flickr now*** so if you click on the "Travel Pictures" hyperlink on the side of the page it will take you to my pictures. There's an album called "Melbourne" and that's got all my Melbourne pictures in it. I will keep updating that as me and my camera keep exploring the city.

Learning Australian

Today marks my 2 month anniversary as a Melbournite, and I have to say, I'm feeling right at home. People are always asking me how I'm settling in and adjusting and I feel like there are no seams in my transition from my life in Canada to my life here. Of course, I didn't feel this way at first. But on the whole it has been a very smooth transition. This is in no small part because I was very much ready to take on this challenge and prepared myself well for it. I came armed with technology that makes it quite easy to stay in touch with friends and family back home, and I came with a great deal of enthusiasm to get back into academia, and I had very few expectations about what life would be like down under.

It turns out, life down under isn't so different from life in Canada. There are a lot of odd similarities that make me feel much more at home here than I probably would in any other country. To be quite honest, I could see myself staying on here permanently (or as permanently as I could stay on anywhere). I feel very much at home.

I'm also completely in love with living in Melbourne. I realized the other week that this is actually the largest city that I have ever lived in, which threw me because I think of myself very much as an urban girl. Spatially, Melbourne is very much like Calgary. It sprawls and sprawls and sprawls. But there's a much larger population here than in Calgary, and it's a huge cultural centre (versus Calgary being a huge corporate centre, which, eww).

There is a tone of diversity in Melbourne, and never a dull moment (as my housemate Kirsty said, there's a new festival on every week). One of the things I love most about being here is things like that a sizable chunk of the dancers on So You Think You Can Dance Australia are from Melbourne, and I can vote for which one I want to win. I can see why Melbourne is considered one of the most livable cities in the world.

So I'm setting down roots here. It's a slow process, since I'm a PhD student and that is an isolating and intensive experience, and means that I am poor. It's harder to go out and meet people when you're head is being sucked into the academic vortex and the money being doled out to you isn't enough to support brain cell killing activities. I don't know what the bar scene is like in Melbourne because I can't afford to participate in it (well, I can it just means that I can only drink beer since a cheap cocktail goes for about $12). The cafe culture here, now that's something I can tell you about! Melbourne is a coffee city, actually, it's more of a coffee mecca. (If I ever get a chance to bring a Melbournite to Canada I am going to have to take them to Tim Hortons just to show them how lucky they are.)

Back to what I was saying, meeting new people isn't easy when you're a PhD student period, let alone a PhD student in a new and far away country. Fortunately, the people in my department are incredible. And I have an amazing house mate. We get along great, and she's a huge support for me. I get to practice my Australian on her!

I've learned to use "thongs" and "budgie smugglers" conversationally, and the other night at dinner I said tom-AH-to. I think it's going to take a lot longer to get "G'day mate" in there, but I'm starting to get the hang of "how ya going?" and "ta". I've learned that it's just "koala" and I'm down with "no worries," kinda. Then there's "brekkie," "trackie dacks," and "plats". My vocabulary is growing....but I still can't be asked to make a proper cup of tea.

Struggles, Acceptance, and Kangaroos

AHHHHH! I am settling back in at my desk after a trip to the Queen Victoria Market (conveniently located literally across the street from my campus) and am enjoying my lunch (freash, organic pizza, strawberries for dessert). It is a serious luxury to have the market so close. I now have a bag full of freash fruit and veggies, cheese, and a loaf of sour dough bread.

The market is huge and there's always something new to discover, and not just because the vendors aren't consistently the same. I am seriously looking forward to having some visitors to take on a gastronomical and shopping tour! *hint*hint*

I have been living in my place for a bit over a month now, and yes the bug problem continues. We've recently had another moth hatching and we can't figure out where they've hatched from. The battle continues. Another continuing battle: getting our landlord to fix the heat! We have no heat, and it's been this way for about a year. My housemate tolerated it last winter, but after having the rent increased and nothing repaired, we're preparing ourselves for war. Or, more accurately, renters court. Hopefully it won't come to that, or, if it does hopefully we'll get some serious action this time.

I am pleased to report that I have, finally, won over the affections of my housemate's dog, Bella. It was a bit of a slow process since Bella isn't a very affectionate dog, but seeing as she's replacing 4 dogs for me I wasn't about to let her off easy! It didn't take her long to realize that I'll play with her when she's hyper. Soon after she would count me (she goes around the house and counts how many people are in it, and I became worth counting). But what really won her over was when I sat beside her while she faked being tortured in her harness on a car ride. The next day she was all cuddles with me, letting me hold her and coming over to disrupt my studying. When I came home last night she even got excited to see me!

Over the weekend I went up to the country with Kirsty (my housemate) and we did some shopping. That was a really nice way to spend a Saturday afternoon. Afterwards we went to her partner's parent's place, which is a chicken farm. I got to see all sorts of chickens and ducks and geese running around, and some really cute and fuzzy baby ducks...

Then, as we were leaving to go home, I spotted a bunch of kangaroos munching away on the hillside. I got out of the car and took a picture, and discovered the remains of what may have been a marsupial. I decided not to take the still together spinal column home with me, tempting though it was.

As far as my actualy uni studying stuff goes...well...I'm actively avoiding it by writing in my blog. It's a challenging process and I don't really know which way is up at the moment, but I'm assured that this is how I am supposed to feel and that I will probably feel this way most of the time. So I guess I'm right on track!