Tuesday, January 17, 2012

Dissertation envy

One of my friends is about to do her prelims so I've read her proposal and I just watched her practice her prelim presentation. I think what she's doing is really cool, and I've got some serious dissertation envy!

I'm not jealous of her in a negative way, but rather I find myself thinking, "How can I make my research more like hers in the future?" It also makes me think "what if" I'd made different choices in my Ph.D.

I've mentioned before that part of me wishes that I had done local field work instead of flying halfway around the world. If I had done field work here in Big City, her project has all of the elements that I would have liked to include. It's interdisciplinary and just awesome.

Maybe for my postdoc.

2 comments:

jaxzwolf said...

This makes me wonder if she looks at you with dissertation envy. Perhaps she's thinking, "Man, if only I'd chosen to do my research abroad. Karina got to do her fieldwork in an awesome location, do a lot of traveling, meet a ton of people abroad, and really immerse herself in another culture! I'm just sticking around boring old Big City."

There are benefits to both, of course, but I imagine it works both ways! ;)

Karina said...

Maybe so!