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"Can't you hear me, S.O.S.?": TLG's PhD study blog!

New blog can be found here: https://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/showthread.php?t=7614702

26 year old ethnomusicology student (University of London) researching ABBA fandom, seeks TSR peeps to act as cheerleaders as she battles her way through PhD studies. Apply for cheerleading position(s) by following/posting on this thread :biggrin:

A bit about my PhD topic

A bit about my specific PhD project: I am doing an ethnographic study of ABBA fandom in the 21st century :awesome:

(Ethnographic means that there's a practical element to the research, like going to fan meet-ups/conventions and interviewing people, etc, rather than just theorising ABBA based on my own guesswork/conclusions.)

I chose to do this partly because I am an ABBA fan myself, but also because I think ABBA are an interesting case study, since they continue to be part of mainstream culture despite having never reformed. (They have actually turned down $1 billion USD in the past to reform :headfire:

) I figured there must be some interesting things to say about them!

I have been doing participant-observation fieldwork with the UK branch of the Official International ABBA Fan Club, and have interviewed an ABBA biographer, as well as the curator/director of the ABBA Museum in Stockholm. I've also been keeping tabs on Facebook groups revolving around ABBA. So a lot of my work involves hanging round on Facebook. Such a tough life I lead :emo:

A bit about me/some housekeeping rules

A few bits of contextual info about me/my PhD, for those who don't know me that well:

1. I suffer from schizoaffective disorder and am registered as mentally disabled. This inevitably shapes how my PhD journey goes a lot

2. Ethnomusicology is (put crudely) the social anthropological study of music. It is the study of "music IN culture" and "music AS culture" (Alan Merriam). Traditionally it referred to so-called 'world musics' but now it encompasses everything

3. My undergraduate degree is in music from Woosta College, University of Oxford. My MA degree is in music (ethnomusicology pathway) from Goldsmiths, University of London. Had a **** time at Oxford for many reasons which I will not discuss here, but which again shape the way I approach my PhD. Goldsmiths was much better. I am currently at a different college of the University of London (would prefer not to name it here).

4. If you are one of these people who like to put two and two together and find my uni website page/academia.edu - please DO NOT refer to me on here by my full first name, or my full name (first name/surname). I prefer to keep a degree of anonymity on here

If you wanna call me something, you may call me Shan or TLG.

Posted from TSR Mobile

(edited 4 months ago)

Reply 580

The_Lonely_Goatherd

OP

20

Wrote another 1,610 words in the past 75 mins! :biggrin:

Posted from TSR Mobile

Reply 581

Ethereal

19

you're making me feel bad now :p:

well done

Reply 582

The_Lonely_Goatherd

OP

20

Original post

by Ethereal

you're making me feel bad now :p:

well done

If it's any consolation, my friends think I'm manic or heading that way, which would explain things :redface:

Reply 583

Pixsoul

18

Well done

(Hope you're ok though :hugs:

)

Reply 584

The_Lonely_Goatherd

OP

20

Original post

by Pixsoul

Well done

(Hope you're ok though :hugs:

)

Thanks. I don't think I'm manic but I admit that I'm probs not the best judge of that right now... :redface:

Reply 585

The_Lonely_Goatherd

OP

20

Productivity has ground to a halt. The psychosis reared its ugly head last night and I am feeling tired and defeated :frown:

Posted from TSR Mobile

Reply 586

troubadour.

19

Original post

by The_Lonely_Goatherd

Productivity has ground to a halt. The psychosis reared its ugly head last night and I am feeling tired and defeated :frown:

Is dropping everything and resting an option?

Reply 587

The_Lonely_Goatherd

OP

20

Original post

by Hydeman

Is dropping everything and resting an option?

It is but then I get more behind. Not sure what to do :cry:

I haven't done anything constructive/productive yet today :cry:

Reply 588

troubadour.

19

Original post

by The_Lonely_Goatherd

It is but then I get more behind. Not sure what to do :cry:

I haven't done anything constructive/productive yet today :cry:

That's true but would the progress be worth it if it's not your best? It's completely up to you, but please try to not be down about just one day of unproductivity. A day is nothing. :nah:

Reply 589

The_Lonely_Goatherd

OP

20

Original post

by Hydeman

That's true but would the progress be worth it if it's not your best? It's completely up to you, but please try to not be down about just one day of unproductivity. A day is nothing. :nah:

That's what I've been wrestling with all day :frown:

Just feel like such a lazy waste of space :emo:

Reply 590

troubadour.

19

Original post

by The_Lonely_Goatherd

That's what I've been wrestling with all day :frown:

Just feel like such a lazy waste of space :emo:

You know that's not true though - psychosis is not laziness. :nodots:

Take a break from the wrestling, at least. I insist. :jumphug:

Reply 591

Interrobang

20

You might as well spend the time relaxing so then you're more likely to get to a place where you can work more quickly, rather than try and fail to do much cos you're not in the right head space :hugs:

Reply 592

The_Lonely_Goatherd

OP

20

Original post

by Hydeman

You know that's not true though - psychosis is not laziness. :nodots:

Take a break from the wrestling, at least. I insist. :jumphug:

Original post

by *Interrobang*

You might as well spend the time relaxing so then you're more likely to get to a place where you can work more quickly, rather than try and fail to do much cos you're not in the right head space :hugs:

Thanks both. Just so disheartening. I appreciate you both reading and giving advice though - thank you :grouphugs:

Reply 593

The_Lonely_Goatherd

OP

20

Feeling better today so have managed to finish skim-reading a book and getting my notes in order. Now trying to skim-read an introduction of another book :work:

Reply 594

The_Lonely_Goatherd

OP

20

1,384 new words tonight :biggrin:

Reply 595

The_Lonely_Goatherd

OP

20

Managed to negotiate a new chapter plan with supervisor, meaning we're going to split one big chapter (that was meant to be 1 of the 2 chapter I submit for upgrade) into two. So less writing to do now for June upgrade. So relieved :redface:

Hopefully this will make things more doable if I just write like there's no tomorrow :work:

Reply 596

The_Lonely_Goatherd

OP

20

Wrote about 950 new words yesterday, taking the third section of the methodology up to a total of 4,025 words. Total words of complete first draft of methodology: 12,743 :eek2:

Thank goodness it's its own chapter now, is all I can say :lol:

Sent third section to supervisor yday, had it back today. Just about to look through the comments :headfire:

Reply 597

Anndee

11

Yay, that sounds like real progress! (I'd give you a thumbs up if TSR would let me.)
I think 12k is really good as a methodology chapter goes, at least in my discipline it would be.

Reply 598

The_Lonely_Goatherd

OP

20

Saw my supervisor today before she disappears to India for her own research (she's gone for about 3 weeks, which makes me nervous as hell, though I didn't tell her that) :eek:

She's mostly happy with how things are progressing but she says there needs to be more citations. Which is fair enough! So I'm gonna have to work on that somehow :yes:

Original post

by Anndee

Yay, that sounds like real progress! (I'd give you a thumbs up if TSR would let me.)
I think 12k is really good as a methodology chapter goes, at least in my discipline it would be.

Awww thanks :biggrin:

Nice to hear from you on here :hugs:

Yes, I think it should be good as its own chapter. Before the plan was to lump intro, lit review and methodology all into one chapter, but I clearly like writing about methodology stuff too much :teehee:

So we've scaled things down a bit, at least for now, so that I stand a better chance at doing/passing the upgrade :colondollar:

Reply 599

The_Lonely_Goatherd

OP

20

I realise I haven't updated on my fieldtrip to the Netherlands! Will try and do that sometime soon :biggrin:

Wrote 2,082 words of introduction today :king1:

"Can't you hear me, S.O.S.?": TLG's PhD study blog!

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