"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 5 months ago)

Reply 800

The_Lonely_Goatherd

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Original post

by Interrobang

Great news :biggrin:

Thank you! :hugs:

Reply 801

shoshin

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Original post

by The_Lonely_Goatherd

Thank you

I didn't!

I was too busy looking at the gowns of the tutors :colondollar:

Usually in films the stars get the most accurate costumes, because the extras are in the background so need less attention to detail. In the MM2 clip it's the other way round: the gowns of the three leads (one at the lectern and two in the audience) appear to be the only fakes.

The reason must be that the stars need to rip the gowns off quickly for the musical number, and the hood collar would strangle them. Besides, the lead singer has to twirl the gown round effortlessly and fling it backwards. Anyone who has sweltered under the sheer weight of one will know that this is not possible :smile:

Reply 802

The_Lonely_Goatherd

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20

Original post

by shoshin

Usually in films the stars get the most accurate costumes, because the extras are in the background so need less attention to detail. In the MM2 clip it's the other way round: the gowns of the three leads (one at the lectern and two in the audience) appear to be the only fakes.

The reason must be that the stars need to rip the gowns off quickly for the musical number, and the hood collar would strangle them. Besides, the lead singer has to twirl the gown round effortlessly and fling it backwards. Anyone who has sweltered under the sheer weight of one will know that this is not possible :smile:

That bit I've highlighted in bold is so damn true :lol:

Reply 803

The_Lonely_Goatherd

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20

Had a supervision today. Went well, though it mostly consisted of me and my supervisor bonding over respective pains of pushy parents and Oxford trauma :lol:

Our goal for the summer holidays is for me to bullet point the ethnographic data for three of my chapters and (ideally) to start fleshing things out into prose too :smile:

Reply 804

Cathrela

7

Great news Goatherd and fingers crossed for you.

I just sent the second (and possibly final) draft of my upgrade report to my supervisors. Keeping to the 10k word limit was very, very hard and I think I was quite cheeky in how much I included in the appendices!

(edited 7 years ago)

Reply 805

The_Lonely_Goatherd

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Original post

by Cathrela

Great news Goatherd and fingers crossed for you.

I just sent the second (and possibly final) draft of my upgrade report to my supervisors. Keeping to the 10k word limit was very, very hard and I think I was quite cheeky in how much I included in the appendices!

Haha, I plan on making good use of appendices in my final thesis submission :five:

Well done on your draft of your upgraded report :biggrin:

Yeah, I'd find it hard keeping to 10K word limit :sadnod:

Reply 806

The_Lonely_Goatherd

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20

So my department's Director of Graduate Studies has passed on the form I have to fill in, in order to start the application process for getting a retrospective interruption. As part of the form, I have to complete a month-by-month completion plan :lolwut:

Feels a bit unnecessary/OTT tbh but guess I have to do it :erm:

I have a rough year-by-year plan but month-by-month feels a bit extreme :erm:

Reply 807

Cathrela

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Original post

by The_Lonely_Goatherd

So my department's Director of Graduate Studies has passed on the form I have to fill in, in order to start the application process for getting a retrospective interruption. As part of the form, I have to complete a month-by-month completion plan :lolwut:

Feels a bit unnecessary/OTT tbh but guess I have to do it :erm:

I have a rough year-by-year plan but month-by-month feels a bit extreme :erm:

I would definitely struggle with that!! Especially as I do qualitative work and a lot of my schedule depends on participant availability. I have no idea how to go around working that out....

Reply 808

The_Lonely_Goatherd

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Original post

by Cathrela

I would definitely struggle with that!! Especially as I do qualitative work and a lot of my schedule depends on participant availability. I have no idea how to go around working that out....

Managed to cobble together a loose plan but with no intention of following it :lol:

Reply 809

The_Lonely_Goatherd

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20

Peeps! Remember that conference abstract I submitted at the start of May?! IT GOT ACCEPTED :lolwut:

So I'm going to Amsterdam from 28th Nov-1st Dec :yay:

Now to start reading for and writing the damn thing :work:

Reply 810

The_Lonely_Goatherd

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20

Channel 5 TV channel are having an ABBA evening. So naturally I have to watch it all. Strictly in the name of research, of course :ninja:

It's a hard-knock life! :sadnod:

Spoiler

Reply 811

Anndee

11

Congratulations on having your abstract accepted! As for the month-by-month plan, that really seems a bit OTT, but are they ever going to check if you follow that plan? If not, I'd just put something random down and never look at it again.

Reply 812

The_Lonely_Goatherd

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20

Original post

by Anndee

Congratulations on having your abstract accepted! As for the month-by-month plan, that really seems a bit OTT, but are they ever going to check if you follow that plan? If not, I'd just put something random down and never look at it again.