"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 980

gjd800

20

Original post

by The_Lonely_Goatherd

I SEE WHAT YOU DID THERE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :ahee:

Reply 981

The_Lonely_Goatherd

OP

20

Forgot to say: yesterday was one of our departmental postgraduate days! It was co-organised by our Director of Graduate Studies (who I'm studiously avoiding like the plague) and a new PhD student. For once, I think I actually listened to AND understood most of every paper :king1:

Afterwards, myself and my friends had a mini two-hour intensive study session. I managed to skim-read and make handwritten notes on a book that I had sorta read before but not made any notes on or really thought about properly. Was well chuffed with myself :biggrin:

Reply 982

furryface12

21

Original post

by The_Lonely_Goatherd

Forgot to say: yesterday was one of our departmental postgraduate days! It was co-organised by our Director of Graduate Studies (who I'm studiously avoiding like the plague) and a new PhD student. For once, I think I actually listened to AND understood most of every paper :king1:

Afterwards, myself and my friends had a mini two-hour intensive study session. I managed to skim-read and make handwritten notes on a book that I had sorta read before but not made any notes on or really thought about properly. Was well chuffed with myself :biggrin:

This is amazing! Can't rep though of course :rolleyes:

Reply 983

The_Lonely_Goatherd

OP

20

Original post

by furryface12

This is amazing! Can't rep though of course :rolleyes:

Thank you

Stupid TSR working against us! :shakecane:

Reply 984

flaurie

22

Reply 985

The_Lonely_Goatherd

OP

20

Original post

by laurawatt

Reply 986

The_Lonely_Goatherd

OP

20

Suggested to a friend that we have a study day tomorrow. Will let you all know how that goes :ninja:

In other news, one of my supervisor's other students is submitting her thesis today! I'm here armed with a card, two balloons and camera ready for photo taking :ahee:

Reply 987

The_Lonely_Goatherd

OP

20

I was too tired to do the study day :frown:

But I sent a wailing email to my supervisor (the one in UCLA. Though she's currently in India) and she sent a pragmatic but lovely/inspirational reply :redface:

Reply 988

The_Lonely_Goatherd

OP

20

OK this time actually doing the study day that I organised! In my friend's flat atm. Gonna try and get as much bullet-pointing of Chapter 6 done as possible. Will keep you all posted! :work:

Reply 989

The_Lonely_Goatherd

OP

20

ZOMG peeps: I actually worked for, like, 4 hours today! Got a lot of fieldwork out of my head and onto paper. Quite dizzy from the amount that I no longer have to remember/hold in my brain! :eek2:

Sent a 20-page chapter plan Word document to my supervisor :biggrin:

Here's hoping she likes it :ninja:

Reply 990

The_Lonely_Goatherd

OP

20

Still feeling dizzy from the other day. I ought to try and press on with work but so tired. Might give myself another day off today :redface:

Reply 991

The_Lonely_Goatherd

OP

20

Brain is (thankfully) feeling less dizzy than earlier on this week :redface:

Today, I'm making a timetable of all the work I need to do in order to write my next conference paper in a timely, ordered manner :eek:

I'm presenting at the biggest UK conference in my field on 11th April, in Aberdeen. I'm less stressed about this paper because it's basically my upgrade (transfer of status from MPhil to PhD) paper from 2017. I don't just wanna regurgitate though, wanna add some new thoughts, fieldwork and reflections :yep:

But yeah, if worst comes to worst and I'm ill all of Lent, then I'll just read out my upgrade paper with a different title :ninja:

Reply 992

The_Lonely_Goatherd

OP

20

So I made the timetable and colour-coded it all and everything... but I'm already like 5 days behind. The only things I managed to do that were on my timetable were the social things :frown:

I'm struggling to knuckle down and read - partly because home environment is a bit much atm, and also because I'm still suffering from fatigue, which makes sitting up and reading somewhat difficult :frown:

Hopefully next week will be a better one on the work-front :redface:

Reply 993

Anndee

11

Oooohhhh you're going to Aberdeen!!!! The uni is so nice, like an old town all of its own :smile:

Try not to get stressed because of your timetable, health comes first (she said and then continued stressing about her own timetable ..).

Reply 994

The_Lonely_Goatherd

OP

20

Original post

by Anndee

Oooohhhh you're going to Aberdeen!!!! The uni is so nice, like an old town all of its own :smile:

Try not to get stressed because of your timetable, health comes first (she said and then continued stressing about her own timetable ..).

Oooh thank you, that's great to hear! I'm going with some friends, most of whom are also presenting. And thank you for the timely reminder about health :redface:

Reply 995

The_Lonely_Goatherd

OP

20

So PhD supervisor emailed me back my 20-page chapter plan today! Spent an hour avoiding the email and looking like this - :ninja:

But eventually bit the bullet and opened the document she sent back. I was a bit worried because she said in her email that "there is a lot to do in terms of structuring and signposting", so I was scared she was gonna be like DO THIS AGAIN, THIS IZ **** M8. But as ever, those fears were completely unfounded. There was a lot of constructive feedback and criticism, but it feels mostly doable.

We're meeting in person on Wednesday, which will be lovely. I quite miss having her in the UK tbh :frown:

Though I've put on a brave face and told her it's all fine :ninja:

After Weds, won't see her in person 'til July :frown:

So will be back to Skype again :nopity:

Reply 996

The_Lonely_Goatherd

OP

20

Insomnia has hit :nopity:

I could be using this time to do actual PhD work, but what do I go do instead? Update my document of ABBA songs titles and lyrics to sneak into my thesis prose, so that it matches my new chapter plan :facepalm:

I've been thinking for a while that I'd like to end each chapter with an ABBA lyric that will nicely segue into the next chapter. Imma try and do this :ahee:

even though I suspect PhD supervisor(s) will make me take them out in the end :emo:

I justify this endeavour by saying to myself that at least it's better than my original plan (which was to construct a non-rhyming poem of ABBA lyrics and song titles as the final part of my thesis conclusion) :teehee:

Reply 997

furryface12

21

Original post

by The_Lonely_Goatherd

Insomnia has hit :nopity:

I could be using this time to do actual PhD work, but what do I go do instead? Update my document of ABBA songs titles and lyrics to sneak into my thesis prose, so that it matches my new chapter plan :facepalm:

I've been thinking for a while that I'd like to end each chapter with an ABBA lyric that will nicely segue into the next chapter. Imma try and do this :ahee:

even though I suspect PhD supervisor(s) will make me take them out in the end :emo:

I justify this endeavour by saying to myself that at least it's better than my original plan (which was to construct a non-rhyming poem of ABBA lyrics and song titles as the final part of my thesis conclusion) :teehee:

I really want to see how long it takes them to notice now :tongue:

please don't tell them

Reply 998

Anndee

11

Original post

by The_Lonely_Goatherd

Insomnia has hit :nopity:

I could be using this time to do actual PhD work, but what do I go do instead? Update my document of ABBA songs titles and lyrics to sneak into my thesis prose, so that it matches my new chapter plan :facepalm:

I've been thinking for a while that I'd like to end each chapter with an ABBA lyric that will nicely segue into the next chapter. Imma try and do this :ahee:

even though I suspect PhD supervisor(s) will make me take them out in the end :emo:

I justify this endeavour by saying to myself that at least it's better than my original plan (which was to construct a non-rhyming poem of ABBA lyrics and song titles as the final part of my thesis conclusion) :teehee:

That sounds like such a brilliant idea! I would totally go for it. Even if your supervisor make you take it out in the end - that's the kind of thing you could use once you're thinking about publishing the thesis as a book or so.
Sorry to hear about the insomnia. I sometimes suffer from it but have stopped doing "serious" work in these episodes because, despite feeling alert, I'm not really, and everything I write then has lots of typos or nonsensical half-phrases.

Reply 999

The_Lonely_Goatherd

OP

20

Original post

by furryface12

I really want to see how long it takes them to notice now :tongue:

please don't tell them

Hee hee hee :devil:

Original post

by Anndee

That sounds like such a brilliant idea! I would totally go for it. Even if your supervisor make you take it out in the end - that's the kind of thing you could use once you're thinking about publishing the thesis as a book or so.
Sorry to hear about the insomnia. I sometimes suffer from it but have stopped doing "serious" work in these episodes because, despite feeling alert, I'm not really, and everything I write then has lots of typos or nonsensical half-phrases.

Thanks! And that's true that it should be good for a book even if I have to take it out of the thesis.

Thanks for sharing your experience. I always end up feeling bad for not doing PhD work whilst insomniac, even though I don't think either of my supervisors would want me to do proper work in that state :s-smilie:

And sorry to hear you sometimes get insomnia too :frown:

I ended up eating pizza and bopping along to 'Radio Gaga' on my laptop (with headphones in of course :tongue:

)

Had it in my head a fair bit since finally watching that Bohemian Rhapsody film :ninja:

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

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