Reading the Runes ... Anndee's PhD blog
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Wow, that's incredible about that grant 
Congrats! 
Congrats! 
Original post by The_Lonely_Goatherd
Wow, that's incredible about that grant Congrats!
Congrats! Thank you, I am still incredulous. And I'm sure it will look mega-good on my future CV. Scary to think that I will need said CV to start applying for jobs in less than one year from now.
And more happy news from the far north: A chapter I had submitted for a peer-reviewed collection of conference proceedings has been accepted. Now I need to revise it according to the reviewer's comments, and then I'll have a second publication under my belt, which might help me get a job once I am done with the PhD. It's scary to think that, in one year and a month, I'll have to submit. I don't feel like I have two thirds of a thesis ...
Original post by Anndee
And more happy news from the far north: A chapter I had submitted for a peer-reviewed collection of conference proceedings has been accepted. Now I need to revise it according to the reviewer's comments, and then I'll have a second publication under my belt, which might help me get a job once I am done with the PhD. It's scary to think that, in one year and a month, I'll have to submit. I don't feel like I have two thirds of a thesis ...
Woop woop
Am confident you'll rise to the challenge
More news from the rock in the North Atlantic. By now, I am firmly in the final year of my project, which means writing like a maniac while constantly worrying what to do after this ends. There are some options but none of them are much developped yet. My project also has an "applied" part (hopefully making me more employable afterwards), which means I am currently preparing an entire museum exhibition. I am learning a lot doing this, but it is also incredibly stressful.
There are some amazing things about third year. I feel like finally, all the disjointed bits, pieces and thoughts are falling into place in my head and make one big whole argument. I am confident that, yes, indeed, applying my theoretical framework and chosen methodology to the materials I have collected, I am able to answer my main research question and its sub-questions. Now to write the whole thing up so that my potential examiners can follow my train of thoughts ...
There are some amazing things about third year. I feel like finally, all the disjointed bits, pieces and thoughts are falling into place in my head and make one big whole argument. I am confident that, yes, indeed, applying my theoretical framework and chosen methodology to the materials I have collected, I am able to answer my main research question and its sub-questions. Now to write the whole thing up so that my potential examiners can follow my train of thoughts ...
Original post by Anndee
More news from the rock in the North Atlantic. By now, I am firmly in the final year of my project, which means writing like a maniac while constantly worrying what to do after this ends. There are some options but none of them are much developped yet. My project also has an "applied" part (hopefully making me more employable afterwards), which means I am currently preparing an entire museum exhibition. I am learning a lot doing this, but it is also incredibly stressful.
There are some amazing things about third year. I feel like finally, all the disjointed bits, pieces and thoughts are falling into place in my head and make one big whole argument. I am confident that, yes, indeed, applying my theoretical framework and chosen methodology to the materials I have collected, I am able to answer my main research question and its sub-questions. Now to write the whole thing up so that my potential examiners can follow my train of thoughts ...
There are some amazing things about third year. I feel like finally, all the disjointed bits, pieces and thoughts are falling into place in my head and make one big whole argument. I am confident that, yes, indeed, applying my theoretical framework and chosen methodology to the materials I have collected, I am able to answer my main research question and its sub-questions. Now to write the whole thing up so that my potential examiners can follow my train of thoughts ...
Oooh the museum exhibition sounds exciting, though can imagine it being stressful too. Am sure you'll do a great job of it
Glad you are finding things falling into place and that you can answer your research questions!
Original post by The_Lonely_Goatherd
Oooh the museum exhibition sounds exciting, though can imagine it being stressful too. Am sure you'll do a great job of it
Glad you are finding things falling into place and that you can answer your research questions!
Glad you are finding things falling into place and that you can answer your research questions!
Thank you. The exhibition is proving rather stressful indeed but it's also great fun working with a diverse team with very different backgrounds, all contributing different aspects to the big whole thing. I'm really nervous about it all coming together but if it does all work as planned, it should be great. I think I'm quite lucky in that I have worked on big non-academic projects in the media and publishing industry as well as with museums with tight deadlines before starting the PhD. That experience comes in very handy now.
At the moment, I am having to think very hard indeed about my future. I won't stay in the UK after my PhD, and want to work in Germany or Austria - where deadlines for post-doc applications to start in October are within the next two months or so. I have two ideas for post-doc projects but both are very interdisciplinary, so I am not sure if I can get any funding in German-speaking academia because there, disciplinary boundaries are still rather firm.
Original post by Anndee
Thank you. The exhibition is proving rather stressful indeed but it's also great fun working with a diverse team with very different backgrounds, all contributing different aspects to the big whole thing. I'm really nervous about it all coming together but if it does all work as planned, it should be great. I think I'm quite lucky in that I have worked on big non-academic projects in the media and publishing industry as well as with museums with tight deadlines before starting the PhD. That experience comes in very handy now.
At the moment, I am having to think very hard indeed about my future. I won't stay in the UK after my PhD, and want to work in Germany or Austria - where deadlines for post-doc applications to start in October are within the next two months or so. I have two ideas for post-doc projects but both are very interdisciplinary, so I am not sure if I can get any funding in German-speaking academia because there, disciplinary boundaries are still rather firm.
At the moment, I am having to think very hard indeed about my future. I won't stay in the UK after my PhD, and want to work in Germany or Austria - where deadlines for post-doc applications to start in October are within the next two months or so. I have two ideas for post-doc projects but both are very interdisciplinary, so I am not sure if I can get any funding in German-speaking academia because there, disciplinary boundaries are still rather firm.
Can imagine that experience from former years being very helpful - not only for this particular exhibition project but also in terms of having a nice, rounded CV for post-doc applications!
Sounds tricky with the disciplinary boundaries in German-speaking academia being quite firm. Fingers crossed for you! 
Another relatively hectic and stressful week done - you wouldn't believe just how many things you have to make fall in place for an exhibition opening to work out in time and without hiccups. I spent this week mostly in front of a screen, trying to fit in some thesis writing in between exhibition organising, which didn't work too well. Next week I'll mostly be at the museum, setting up the displays, so I don't anticipate to get much writing done - but I'm supposed to send my supervisors a polished-ish version of my first 5 chapters by mid-March. Not sure how, but I'll make it happen. Sleep is overrated anyways ...
Original post by Anndee
Another relatively hectic and stressful week done - you wouldn't believe just how many things you have to make fall in place for an exhibition opening to work out in time and without hiccups. I spent this week mostly in front of a screen, trying to fit in some thesis writing in between exhibition organising, which didn't work too well. Next week I'll mostly be at the museum, setting up the displays, so I don't anticipate to get much writing done - but I'm supposed to send my supervisors a polished-ish version of my first 5 chapters by mid-March. Not sure how, but I'll make it happen. Sleep is overrated anyways ...
You can do this. Though please do try and sleep if you can 
How many chapters do you have in total?
Original post by The_Lonely_Goatherd You can do this. Though please do try and sleep if you can
How many chapters do you have in total?
You can do this. Though please do try and sleep if you can How many chapters do you have in total?
8 chapters in total, so still a lot of work.
The exhibition is ready - opening it later today. It's amazing how it turned out, looking really good. I just hope visitors will come and enjoy it.
Original post by Anndee
8 chapters in total, so still a lot of work.
The exhibition is ready - opening it later today. It's amazing how it turned out, looking really good. I just hope visitors will come and enjoy it.
The exhibition is ready - opening it later today. It's amazing how it turned out, looking really good. I just hope visitors will come and enjoy it.
Yay! Must be nice to see all your hard work bear fruit
Enjoy the opening Original post by The_Lonely_Goatherd
Yay! Must be nice to see all your hard work bear fruit Enjoy the opening
Enjoy the opening Thank you. It was great, lots of people and very positive comments. This weekend I did an exclusive "curator's" guided tour for the local archaeology society, and it was very popular, too. Preliminary visitor numbers, which are always an important benchmark in measuring the "success" of an exhibition, are looking good.
Now I need to focus fully on writing the actual thesis again. I've got 50k words written and sent in to my supervisors, which makes the first 5 chapters. Two more large chapters are planned, with single paragraphs written out and the rest bullet-pointed, making a bit over 6k words. On the whole, the thing will have 8 chapters, but the final one is only planned as 3-4 pages of conclusion and wrapping it up neatly. So in total, I'm looking at 85 - 90 k words plus lots of appendices. What a leviathan ...
Original post by Anndee
Thank you. It was great, lots of people and very positive comments. This weekend I did an exclusive "curator's" guided tour for the local archaeology society, and it was very popular, too. Preliminary visitor numbers, which are always an important benchmark in measuring the "success" of an exhibition, are looking good.
Now I need to focus fully on writing the actual thesis again. I've got 50k words written and sent in to my supervisors, which makes the first 5 chapters. Two more large chapters are planned, with single paragraphs written out and the rest bullet-pointed, making a bit over 6k words. On the whole, the thing will have 8 chapters, but the final one is only planned as 3-4 pages of conclusion and wrapping it up neatly. So in total, I'm looking at 85 - 90 k words plus lots of appendices. What a leviathan ...
Now I need to focus fully on writing the actual thesis again. I've got 50k words written and sent in to my supervisors, which makes the first 5 chapters. Two more large chapters are planned, with single paragraphs written out and the rest bullet-pointed, making a bit over 6k words. On the whole, the thing will have 8 chapters, but the final one is only planned as 3-4 pages of conclusion and wrapping it up neatly. So in total, I'm looking at 85 - 90 k words plus lots of appendices. What a leviathan ...
So pleased that the exhibition has been so well received - that's awesome!
Sounds like thesis writing is progressing very well too Keep up the good work!
Thank you! The exhibition is now starting its final week, and if this week goes on as the past two weeks went, it's a real success. What a relief.
Now I'm working to write and edit/polish the next big chapter, no mean feat. I'm trying to stick to my schedule as I want to take some time off to spend bit of quality time with my husband in April. Unfortunately, there are some health troubles looming, and I've just been diagnosed with asthma, which explains a lot in terms of how exhausted and ill I've felt over the last months.
Now I'm working to write and edit/polish the next big chapter, no mean feat. I'm trying to stick to my schedule as I want to take some time off to spend bit of quality time with my husband in April. Unfortunately, there are some health troubles looming, and I've just been diagnosed with asthma, which explains a lot in terms of how exhausted and ill I've felt over the last months.
Sorry to hear about the health troubles 
Really hope you are still able to take some time off with your husband in April
Really hope you are still able to take some time off with your husband in April So the husband is flying over as I am typing this, which means I am trying (and failing) to finish everything that's still needing work before I can take time off. Yesterday, I dismantled the final bits of my exhibition and returned all the loans to their owners, which was a little sad. But I also got a list of feedback and some visitor numbers from the museum, and it turns out the whole thing was a big success, so I'm really pleased with it.
Now all my non-academic and applied bits of the project are done, except for compiling a short report about the exhibition, so there is no excuse to procrastinate on writing the final chapters for the thesis. Hopefully, and unless there are any major desasters along the way, I'll manage to submit in time before the studentship runs out in September.
Now all my non-academic and applied bits of the project are done, except for compiling a short report about the exhibition, so there is no excuse to procrastinate on writing the final chapters for the thesis. Hopefully, and unless there are any major desasters along the way, I'll manage to submit in time before the studentship runs out in September.
Awww, hope you have a wonderful time with your husband! You deserve a rest and a bit of a break after the hectic-ness (that's totally a word 
) of the exhibition
) of the exhibition So I am back to work now, and this feels like I'm embarking on the "final push" for the PhD. As it stands, I have over 62k words written, the rest is bullet-pointed. I am aiming at 85-90k words plus appendices, luckily a lot of my data is in tables and maps, otherwise it would be impossible to say all I want/need to say in under 100k. It's really hard to strike the right balance - who knows what my examiners will think enough of a "contribution to knowledge" to let me pass but at the same time not too speculative or clutching at straws?
I'm also finding it really hard, now that all the fieldwork is done, to sit and write up for hours and hours ... which means my flat is spotless now, all emails have been replied to, I am cooking more elaborate dinners than ever, and I'm generally looking for any way to procrastinate. I guess as long as I still average 500 - 1,000 words per day, I can allow for that.
At least I will get away from my desk twice more before submission in September. Later this month, I have been invited to Sweden for the international field runologists' meeting - and, in an attack of absolute madness, volunteered myself to give a talk there. In Swedish. So another good way of procrastinating at the moment is practising my spoken Swedish ...
Later, in July, I am headed for my final conference during my PhD and maybe ever - no post-doc in sight, which means that may be it for my academic career. It's the biggest conference in Europe in Medieval Studies, and means I'll see basically everybody I know in the field once more, so it will be a good chance to say goodbye to academia in some ways.
I'm also finding it really hard, now that all the fieldwork is done, to sit and write up for hours and hours ... which means my flat is spotless now, all emails have been replied to, I am cooking more elaborate dinners than ever, and I'm generally looking for any way to procrastinate. I guess as long as I still average 500 - 1,000 words per day, I can allow for that.
At least I will get away from my desk twice more before submission in September. Later this month, I have been invited to Sweden for the international field runologists' meeting - and, in an attack of absolute madness, volunteered myself to give a talk there. In Swedish. So another good way of procrastinating at the moment is practising my spoken Swedish ...
Later, in July, I am headed for my final conference during my PhD and maybe ever - no post-doc in sight, which means that may be it for my academic career. It's the biggest conference in Europe in Medieval Studies, and means I'll see basically everybody I know in the field once more, so it will be a good chance to say goodbye to academia in some ways.
Thank the Lord for tables and maps eh? 
Don't beat yourself up too much for procrastinating - everything in moderation.
Oh wow, that meeting and that conference sound awesome! Enjoy! Am sure you'll do well at the Swedish one
Don't beat yourself up too much for procrastinating - everything in moderation. Oh wow, that meeting and that conference sound awesome! Enjoy! Am sure you'll do well at the Swedish one
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