5 June, 2008 | Leave a Comment
Anglofille had her PhD upgrade today. Anglofille totally kicked ass.
I have written about the “upgrade” in two previous posts. It’s a big deal. It’s been looming large over my life for months now. Getting all the materials together has side-tracked me from my novel in a big way, but the upgrade is a necessary evil. They have to evaluate your work to be sure you can handle doing a full PhD — if you pass, you are “upgraded” to full PhD status from MPhil status. So now I am a real PhD student. Ahhhhh.
Tomorrow there is a conference for the whole department, where the upgraded students will present their work. I am going to read a chapter from my novel. I am the only fiction writer who has upgraded, so I’m the only one who will be reading from a novel-in-progress. Everyone else will be reading scholarly stuff. The chapter I’m reading has a few naughty words in it and ends with a line about a guy in prison masturbating, so I hope I don’t ruin this whole dignified affair. Everyone will think I’m a total slut.
As for today, because of my surname, I was the last of 16 people to be interviewed. Story of my life. I kept watching others coming out of their interviews and though they passed, they said the panel really grilled them. I was so nervous. I’ve been feeling a bit down about my novel lately, thinking it’s crap. [Nothing unusual for me.] I was also worried about the scholarly writing I had to submit, since I’m not just doing the novel. It’s been a while since I’ve done any academic writing, so I was feeling self-conscious about what I’d submitted. I knew I wouldn’t fail the upgrade, but I thought I may have to rewrite things and resubmit them to be evaluated again. Alas, no. Much to my surprise, my interview turned into a love fest. They LOVED my novel and kept raving about it. They picked out scenes they loved and said the tone was just right. They also loved my academic work on Fight Club and were very encouraging about it. I was actually kind of embarrassed! They were just so positive and gave me such great feedback, which I did not expect.
It was such a huge relief to pass the upgrade and to receive so many compliments about my work. I feel so much better now — I needed a boost. My advisor thinks my goal of finishing by December 2009 is achievable, but optimistic. I know I have tons of work ahead of me, but at least I know I’m on the right track. Now all I need to do is get through my reading tomorrow without totally humiliating myself.
Anglofille said @ 10:27 pm | academia |
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Cav Says:
June 5th, 2008 at 11:55 pmSending good vibes to you for tomorrow!
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s. Says:
June 5th, 2008 at 11:57 pmGreat news!
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Silvana Says:
June 6th, 2008 at 12:29 amCongratulations, and all the best for tomorrow!!
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Wow! This is great news! Congratulations!
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joy Says:
June 6th, 2008 at 2:31 pmFélicitations Anglofille!
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Congratulations!!
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SpliceGirl Says:
June 6th, 2008 at 8:42 pmDecember 2009? Sheesh! When are you going to publish this book and make some $$$ so I can be that leechy kind of sister who lives off you and just hangs around? I’m waiting for that…impatiently waiting…
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Thanks everyone! I appreciate it SO MUCH. Everything went really well today. I will have a full update soon, once I recover.
SpliceGirl: That is the deadline for my PhD. I hope to have the novel finished and sold by then!!!
