PhD Life

Well, needless to say, i didnt get though (or even start) Foucault. i attempted 'governmentality' - a chapter edited from a speech he made in 1978, but didnt really make head nor tail of it. I did read half of Donzelot though, which was even worse. not sure how much of that i understood either. But i realise that a PhD is all about reading completely inaccesible stuff that could be understandable if only they would find a decent editor.
I found it really hard to remotivate myself after Xmas, but think im on the way again now. I had submitted an 8000-word paper on policy and youth justice, which got positive feedback generally. My supervisors said my style was 'polemic' and 'journalisatic' and, after looking up what 'polemic' meant, decided that this was a compliment (even though its not the style for academia).
This month i have mainly been reading about 'subjectivity', and how discourse constructs it, and trying to get my head around the whole agency/structure debate, which apparently i need to make some headway in resolving. i think i get it....

Hurrah! End of first term, and a well-deserved rest.
Spent last week completing what i hope will be (eventually, after a million re-writes, no doubt) my first chapter - lots of scene-setting in the field of social policy and criminology (not my subject, but i seem to have inadvertently gone 'interdisciplinary'). My supervisors are hopefully poring over it this Christmas.
Still really enjoying studentlife, so much that i keep forgetting to write in the blog. New Year Resolution is to try and 'check in' at least once a fortnight. But really, having had a week off already, i cant think of anything to report.
Reading list for Christmas:
Crime and punish - foucault
Inventing our selves - rose
the policing of fanilies - donzelot
of course, havent started any.
Happy Winter Solstice

Another month gone???! really dont know where time is going, can only asume its because im enjoying it so much. for the first time, im keen to get somewhere in the morning, and actually reluctant to leave at night (although i kinda want to because my office (fake, plastic walls) is unbearably hot and airless, it gives me a headache).
I have completely redrafted my research question - changed pretty much everything (my supervisor is keen for me to not waft it around - its so good she's worried someone might nick my idea - wow - intellectual piracy, how cool!). I am now planning on doing a Foucauldian Discourse Analysis with my data, and am currently writing a piece on what narrative/biographical/life story research is, as i want to incorporate it, but need to 'tease out' exactly what i mean. Its kinda fun, although a strange feeling, writing an essay which no-one will ever mark.
I did some teaching this week on a Masters course, just introductory qualitative methods, which i enjoyed - the group were very sweet and willing, and i surprised myself and how much i actually knew about it. I have recently turned my back on positivism (its rubbish), but not before i had planned an incredibly quantitative survey-based project for my Masters (which im finsihing alongside beginning my PhD). its getting a real bind, especially as i (stupidly) assumed that surveys would be time-saving: its impossible to get anyone to fill the damn thing in, unless i physically thrust it into their hands (which i have been doing).
Anyhoo, that should be done by Christmas.
Still loving it - i give PhD life 10 out of 10!

Well, 1 month gone - just another 35 left then. its gone really fast, and cant believe how much ive 'intellectually grown' in this time. It feels like someones in my head, dusting down my brain, and finding some spare neurons for me to use, like finding spare coins inside the sofa on its annual clean. i even found myself giggling at an epsitemological joke from a book about epistemologies ('The foundations of social research' - heartily recommended if you want to sort out your hermeneutics from your phenomenologies)on the train home last night. doesnt sound like me at all.
Re-reading my intial proposal now just sounds sooooo naive - i was so certain of objective science, but no longer! have currently pitched myself as a 'Critical hermeneutic-phenomenologist', although this changes weekly. i might sign that as my occupation on my next passport.

Initial meeting with supervisors (all 4 of them) went very well. It was basically an administrative process - have i been properly inducted/induced? (apparently not: do not yet have a Handbook, Heath & Safety guide, contract, payroll number.....i could go on). We also discussed how the supervision meetings should be organised. It looked suspiciously like this had all been worked out before i got there (its unlikely that all 4 academics would be early for a meeting, ready in their places when i arrived - early myself!): so much for my ideas of how i would supervise my team (i didnt really have any anyway).
So, the plan is that we will meet up once a week for the first 3 months, and then review. Seems a lot - much more than I understand is regular in other institutions. Either they're incredibly interested in my project, and just want to damn well timetable-in those ferocious intellectual debates they think Im capable of, or they think Im shit and need lots of supervision.
We agreed that for next meeting (in a week) i would re-draft my initial proposal. I actually wrote my proposal 6 months ago, and upon re-reading, realise that my epistemological and ontological assumptions are deeply flawed. So have already re-written it, car-crashing from extreme positivism to extreme anti-positivism. I hope such a shift doesnt make me look deeply unstable.