Realms of Academia

I graduated. I handed in my thesis in April 2016, and passed the doctoral exams in late October. Now I still have to edit the entire thing once again (and probably once more with feeling) in order to get it published, but I am - officially - done. It took me a few weeks to realise that this marked the end of my graduate studies. 

I went to the States for three weeks last November, visiting Seattle for a conference and fun and taking a quick trip across the border to Vancouver. Apart from Election Night, I had a really good time there. I even spent Thanksgiving with friends of friends and watched quite a lot of football (although its rules still elude me). 

Now, the job hunt is on. I am running on both sides of the river, looking for academic and commercial jobs equally. A few opportunities have appeared, but I am still scouting further ahead. Fingers crossed. If nothing else happens, I will be teaching again at uni this autumn. More on this soon.

A few more publications are also lined up, among them two book chapters. Good practice for the real thing (i.e. my thesis as a book). 

So, yes... my thesis has entered its final state and should be ready for the final final last-minute-edit state finished at 4.30am in three months.

For the coming two weeks, I’ll be writing an essay which is to be published in a forthcoming book on fantastic literature since 1945. To get my mind off things and onto other things before going back to the original thing. 

First of all, my thesis has begun taking on its final form. The first 20,000 words are looking very good - I’ll have to wait for what my supervisors will say when I send the excerpt to them after Easter, but it feels great to see where things are going.

That said, the number of condolences and kind words I have received after Terry Pratchett’s passing are amazing. When I heard the news, it felt like a remote but nonetheless much beloved friend had gone out of my life. Then the messages started coming in. In the beginning I thought it rather surreal - Pratchett and Discworld have been my ongoing project for more than three years now, but I had had no personal contact with him except through his books. As more messages of condolences arrived, however, I felt touched. More than that, I felt not alone. A student and good friend of mine even called to see whether I was all right. Parts of me were.

I regret never meeting Pratchett. I feel sad about knowing that Discworld - if there will be future novels - is never going to be the same again. And I could still cry thinking about Neil Gaiman and what he must be feeling now.

But then again, I have written so much these past few weeks. It is looking really, really good. Many things will still need to be changed. But I know where it is going.