#dissertationproposal

"Hummus" is actually the Arabic word for 'chickpea', but we will also use it to describe our famous dip. Today, I made a Hummus + Halloumi salad while working on a slide deck for my advisor.

When working on a dissertation, your advisor is not supposed to see the written draft, but you can present your work for feedback throughout the process. Even though I am absolutely dreading this presentation, I know it'll be good for me in the long run. I'm not the most fluid speaker, so practicing helps me gradually eliminate the fumbles and stuttering I experience. I will need to present this deck inevitably for my dissertation proposal in September or October, so best to start now.

I started soaking the chickpeas yesterday, so everything came together pretty easily this afternoon. I shared some of the salad with my bestie, Sarah, who has a tendency to live off of smoothies. Hence...the need for simple recipes for PhD students.

Hummus + Halloumi Salad (makes 2)

Ingredients:

15 oz of drained chickpeas

8 oz of halloumi cheese

3 tbsp of chopped cilantro

1 small red onion, finely chopped

Juice from 1.5 lemons

1 tbsp of olive oil

salt and pepper to taste

What I drank while cooking: my morning iced coffee

What I listened to: Moseqa al Qamar (Remix) by The Synaptik

Instructions:

Heat a frying pan on medium-high heat. Slice the halloumi cheese into 4 pieces. Once the pan is hot, fry the halloumi on the dry pan for 3 minutes on each side.

Remove the halloumi cheese and leave it to cool.

Mix together the chickpeas, cilantro, and red onion.

Once the halloumi is cool, cut it into cubes and add it to the salad.

What aided or hindered my writing goals?

Having the writing log was helpful because I created small tasks to complete, like papers to read or sections to revise. However, I took three days off of writing to take care of household chores, see friends, and rest. Taking three days might have been a bit much because I am finding myself needing to spend time motivating myself to write and read again.

What were the challenges?

I had to revise the entire framework of my dissertation proposal which was frustrating. But better now than in August. Reading academic papers somehow doesn't seem to get easier. They are often dense with jargon, and so I find myself skimming to get main ideas out of them. However, I know I will need to put together a framework or model for my own proposal to "tell the story" of why my research is important.

What worked?

The writing log was helpful. I've noticed that I'm averaging about 18 hours per week. If I could maybe get it up to 20 hours this week would be great, but I'm not quite sure how.

Did you find any solutions?

Just the writing log.

What would you continue to do or start doing this week to make time for Writing?

I probably got up to 4 hours of writing done today. It was a mixture of reorganizing my outline and doing smaller tasks like gathering the study methodology for a portion of my proposal.

My proposal is already about 24 pages without references, so I am definitely less concerned about page count at this point and more concerned about demonstrating my breadth of knowledge on the subject matter. Right now, everything is very high level, and while I have a general direction for most of my hypotheses, the analysis approach I plan to use is still a little unclear, especially when it comes to determining the relationship between EEG oscillatory power and physiological arousal measures.

I'm also very distressed because of personal reasons that I don't want to get into, but I am proud of myself for persisting. It's Memorial Day and most people are taking the day off, but I'm working because every day is critical.

Writing a finance dissertation is more than just crunching numbers—it requires strategic research, critical analysis, and structured writing. From choosing a data-driven topic to applying the right research methodology, every step matters.