Done with Classes FOREVER! What now?

This semester is my first semester as a PhD student with no more classes to take. When I tell people that, they ask a seemingly straightforward question - "so now you just have your dissertation and that's it, right?" Nope. This is academia, so things that should be straightforward need to go through nine levels of hell more hurdles before starting the dissertation.  I'm fortunate to have funding as a Research Assistant this semester so I don't have to teach a class to have funding.

Here's what I have left:

1. Qualifying Exam.  This is an essay assignment where you are given a list of questions and have 72 hours to write up to 30 pages answering those questions using a personalized list of academic research material.  The reading list consists of roughly 100 journal articles and 30 books that are the basis for your specialty in Sociology.  Since I'm specializing in medical sociology, it tends to tip towards more articles and fewer books, so my list is about 120 articles and 20 books. 

PhD students usually take about a semester to make the list (it involves multiple iterations with two advisors) and 3-6 months to do the reading, depending on their other workload (teaching, research, taking classes).

One would think that after roughly 6 semesters of graduate-level coursework and obtaining a master's degree in the process that there wouldn't be much reading left to do.  Not true.  This exam is supposed to show that you understand your area of expertise broadly and in depth, so you can't just focus on the few topics you find most interesting. For example, I think that structural changes in the social organization of medicine in the past 100 years is fascinating.  I'm less interested in figuring out one more way you can show how life is unfair and that there are systematic patterns in who gets sick (also known as epidemiology).  But I have to know all that literature because it is important in my field.


After passing the Qualifying Exam, and it is possible to get an "honors" distinction in this, the student is officially a "doctoral candidate" AKA "all but dissertation" or ABD.  It also means you have to finish the dissertation within 7 years of that date, which is a challenge for some people.

The handbook says "The Qualifying Exam is designed to serve as a bridge between graduate course work and preparation of a dissertation proposal," which brings us to the next obstacle before the dissertation. 


2. Dissertation Proposal.  This is an oral "defense" of your research proposal for your dissertation.  I'm still not sure exactly what the parameters are for this, but it takes some people a year or longer to put it together. In the "Real world" something like this should probably take about a month.

3. Dissertation research.   Actually doing the work for the dissertation.  Data cleaning, statistical analysis, text analysis or whatever else was proposed.  All of this analysis needs to get done before you can write much of anything up.  This could take anywhere from a week to several years if you are collecting your own data.

4. Writing the dissertation. 'nuff said.

5. Oral defense of dissertation.  This is done in front of your committee, who you hope will ask nice easy questions!

So I just have 5 things left, I guess!  Of course, this doesn't include any of the other research I'm working on nor publications I'm trying to put out nor grant proposals, fellowship applications, etc, all of which require lots of time-consuming writing and data analysis.

What I'm reading right now

I generally don't blog about school too often because it's really not much different from one semester to the next. Reading, writing, doing dull teaching assistant stuff like putting attendance sheets into spreadsheets and trying to find ways I can supplement my income. So to give a peek into what I am up to, here's my reading list for this week:

Simmel, Georg (1964). "The Web of Group Affiliations" in Conflict and the Web of Group Affiliations. p 125-195

Durkheim, Emile (1897) 1997. Suicide: A Study in Sociology. 416 pages.

Cohen, March and Olsen (1972). A Garbage Can Model of Organizational Choice. Administrative Science Quarterly 17(1)1:25.

Kingdon, John. 1997. Agendas, Alternatives, and Public Policies. Chapters 4-8.

Rogers, Everett. (2003) Diffusion of Innovation. 512 pages.

And for my TA-ship
“Quetelet on the Study of Man,” in Population and Development Review

DuBois, W.E.B. 1898. “The Study of Negro Problems,” Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science


Drake, St. Clair. 1987. Black Folk Here and There. Chap. 1

Graves, Jr., Joseph L. 2001. The Emperors New Clothes: Biological Theories of Race at the Millennium. Chapters 1-2.

Next week will be a new list of similar length....

I'm also working a big fellowship application that would double my stipend if I get it and would allow me to do some really cutting-edge healthcare research. Wish me luck - fingers crossed!

And I'm involved in a program at the business school's Center for the Business of Life Sciences to develop a commercialization plan for a new drug. Definitely interesting stuff, and a great opportunity to do some group work (so rare in the social sciences!).

Research Funding

I don't usualy write much about my research interests on here since I try to keep this a blog about what kinds of things we get up to in our free time, but today Paul sent me this article on the CNN website that hit home. It's about how teachers are the first place parents go for advice on ADHD, and some teachers go so far as to "diagnose" kids with ADHD and suggest they be given medication. Clearly this is not all teachers, but it's an interesting issue from a sociological percpective (how does this change the medical profession, or should teachers be more or less involved in behavior issues?) and I am, after all, studying sociology.

So why does this aricle bother me? Because I applied for a 3-year fellowship, which would more than double my stipend and relieve me from being a teaching assistant, from the National Science Foundation (yes, they include sociology) last fall to study this very issue. I was rejected. There are very few awards I am eligible for because I am early in my program, am not studying an "underrepresented group" or the Middle East, nor am I an ethnic minority. So this was pretty much the only thing I could apply for. Clearly people care about this issue, since just this CNN article was published at 8AM this morning, and now 3 hours later there are over 200 comments on it. I would think that these people would be happy to see their tax dollars go to studying this issue, but they're not the ones who get to decide.

Wouldn't it be great if academia's and the real world's concerns were aligned? I try not to get too upset by this stuff, because I know I will only face more and more of it in my career.

Good things

It's one of those days. I've got a big paper due tomorrow and a bunch of small but annoying problems have come up (one of which is that the study where I'm working looks like it was hit by a tornado with my journal articles all over the floor). So here's some good stuff that has been going on.

1. Binsey was sent out by herself to get the newspaper for the fourth day in a row. She successfully brought it back and dropped it on the doorstep. She also did not get mud from the gardening all over the carpet today.

2. I'm sipping a tasty amaretto flavored iced coffee (non-alcoholic - I have a paper to write!)

3. Our water & sewer bills arrived today and they were lower than usual.

4. The air conditioner is all fixed after 4 weeks of repair action and the service was covered by our builder.

5. Despite waking up to find I'd "ruined" my homemade yogurt by adding too much starter, I can still turn it into cheese! It's currently draining in a cheesecloth. I also discovered I can take the liquid whey and make ricotta cheese - so that's TWO kinds of homemade cheese!

6. I saw a beautiful FULL double rainbow yesterday!

7. My wonderful husband has been working really hard to make our front yard look gorgeous with new flowers including three hanging baskets with petunias, and planting, lavendar, creeping phlox, saskatoon berry bushes and some kind of berry-bearing tree whose name I forget.

8. The dog escaped through the gate yesterday morning while I was upstairs getting dressed (with all the gardening the gate was accidently left open), and all she did was run around to the front door and bark to get back in! No chases, no nothing!

9. We finally hung up our most expensive wall art - our diplomas!

10. I had a nice chat with my awesome sister-in-law Anne today.

11. I'm done with my teaching assistant job for this semester.

12. Binsey is making cute puppy sleeping noises

13. It is a beautiful day - bright sunshine and not too hot.

14. All I have to do is finish this paper in the next 24 hours and I'm done for the semester! Just 5-10 more pages!

Big Week!

This week Paul finished his first week at his new job! He's working for the local small business development center and we're excited about this opportunity! His commute is even shorter than mine - just 5 miles versus my 7 to campus. What a change from Chicago where we commuted 25 miles in bumper-to-bumper traffic taking an hour or more each way. It is so much nicer to be driving quickly past cow pastures and forests rather than sitting in that dense traffic.

On my end of things, I'm struggling to come up with an "interesting" and "feasible" master's paper topic since my previous master's thesis doesn't count here. Given that I have never done sociology research before, it's a challenge to come up with something new!

New Semester

Last week was my first week of classes for the spring semester. We learned that one student decided not to return for the spring, so my cohort (I hate that word, but I don't know what else to call the people who started the same program as me in the same year) is now a little smaller. We had a cohort game night on Friday, and it was really great to see everyone; it's a great group I'm with, even if we do have very different political views (I try to avoid those conversations!).

Right now I'm taking three courses. One is a mandatory statistics course that I tried to get out of because I already took graduate-level statistics in the Sociology department at the University of Chicago, but apparently the course at Indiana covers more information so I have to take it again. Second is another required course that I can't get out of - Sociological Research Practicum (whew!). Basically it's a class to help get our master's papers started (yes, I have to write a second master's paper). Actually, it's not all that bad repeating things beacuse you always learn something new when you read something again, and it will help make my research skills even stronger.

The third class I'm taking is called Mental Health/Illness. It specifically has both health and illness in the title to make the point that these are two very different ways of looking at the issue. It will be really helpful for me to see how sociology looks at this issue since I've only really looked at it as a psychologist. I'm also working as an assistant instructor for an undergraduate sociology course on mental illness, so I'll be getting a double-dose of information!

All in all, I think this semester will be pretty manageable. In the meantime, I'm keeping my fingers crossed as I wait to find out whether I'll be getting any grants that I've applied for! I won't hear anything until March or April, so it's a long wait for what could be a lot of money! Wish me luck!

Finals!

Today I just had my last class of my second first semester in graduate school - or is that my last class of my last first semester in grad school? Either way, I've got winter break coming up and after this program I'll certainly have enough letters after my name!

For those who may be interested in the work I'm doing, here's the topics I'm working on for my final papers:

1. A research proposal called "From the Terrible Twos to Psychiatric Patient: How Preschool Teachers Identify Emotional and Behavioral Problems and Navigate Pathways to Treatment" That one wound up at around 20 pages and I turned it in today!

2. A 2-page single spaced final memo for Sociological Theory. I'm writing about the politics behind a question that was on the Massachusetts ballot in 2008 about decriminalization of marijuana, as explained by a Marxist theory of class conflict versus Durkheim's theory on social solidarity as it relates to law. I have no idea how I'll fit it all on 2 pages!

3. For my Health Policy class, a look at how off-label marketing of prescription drugs might be viewed from three perspectives: physician autonomy, patient empowerment and corporate responsibility.

So it looks like I'm all over the place topically! But that's fine since I've got at least 3 more semesters of classes before I have to come up with a dissertation topic.

One Step at a Time

Well, I've reached midterm time. For two of my three classes, that means a take-home exam which, at this point in my life, I prefer to an in-class exam by far. My more interesting paper is for my Health Policy class, where I'm writing about using different frameworks to analyze the US health care system. For example, should markets determine the health care system? How about employers? Local communities? Doctors? Is there a right to health and, if so, what does that mean for the health care system and the government? Well, that's a little taste of what's going to be going through my head for the next day or so.

In other news, Binsey has now started going up the stairs on her own. This is a big deal for us since we've had to carry her up there whenever we wanted her to take a nap in her crate upstairs.

Interdepartmental Courses

WARNING: Nerd Alert!

One of the most exciting things in graduate school is the opportunity for interdepartmental courses. Right now I'm taking a class in Health Policy, and while it's not listed as an interdepartmental course, we have students from a number of different programs, including Public Administration, Sociology, Social Work, and Political Science. Some of the students have never left school, while others have been working for a decade before deciding to go back for an advanced degree. It's just great to have those perspectives when you're discussing things like how state-run Medicaid programs should function versus how they actually function.

Now if only I could get focused on the book I have to read for that class, called "Healthy Wealthy & Fair: Health Care and the Good Society". I'm having to look up tons of things, like what "inside the Beltway" means (thank you Wikipedia.org), but that's probably a good thing since I don't usually read economics or political books on my own. Plus, it can only make me better at telling economists why they're wrong about people (haha).

Back to School

This week I've been going to various orientation things for my PhD program. The hardest thing was picking classes. Because I'm coming in with a master's degree it makes things more complicated, mostly because I have less time to complete the course requirements. One big chunk to get through is the outside minor. I think I'm going to do a minor in Social Science Approaches to Health & Healing Systems (isn't that a mouthful?), which amounts to taking 4 courses. But, I also want to make sure that whatever I minor in is going to be helpful for my career. The other courses I have to take are sociological theory and advanced research techniques.

It's funny, you'd think by age 27 and with 2 degrees I'd have more of an idea what I want to do when I'm done with school this round, but it seems like every time a new door opens, you've got a million more paths to choose from.

Our visit to Bloomington

This past weekend we took a trip out to Bloomington to accomplish two things. One, for me to meet a bunch of professors and students who I'll be working with for the next few years, and two, to find a place to live for the summer. It seems both worked out really well!

We stayed in Bloomington from Thursday to Monday. Paul's friend Nicole was generous enough to host us while we were there, and give us the run-down on the town. Apparently in the last few years since Paul graduated from IU Bloomington has grown a lot. They've increased the number of undergrads and there's been a lot of students coming from NY and NJ, sparking vast construction of condos and "New York style" apartments. Needless to say, there is a huge selection of housing options. We decided it'd be best to go for a summer sub-let so we can get (re)familiarized with the town, and figure out where we want to live more permanently. Houses are ridiculously cheap compared to what you get in Massachusetts, so we are basically cutting our expected housing budget in half or more.

We wound up finding a summer sub-let on the east side of town. It's fully furnished, includes a washer and dryer, dishwasher, central air, and best of all, we can get a puppy! I think the puppy idea is what I'm most excited about right now. A lot of you probably know I grew up with 2 golden retrievers, Lisa and Disa, and I do miss them. They were wonderful dogs, so friendly and always happy to see anyone. Having a dog really brings a special kind of joy into your life. I think you don't really understand it unless you have had a dog. So we're looking at adopting a golden retriever puppy once we find a reputable breeder. We'll probably look at the pound too, but it's hard to find purebred golden puppies.

As for my program and the people in it, I am really blessed to have found such a great group of people to be working with over the next few years. Since a bunch of prospective grad students were visiting, the graduate secretary set up 15-30 minute meetings for each of us with different professors. I was amazed that professors who I thought I had nothing in common with actually do have research interests that overlap with mine. It's so reassuring, because while there are probably 2 or 3 professors I see as the best "fit" for me, I really appreciate having input from different perspectives and I know I'll have that at IU.

As for pictures, we didn't take a whole lot, but here's what the campus looks like from inside the Sample Gates (named for an alum).

From Bloomington March 2009

And here's what you get in the countryside just outside the town. Beautiful, isn't it? I'm so looking forward to this fantastic combination of college town and country roads!:

From Bloomington March 2009

Academia and Opposing Views

Lately I've been reading a graduate message board on the internet where applicants and current graduate school students can discuss the admissions process, funding and other issues. Today I read something that made me want to comment on my blog.

One person posted a question about whether they should go to a school if they have severe differences in political opinions from the faculty there. The overwhelming majority of responses were that it's better to be around people like yourself to discuss ideas you agree on.

That kind of attitude is definitely NOT what I'm looking for in a PhD program, especially in the social sciences. I remember once in an undergrad course on globalization when the topic of global warming came up. I mentioned that some scientists contested the global warming theory in favor of a theory that the world naturally goes through temperature cycles, like the ice ages. The class quickly dismissed those scientists as "ignorant" and erupted into shouts and anger, so I declined to contribute further to that discussion, but it made me realize that conflicting ideas can be squashed out of higher education. Is that really academic discourse?

Anyway, that's one of the reasons I wanted to go to a larger program. It's still only 12-15 students per year, but some programs take 1 or 2 students every couple of years. I know that I will have strong disagreements with some of the faculty (and students, for that matter), but that can only make me better informed about issues I care about. The problem comes when people take it personally and start name-calling or crying or whatever. It's great to have ideas batted around, and I enjoy that part.

Hopefully I won't have to deal with too many whiners, name-callers or holier-than-thou types. Unfortunately for those types, they're going to have to deal with me calling them out and making sure they really know what they're talking about. I most certainly don't want my cohort to be anything less than the best they can be.

FINALLY some BIG NEWS!

After months of pretty dismal job hunting, we just found out today that I've been accepted to Indiana University, Bloomington to do a PhD in Sociology! We are just thrilled to have this opportunity, and even more thrilled that I'm getting funding to do it! Now Paul just needs to find a job out there, so if you know of anywhere around Bloomington, Indiana that's hiring MBA's, let us know!

My focus is going to be in medical sociology, which probably a lot of you who follow our blog aren't all that familiar with. Some examples of the kinds of topics I want to research include issues surrounding how people access medical care (what makes someone decide to visit a doctor? would national health care change that?), what happens once someone is diagnosed with a disease or condition, and how policies affect access to medical care and treatment decisions - and probably lots of other topics. More specifically, I've been concerned about the influence of the pharmaceutical industry on treatment, especially with regard to mental health. After living in the UK for a year, where direct-to-consumer marketing of pharmaceuticals is prohibited, and moving back to the US, where every other commercial is for some drug, I was reminded of the great extent to which pharmaceutical marketing is a part of everyday life for Americans.

I am so excited and thankful to be given this opportunity, and I know it sounds trite, but I honestly do hope to make a difference in the world with my work and I think that will be possible with this experience.

The Last Hurrah in Oxford

It's taken me a while to post since we left Oxford! The most notable thing about moving out was the huge amount of waste. Our apartment trash building was literally overflowing - probably three or four dumpsters worth of perfectly good, usable household goods and clothes thrown out because people couldn't take them overseas or wherever they were going, and didn't know where to go to donate them. Luckily our friends Mikki and Brian were staying in England, and they were able to use a bunch of our household goods and appliances, so that worked out great. They were nice enough to host us for two days between when we got kicked out of student housing and when our cruise left. I'll put up a separate post about the cruise, so for this one, I'll focus on our last few days in Oxford.

We moved out on Monday 15 Sept, and I worked until Friday 12 Sept, when there was a big end-of-year formal dinner at the Oxford Spires Hotel just outside the city center.

From ClosingCeremony - Sept 2008

Here's Paul with 3/4 of his team from their summer project in Munich.

From ClosingCeremony - Sept 2008

And here's nearly all of my girl group - I miss them so much!

From ClosingCeremony - Sept 2008

And I love this couple picture! We've got Tetsuya and Kaori (from Japan), Adrian and Alina (from Romania), Brian and Mikki (USA) and us!

From ClosingCeremony - Sept 2008

The next day there was a closing ceremony for the students at Templeton College. Their actual graduation doesn't happen until a later date because there is limited space at each graduation ceremony and the whole class can't go at once. It's kind of a strange system, but it keeps with the tradition of having graduation in the Sheldonian Theater. Paul scheduled his for next August.

So, here we are on the way to the party, standing by the Said Business School's ox (get it? OX-ford). I saw this thing every day on my way back from work.

From ClosingCeremony - Sept 2008

And here's Paul with some classmates all dressed up in their subfusc (and perhaps a future Oxford student in the mix)

From ClosingCeremony - Sept 2008

During the ceremony, they had some speeches and then called each student's name and had some hand-shaking. The speech theme seemed to be poetry, and the "taking the road less traveled" one was emphasized in more than one, if I recall correctly. I suppose you can't argue with that since not all that many people go to Oxford. Overall, it was pretty much the same as any graduation ceremony I've been to, only this one was nice and short (any of my Wellesley classmates may remember that our ceremony went over schedule by 4 hours in a hot tent). Here's Paul's hand-shaking in action:

From ClosingCeremony - Sept 2008

And here's Paul afterwards with an objet d'art in the Templeton garden

From ClosingCeremony - Sept 2008

And here we both are outside - it was an unusually nice day!

From ClosingCeremony - Sept 2008

After the ceremony, we realized we'd have to start and finish packing and cleaning out our apartment in the next day and a half, but we made time for one last dinner out with some friends.

From ClosingCeremony - Sept 2008

Exams and winter in Oxford

Well, a lot has happened beyond my getting a full-time job. In December, Paul took his first set of exams at Oxford. Before I get into that, I must mention again that on the night I went out to see the "winter lights" in downtown Oxford, I and my friends all confessed that our husbands/boyfriends had grown beards in the study week between classes and exams. It wasn't a fashion thing, mind you, they just didn't want to take out the 5 minutes time to shave every day when they could be studying instead (or so the story goes...). Most guys shaved for the day of, but not my mountain man!

Here's Paul in his subfusc, ready for his exams:



And then there's Oxford around the holidays. This is when stores start stocking all kinds of treats, including very fresh foods. At the Covered Market, they had every sort of animal you could think of hanging up, ready to be brought home for Christmas dinner. I'll save you the picture I got of the boar, but here's Paul at the stand with the most plucked turkeys I've ever seen at once:


And at that very meat vendor, we purchased a tenderloin for our first dinner party as a married couple. Our Australian friends Karen and Richard were our victi- I mean guests. (haha) We made beef tenderloin with a rosemary port sauce, paired with green beans and mustard crusted potatoes. Doesn't Paul look like a natural in an apron? He's really a great cook!


Here's the finished product:


I won't tell you how much the meat cost, but I will tell you that we could have had a darn nice meal at a fancy Chicago restaurant for the price! Apparently British beef comes at a premium...

I also must share the gorgeous (and delicious!) dessert Karen and Richard made. It's called a Pavlova, and it's a traditional Australian dessert.


Apparently the food was so tasty and exciting that I didn't get any pictures of the four of us! Though I did get a picture of the fanciest and tastiest place to eat in Oxford:

Winter Light: White Night Oxford

Last night I went out with a group of friends to check out the Winter Light: White Night event in Oxford. It's an annual event where some stores stay open late (7pm!) and museums and art galleries open their doors for free.

I met up with Janick, Karen and Kaori at Gloucester Green, where some artists were setting up for an art sale. We went to the Ashmolean Museum first to check out some harpsichord music. Here we are in front of the museum.


Later we met up with Nina and Vinita for dinner by Oxford Castle. There were some neat ice carvings out, and we even saw one ice carver in action!


Here are some of the finished ice sculptures:


Then we went and checked out the Broad Street area where they had some kind of giant light-up inflatable cones on display. There was weird music/sounds playing from underneath each of the cones, and they changed color from red to green, yellow and blue. We weren't really sure what to think of them, but I suppose it was something to see!

We ended our night at the Museum of Natural History, with a glass of "hot squash", which we found out is half juice and half hot water. It's not bad, especially if you've been walking around the the cold for a while! The museum had some really great stuff on display, so I'd like to go back when it's not so crowded!

This is going to be a tough week for everyone, as it is exam time! All of the students are pretty stressed out, especially since most of them have been away from school for a while and aren't used to taking exams. Everyone I have talked to has said their husband or boyfriend has started growing a beard because they are spending so much time studying!

Here's Paul in front of the Said Business School. Yes, the green hat-like thing is part of the building. And somehow, we caught the 5 minutes of sunshine we've had since we got here.