3 hours processing data, 3 hours writing, 1 hour reading, page count = 208
I continue to make good progress, but I'll need a couple of extra days to complete a full draft. Having informed my committee, I'm now aiming for this Sunday, December 2nd.
Today I worked on the chapter on La Violencia, incorporating data from my fieldwork in Antioquia. There's a lot of good stuff there, and it's flowing pretty easily to incorporate it into the text.
I also read a couple of pieces relating to Mexico in anticipation of working on the "in comparative perspective" chapter over the weekend. One of the sources made a strong argument that Mexico, Argentina, and Colombia all went broadly similar process of nation-state development starting in 1880 - conveniently the start of the critical juncture of security-force configuration that I identify in the dissertation. Handy! It sure is nice when new sources confirm your arguments.
Onward tomorrow!
From June 2007 to June 2008, I posted each weekday regarding progress on my dissertation. This blog was called "It Takes a Village to Write a Dissertation."
On August 15, 2008, I filed my dissertation, completing all the requirements for my Ph.D in Political Science from UC Berkeley. Friends and family, thank you for keeping me honest. Mission accomplished!
About Me
Villager Blogs/Websites
- The Village Quill (Harry Bruinius)
- National Novel Writing Month (Val Wang)
- Negrón Consulting (Michael Negrón)
- La Causa (Hugo Cardona)
- Nachtkinder (Tanja Royal)
- Locus Vulpes (Geordan Drummond)
- Cypress Hills Community School (Laura Ascenzi-Moreno)
- Food & Wine Editorial Blog (Kristin Donnelly)
- SF Cityscape (Steve Boland)
STATUS OF CHAPTERS
Chapter 1: Armed Challenges, Security-Force Configurations, and Party Systems
PART I: THE 19TH CENTURY BACKGROUND
Chapter 2: Regionalism, "Two-Partyism," and the Struggle for a Central-Federal Balance: 19th-Century Antecedents to State Formation
PART II: POLITICIANS, PARTIES, SOLDIERS, AND POLICE IN ANTIOQUIA'S RECURRING LOCAL INSURRECTION (1946-54)
Chapter 4: Antioquia in Context
PART III: LA VIOLENCIA IN COMPARATIVE PERSPECTIVE
Chapter 7: Security-Forces, Party Systems, and Armed Challenges in Latin American Context
Complete
PART I: THE 19TH CENTURY BACKGROUND
Chapter 2: Regionalism, "Two-Partyism," and the Struggle for a Central-Federal Balance: 19th-Century Antecedents to State Formation
CompleteChapter 3: Designing the Colombian Security Forces (1886-1910)
Complete
PART II: POLITICIANS, PARTIES, SOLDIERS, AND POLICE IN ANTIOQUIA'S RECURRING LOCAL INSURRECTION (1946-54)
Chapter 4: Antioquia in Context
CompleteChapter 5: Conflict Rising: Politicized Security Forces and the Escalation of La Violencia (1945-48)
CompleteChapter 6: Generalized Conflict: Security Forces and Politicians in the "High" Period of La Violencia (1948-54)
Complete
PART III: LA VIOLENCIA IN COMPARATIVE PERSPECTIVE
Chapter 7: Security-Forces, Party Systems, and Armed Challenges in Latin American Context
CompleteConclusion
Complete
BLOG ARCHIVE
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2007
(131)
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November
(20)
- Full circle
- Extension
- CC = two hundred
- Wrestling
- Pedal to the metal
- 100 years ago...
- Someone call the Gendarmes
- When politicization is a step up
- Transfer
- S.O.I.
- What if the tool is no good?
- The simple reason
- Zeroing in
- Embriaguez y escandalo
- Shades
- Conversion
- In transit
- Preeee-sen-ta-tion time, come on!
- Desde la otra costa
- Multi-tasking
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November
(20)
2 comments:
Way to go! Your focus and dedication are really inspiring me. I've been neglecting my proposal and dodging my adviser (who is conveniently finishing a book and can't chase me around :)
Serving as monitor has really reinforced the necessity of deadlines (or at least pledges to one's committee). You're taking a slight extension, but it will allow you to finish your first draft - which will be a great sense of completion.
It also sounds like you have renewed enthusiasm for the work. Write, write, write without self-criticism. You're at a great point where things can be changed and adapted in the future, but you still the satisfaction of reaching a (tentative) end!
Thanks, Jules! That's definitely been the main lesson for me of these six months, is to just get the words down on paper. I was once told that the two main things I would learn in grad school are what not to read and how to write badly. The latter really means giving up the fixation, cultivated in undergrad, with making a semester's term paper perfect, because it's an end product. In grad school, it's just the beginning: articles are constantly revised before and after submission, dissertations go through multiple drafts, books are negotiated with publishers: the important thing is to get it out there and to keep moving forward.
I'm glad to hear you're doing so as well!
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