Ground rules

Well, tomorrow's the big day, and I'm both excited and a little scared. For those of you who will be monitoring my progress, here's my working definition of what constitutes a "good day": a four-hour block of writing, and a two-hour block of reading/ruminating/research. Anything less than that gets a slap on the wrist, anything more gets a gold star. If I can do that every weekday from June to December, I should be in good shape!

That definition of a "good day" may change as I get into the writing process, but let's start with that as a ground rule. Here we go, the next post will be after the end of Day 1!

Countdown to June 1

This Friday, June 1, I start writing full-time after three wonderful years as Program Director with Hispanics in Philanthropy, a terrific nonprofit organization. I've rented writing space at a writer's studio near my apartment, and am looking forward to this new stage!

Here we go!

Welcome to my dissertation blog. I'm a doctoral candidate in Political Science at UC Berkeley. My dissertation is about the institutional design of security forces in Latin America and its impact on regime stability. In English? Pay attention to who controls the police - and how it relates to the army - and you'll know better what kinds of armed challenges the government is likely to face over time.

Here's a powerpoint based on my poster presentation at the American Political Science Association conference in September 2006 that summarizes the argument.

Here's a paper that I wrote for the Latin American Studies Association conference in March 2006 that examines my case study, Colombia, in greater detail.

On this blog, I'll be tracking my progress toward my goal of completing my dissertation by December 2007. Wish me luck, and come back to check up on me!