I had my PhD induction yesterday. It was so cool! I have been a bit freaked out lately about the amount of learning I'm going to have to do, coming from an English/Religous Studies background; the huge gap between MA and PhD work; my general intelligence levels and the like. So I was a bit nervous about the induction. Turns out I shouldn't have worried though! Only two out of eight students have a cultural studies background. The rest come from areas like English, politics and history. So we're all pretty much in the same boat when it comes to learning new things. Paul, our postgrad director, is also lovely - really chilled out and he has a sense of humour! Given he's teaching most of our theory modules over the next semester I think that's going to be a good thing.
There is a lot of work involved. The assesment for the theory module is a short presentation on how we will use the theory that is most relevant to our PhD project (plus submission of handouts and/or presentation notes) and a 3,000 word essay on the same topic. That'll be due someime in December. The topics we're going to cover are:
Semiotics
Encoding/Decoding
Gramsci
Althusser
Orientalism
Foucault
Habermas
Discourse Theory
Postcolonialism
Deconstruction
And I think semiotics is going to be one of the main theories I'll be using. I'm going to be in the States for the Orientalism and Foucault seminars (wonder if there's anyone in the States who can fill me in on Foucault?!) and at the vampires conference for the Discourse Theory seminar, but reading will be posted to our online learning centre and I'm planning on doing a lot of extra reading around the theories anyway.
The methods module is our second semester module, and that covers (funnily enough) methods of research. The assessment for that will be similar to the assessment for the theory module, so that's ok. At the end of the first year we also have to submit a 10,000 word essay covering pretty much what we've done in the first two assessments, plus a bit extra, and do a presentation to the department on the same thing. I'll have done one, probably two and maybe even three conferences by then though, so hopefully I can manage that!
Speaking of conferences, we also get a £400 conference budget so I'm applying to that to get some money towards the conferences I'm presenting at. I also got given a cheque for tuition fees, which I need to put in the bank.
So I'm feeling pretty good about the work. I'm still hoping I win the lottery so I can quit my day job, but my supervisor has said he's going to try and get me as many teaching hours as possible in the second and third years, and the current teaching is being reviewed and revised to allow all those who want to teach the chance to do so, so that's good.
My fellow students seem really nice too. The topics are incredible varied, though there is another girl looking at fandom who seems really cool! We spent ages talking about feminism/gender and the like; I rabbited on about TXF and she filled me in on Supernatural, which I'm going to have to start watching. We've exchanged email addresses too and are sending each other our proposals. I think we'll end up working closely on a few things. My supervisor, Matt Hills, also seems really nice. There was a wine and crisps thing after the induction where we got the chance to meet other PhD students and lecturers, so I spent a lot of that time talking to Matt. He seems pretty cool and I think we'll get on well. I have my first proper meeting with him a week Friday, and I'm hoping he'll tell me that the conferences I'm attending and the papers I'm writing will be enough to not be given additional work (like lit reviews!). We'll see. I'm also meeting one of the current PhD students who's looking at fanfic for a coffee and am really looking forward to that. A friend of mine from the MA knows another recently-finished PhD student who seems really nice, so I'm meeting her next week as well. Yay for meeting people and making friends!
I've got a training event a week Friday on starting out on a PhD, which is organised by the grad centre and is free. They run loads of training events for PhD students, all of which are free and all of which seem really useful, so I've got a few of those that I'd like to go on.
All in all I'm really excited now. I'm looking forward to starting my research properly and getting into seminars properly and generally being a proper PhD student. Yay!
Wednesday 29 September 2010
Wednesday 22 September 2010
The X Files and Psychology
A post a friend of mine made on LJ the other day got me thinking again about something I'd been thinking about the other day - academic books and The X Files. For the papers I'm writing I've been getting a lot of 'The Philosophy of...' books. A 'Philosophy of The X Files' book does exist. A 'Psychology of The X Files' book, however, doesn't. So guess who's now (semi-seriously) considering trying to get together an anthology of essays called 'The Psychology of The X Files'? That's right - as if I didn't have enough to do!
I'm half thinking I should get my arse in gear and actually approach a publisher (I've found one who seems to fit the bill) with a query and see if they'd be interested. I planned to write a 'Philosophy of The X Files' book for years and then Dean A. Kowalski got in there first. Of course, starting a PhD, working full time and writing three papers (for conferences and journals) - all by next April - might be a bit of a sticking point. Not to mention this post makes the whole process sound like a nightmare. But just out of curiousity, would anyone be interested in reading/contributing to such an anthology if one existed?
I'm half thinking I should get my arse in gear and actually approach a publisher (I've found one who seems to fit the bill) with a query and see if they'd be interested. I planned to write a 'Philosophy of The X Files' book for years and then Dean A. Kowalski got in there first. Of course, starting a PhD, working full time and writing three papers (for conferences and journals) - all by next April - might be a bit of a sticking point. Not to mention this post makes the whole process sound like a nightmare. But just out of curiousity, would anyone be interested in reading/contributing to such an anthology if one existed?
Sunday 19 September 2010
More Conferences
So, another abstract I wrote has been accepted for a conference! In November (two-ish weeks after coming back from New York) I'll be at De Montfort in Leciester talking about gender in the Vampire Slayer and the Twilight series in front of a load of academics at the Vampires, VILFs and Fangbangers conference! This is the absstract I sent in:
Buffy vs. Bella: Gender, Relationships and the Modern Vampire
No one familiar with Bram Stoker's Dracula could fail to recognise the scantily-clad female on the balcony, luring the vampire with her pale bosom and heaving chest. Stoker's Dracula, like many other vampire texts, painted women in very traditional, if opposing, lights: Lucy Westenra, empty-headed and flirtatious, dependent on men for both approval and support; and Mina Harker, embodying purity, innocence, and Christian faith - virtues she retained despite being bitten by the Count.
Modern vampire stories, however, have moved on from these traditional depictions of gender. Today's women wear jeans and high heels, carry stakes in their purses and like their men (vampires) to be in touch with their feminine side. Or do they? This paper examines the portrayal of women in modern vampire stories in terms of gender and relationships. I will be comparing Buffy the Vampire Slayer with Bella of the Twilight series, assessing their roles as 'strong' women and examining the ways in which the characters interact with the men in their lives (Angel and Edward respectively) to determine whether vampires, modern men and feminism really can go hand in hand.
And here's the one I sent in for the erotic adaptations conference:
Slow Evolution: ‘First Time Fics’ and The X-Files Porn Parody
Chris Carter once said that he “didn't want [The X-Files] to be another Moonlighting. [He] didn't want the relationship to come before the cases” ruling out the possibility of a relationship between the two main characters. While this did change by the end of the show, the unresolved sexual tension that existed through the course of the series, particularly in seasons one to seven, gave fanfiction writers reason to create their own erotic adaptations.
For a fandom that coined the term ‘shipper’, it is not surprising that a large number of stories concerning Mulder and Scully’s relationship have been written. It is perhaps less surprising that a high percentage of these are ‘first time fics’, dealing with the agents’ first sexual encounter. But this is also a subject that the 2009 porn parody (The Sex Files: A Dark XX Parody) chose to deal with. In this paper I wish to explore the interaction between the canon text, the fan fiction texts which have arisen from it, and The Sex Files: A Dark XX Parody, to examine the appeal of ‘first time fics’ and the ways in which prior readings of the text(s) led to the development of the porn parody.
I've got one more abstract submitted, which has a deadline of October 1st, so we'll see then if I'll be presenting another paper (on science v magic in The X Files). Got my work cut out for me the next few months!
Buffy vs. Bella: Gender, Relationships and the Modern Vampire
No one familiar with Bram Stoker's Dracula could fail to recognise the scantily-clad female on the balcony, luring the vampire with her pale bosom and heaving chest. Stoker's Dracula, like many other vampire texts, painted women in very traditional, if opposing, lights: Lucy Westenra, empty-headed and flirtatious, dependent on men for both approval and support; and Mina Harker, embodying purity, innocence, and Christian faith - virtues she retained despite being bitten by the Count.
Modern vampire stories, however, have moved on from these traditional depictions of gender. Today's women wear jeans and high heels, carry stakes in their purses and like their men (vampires) to be in touch with their feminine side. Or do they? This paper examines the portrayal of women in modern vampire stories in terms of gender and relationships. I will be comparing Buffy the Vampire Slayer with Bella of the Twilight series, assessing their roles as 'strong' women and examining the ways in which the characters interact with the men in their lives (Angel and Edward respectively) to determine whether vampires, modern men and feminism really can go hand in hand.
And here's the one I sent in for the erotic adaptations conference:
Slow Evolution: ‘First Time Fics’ and The X-Files Porn Parody
Chris Carter once said that he “didn't want [The X-Files] to be another Moonlighting. [He] didn't want the relationship to come before the cases” ruling out the possibility of a relationship between the two main characters. While this did change by the end of the show, the unresolved sexual tension that existed through the course of the series, particularly in seasons one to seven, gave fanfiction writers reason to create their own erotic adaptations.
For a fandom that coined the term ‘shipper’, it is not surprising that a large number of stories concerning Mulder and Scully’s relationship have been written. It is perhaps less surprising that a high percentage of these are ‘first time fics’, dealing with the agents’ first sexual encounter. But this is also a subject that the 2009 porn parody (The Sex Files: A Dark XX Parody) chose to deal with. In this paper I wish to explore the interaction between the canon text, the fan fiction texts which have arisen from it, and The Sex Files: A Dark XX Parody, to examine the appeal of ‘first time fics’ and the ways in which prior readings of the text(s) led to the development of the porn parody.
I've got one more abstract submitted, which has a deadline of October 1st, so we'll see then if I'll be presenting another paper (on science v magic in The X Files). Got my work cut out for me the next few months!
Tuesday 14 September 2010
Abstract Accepted!
I've had one of my abstracts accepted for a conference in January! I sent it off to the chap running it last night and got a reply this morning saying that it sounds perfect for the symposium and he'll emil me confirmation after the deadline. It's an erotic adaptations symposium and I'm going to talk about 'first time' fics in the XF fandom, as well as the porn parody. So yeah, I'll be talking about porn in front of a bunch of academics! What have I let myself in for?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)