Upheaval...

That paper on Stoppard is still due...tomorrow; and I'm still working on it. It should be okay as long as I don't break any typing fingers between now and then.

However there are bigger problems in my academic universe. Dr. Snarky just announced her resignation. She is moving on to greener pastures. If I were further along in this comps/dissertation process it wouldn't be a problem. She'd be able to stay on my committees (which she's already said she'd be willing to do). Unfortunately I haven't even turned in my paperwork yet. Now I have to find someone else who does what she does. That person doesn't exist here. There are maybe two possibilities. One is another professor in the department, who tangentially does similar things, but very tangentially. The other is a new professor in another department. The problem is, I haven't worked with either of these people.
There is a tentative plan to work with the professor from the other department over the summer, but who knows if/how that will turn out.

Ultimately, this is good for Dr. Snarky. She might not be labeled that way at a different university. This is also definitely a move up as far as name recognition goes. It just sucks for me. We've worked pretty closely together, and I'll miss her.

Sporadic items

Moving into the end of the semester it’s time to start thinking about paper topics. In fact I should be working on a 10 page mid-term paper that is due to Dr. Chat by Thursday. However, I’m also trying to get a proposal ready for Dr. Snarky for the same day. Dr. Snarky’s proposal is going to double as a conference proposal as well, which is making it difficult. Dr. S will be fine with the situation. I’m just making it difficult. The conference is one that I would consider a major conference in my field. The CFP for this year should be perfect for me. It is exactly my area. For some reason I’m just blanking on it. Coming up with an angle relevant to my own work to write about an obtuse Tom Stoppard trilogy was definitely easier.

At least with the Stoppard there was an artifact to examine. The problem here is coming up with that artifact. There are a few ideas floating around in my head, but they seem too much like things I’ve already done. I don’t necessarily want to spend the rest of my life writing about television and/or political campaigns. Well, actually, maybe I do. I guess I’d just like to know I can write about other things too. So, the questions I need to answer to figure all this out for myself --- What is Civic Discourse? What do I want to say about it?