So on 13 July I get my first comprehensive exam question. I have a week to write the answer, which will come to approximately 45 pages.
In this answer I have to use every single one of the 25 required sources with which I was provided when I was given my list back at the beginning of April. If not, I fail. No questions asked. In addition, while it is not required, "it will be noted" if I use any of the other 30 optional sources I was given, and will also "be noted" if I use any sources outside of the list when writing my answer.
I will be graded in one of three ways: Fail. Pass. Pass with Distinction. I can only pass with distinction if I write a wicked good answer using pretty much every source ever found. Including some that haven't yet been found. And if I get Pass with Distinction on ALL THREE of my exams, then I get "DISTINCTION" written on my transcript. Which, in the end, means nothing, and, as Eeyore kindly assured me, "nobody gets a full distinction. Except Reade" (Dr. Amazing). Thanks Eeyore.
Anyway, here's the to-do. I have 7 more books to go through in their entirety, and only four weeks to read them in. The original plan was to read a book and a journal article per week for 13 weeks and I would be golden. But of course the best laid plans and yahda yahda yahda . . . I've got all my journal articles out of the way, but I got stuck on a couple of really boring books and now I'm seriously behind.
So I really need to hammer down but I'm finding it tough to motivate myself to sit there and immerse myself in culture and rights discourse on the politics of identity. I mean really. The last book I read was on intellectual property law as it related to cultural appropriation and the rights of the oppressed minorities. FASCINATING. I mean I can make myself interested in this stuff to a point but it's really not my schtick. I'm looking forward to my next list, which should, if I played my cards right, be on ethnographies of sport, and, because I was asked to compile a list of books I thought would be good ethnographies, be ethnographies that I already own or always wanted to own and can now buy with no reservations.
But until then, I need to focus on this school thing. Forget the wedding, forget my trip home -- it's all about the readings.
Posted by Ally at June 14, 2009 02:04 PM