On tap

I have been officially finished with all tasks pertaining the second year of doctoral study for over a month now. Which means I’ve started preparing, with a few existential hiccups and hang-ups along the way, for the primary task pertaining to the third year: the preliminary exam, or prelims as we call them.

Prelims in my discipline means a two hour oral examination covering two reading lists that are meant propose two fields of study. I get to pick the fields and make the lists–there’s no required texts, but my committee does have to approve whatever I pick. My fields are: Multiethnic US Literatures Post-1850 and Life Writing. No one has ever accused me of being too focused! The combined total for my two lists is currently running around 240 books (roughly 60% primary and 40% critical) with the goal to chop it to no more than 200 by the end and preferably more like 150. How that is going to happen, I’m not entirely sure, as I am an unrepentant comparatist (comparativist?) and that means having a chunk of foundational knowledge in a lot of different areas. But, the basic roadmap is in front of me.

I’m hoping to blog on a regular basis both about what I’m reading and how I’m fitting it into the jigsawed horizon I call my intellectual framework. And if I’m doing that, I’ll probably also be reflecting on just where all this work I’m doing fits in to the work of being a citizen and human being–another way of saying, fresh off a contract year of union volunteering, I’m feeling like the words “political” and “activism” need to be used to describe ways of being, not side projects that must inevitably detract from my professional work. And while I’m doing that, I’m also hoping to have a summer of consummate Michigander-ness, replete with Oberon, long runs in ungodly humidity, and tornado watches.

Hopefully, I’ll be back quite soon for a report on how all that’s going.