RAE result

The Research Assessment Exercise results came out today and ranked the Sussex European Institute as joint second best in the country for European studies. So that's really good, and it should mean in the medium to long term more resources. It would be nice if it had some impact on my chances of getting funding for my DPhil, but I doubt it will!

DPhil application

Did my online application to Sussex for my DPhil place today. An important step!

Funding proposal

Had supervision the other day and received lots of detailed feedback on my research funding proposal. So much work to do on it ! The meeting did leave me feeling a little intellectually bruised though.

Which is fine, as I now have until mid Jan til my next supervision meeting - so a good month to work on it. I know the time until it has to be submitted (around mid March I think) will go very quickly, and I'll have next term's MSc coursework to do as well.

Tuition fee rebate

Pleased to discover that as a Sussex alumnus I will get a 300 quid rebate on my MSc tuition fees, payable in January.

Spending more money on books

Recent purchases from Blackwells in Oxford:

'Comparative Politics' - B Guy Peters

'Kosovo: What everyone needs to know' - Tim Judah

'Turkey Decoded' - Ann Dismorr

I'm keen to get a quick handle on some of the potential case study countries. Having read a few about Turkey, I could do with finding some accessible introductions to Croatia, Serbia and Ukraine.

When mind maps go bad

When mind maps go bad
Originally uploaded by powerfulpierre

I tried doing a mind map today but it got a bit out of hand.

Essay #2 done / book review

Very glad to say I've finished my second and final assessed essay for this term. It was for the philosophy course and I did it on interpretative social science / social constructionism / discourse theory. Not sure how good it is - I'm just glad it's done.

Now I can concentrate on my research project. And I've been offered a book review to do which should be good experience. It's a book called 'Transnational Actors in Central and Eastern European Transitions' for a journal called Slavonic and East European Review. Have got three months to do it and it's only 750 words.

First essay finished

Well, I've finished my first essay. 4000 words on mixed methods research. I think it's okay, but I'm mainly just glad to have done it at all and got back into writing, referencing etc.

Next essay is 4000 words for the philosophy course. I'm thinking of doing it on Kuhn and Foucault but I'm not totally sure. I think it's going to be a much harder task. I've got til mid Jan for both of these anyway... as usual I'm working way ahead of deadline.

In the meantime, seeing one of my supervisors next week to present the mini literature review I've been doing, talk about the potential gaps in the literature and look at my research questions.

First essay

Well, today I have written the first 1500 words or so of the first academic essay I have done in nearly a decade. It feels good to have made some real progress, but it's made my brain hurt! I just hope when I read it back tomorrow I don't think it's complete rubbish. Oh, it's about so-called 'mixed methods research' i.e. using both quantitative and qualitative methods.

Obama victory

Can't really not mention the historic Obama victory. I stayed up watching the results come in and then to see his speach at around 5am our time. Truly inspiring.

On a broader note, there will hopefully be an increased interest in politics in general, at least for a short time. And wouldn't it be wonderful if Europe could generate a leader of the same calibre - then we might really get somewhere.

Literature review

Good day's work today trying to sum up and categorise the existing literature on EU conditionality and look for gaps. It's really got my brain working and generating possible research questions. It is striking how often the conclusions made by authors don't seem to be backed up by any real evidence. In looking for gaps in the literature it's also hard to know if those gaps are there for very good reasons i.e. it's not an interesting gap, or it's too hard to research in that gap.

Brain hurts

Currently trying to summarise the literature on EU political conditionality in order to then identify the gap(s) for where my project will sit.

I've read so much about this topic but I'm finding it really hard to sum it all up. And how are you meant to know if you've covered what is already out there? I think I know the key authors, but given the range of potential case study countries I have, there could be much more out there that I don't yet know about.

Hmm

Didn't have a very good week last week. Missed the second philosophy seminar and I'm a bit worried about being able to get into the subject material for that course.

Have bought new books - Intro to social research by a Mr Punch, and I have re-bought a book I used to own called What is this thing called science? by Chalmers, which I think is a bit of an old classic.

So, week three next week and I'm hoping things will pick up a bit. I think it's harder than I thought to get my academic head back on, after years of non-academic work thinking, which is completely different.

Second course begins

Well, had introductory seminar today for my other MSc course, Research Design in a Cross-cultural context. Another large group, but at least this time the tutors got us talking to each other straight away. There's only 6 seminars for this course, covering things like ethics, formulating research questions, and what methodology to use. I'm hoping it will be useful for my research proposal.

Also used the postgrad work room this morning, and met D who is in the third year of his PhD. I think I will try out working on campus more rather than at home, where there are two many distractions.

Round table on the credit crunch tomorrow, and second philosophy seminar.

Let battle commence...

So, I've started the MSc course that I hope will lead on to my PhD. The very beginning of what will be a long and challenging, but I hope also rewarding and interesting, process.

The full title of the MSc I'm only going to type out once - Cross Cultural and Comparative Research Methods (Contemporary European Studies) - henceforth to be known as CCRM.

Had my first proper seminar last week for the course about the philosophy of social science. Was a bit disappointed really - the group was large and the tutor was not exactly very engaging. But, it's okay, it's only a ten week course and I'm hoping that having studied some of the subject matter before will help me with the 4000 word essay due in mid Jan. It mainly made me think about how I would have run the seminar differently - split into small groups, etc.

Next week the other course starts, the one about designing a research project. I'm hoping that will be more directly useful, although I'm a bit concerned that it is very influenced by anthropology approaches and reading material. We'll see.

Other than that, it's continuing reading on my main topic for my research funding proposal - which is to do with the changing nature of EU democratic conditionality. Read a good journal article today about Turkey, which emphasised the domestic political aspects and how conditionality alone doesn't provide an adequate explanation of the political reforms.

Roll on week 2 of term!