word count...

Thesis stands at 45,000 words.

lost momentum

This hasn't been a very productive Autumn for one reason and another. Will need to regain momentum in the new year...

Two years left...

I have exactly two years until I need to have completed my PhD.

As it stands now, I have about 40,000 words of my thesis written, so I guess I'm on target...

Re-registered for year 3

Have re-registered at Sussex for the third year of my PhD.

First paper accepted at a conference

I've just heard that my paper proposal on 'EU democracy promotion: The view from Brussels' has been accepted for the conference ‘The European Union: Finding its Role in a Changing World’ at King's College, London on Fri 30 Sep.

Hooray!

End of year 2

Had my annual review yesterday and it went fine, so I have formally finished year 2 of the PhD!

My literature review article has finally been published today!

http://www.jcer.net/ojs/index.php/jcer/article/view/363

First fieldwork trip to Brussels

So, I've just got back from my first fieldwork trip to Brussels. I did four interviews with officials from the European Commission, including the DG for Enlargement. They all went very well and once I have transcribed the audio recordings I hope to have some good data to form the basis of a paper / thesis chapter.

First fieldwork trip booked

Have just booked my first fieldwork trip to Brussels for 9-12 May.

Writing

Have been working on writing descriptive accounts of my three primary case study countries - Poland, Croatia and Ukraine. It is a good exercise to make me really think, and so far I have done 3,000 words on Croatia and Ukraine and about half that for Poland. I'm hoping that these can form the basis of a chapter of my thesis, and hopefully a publishable article.

JCER reviewer's comments

Got the reviewer's comments back on the article I submitted to the JCER and they are largely positive and they say they are interested in publishing it, with revisions in some areas. Very pleased!

Brussels interviews

Last week I sent out a first wave of emails to potential interview targets in Brussels, and I've had a really good response. Only sent out 10 emails and I've got 7 or 8 positives already!

So now I'm going to figure out some dates and get some meetings with these people set up, maybe for late March / before Easter.

Contacts in Brussels

Had a good meeting yesterday with Prof Alan Mayhew about contacts in Brussels. He was very helpful in identifying potential interview targets in the DG Enlargement of the European Commission, and the new European External Action Service, and also with specialists working in think tanks.

So now I need to start making contacts and trying to line up some meetings. I'm still aiming to get to Brussels before Easter to do the first round of interviews.

Article submitted

Just submitted by literature review article to the Journal of Contemporary European Research. Having worked on it for ages, my supervisors suggested I submit it and see what response it gets. So, we'll see what happens...

Fieldwork year

Well, 2011 is going to be a big year. I am aiming to get my fieldwork trips done, hopefully from around March to June. I need to go to Brussels, Kiev, Waraw and Zagreb, each for around 1-2 weeks. So here goes...