This paper – sorry – blog post consists of two parts. One is confused ramblings of someone revising their first solo paper for an academic journal. The other is some practical advice – not from me, but from my peers, on how not to blow the word limit in the revision process and what to […]
Tag: social science
On teaching not to transgress, or Not embodying ‘real utopias’, or My first lecture
‘Real utopias can be found wherever emancipatory ideals are embodied in existing institutions, practices, and proposals’ – said I. I was citing Erik Olin Wright. It was a lecture on ‘Sustainability, democracy and gender’, and I stood there, feeling unsustainably undemocratic, and I would get a very low score from gender scholars, as there was […]
On (not?) co-authoring, or The death of the author, or It takes a village to write a paper
Despite the death of the author having been announced a while ago (reference here – in case you missed it), a point in time comes when a PhD student needs to put some name(s) on their first paper draft (in progress, in progress, and still in progress – does the status ever change?). I did […]
On taking criticism of your work, or No post on Sundays, or Off to the garden
During a break on a ‘garden day’ at my son’s preschool on a fine October afternoon, sipping bryggkaffe from a paper cup, I see an email from my supervisor flash on my phone screen. ‘I have struggled with your draft. I found it difficult to read…’, she writes. This is as far as the email […]
What we [don’t] say to our supervisors, Or the price of a ‘really good work’
Student (Mon 8.46): Dear Supervisor. Would you have the time to look at my abstract if I sent it to you today? The abstract which I haven’t even begun to write. The abstract for a non-existent article which I haven’t begun to write and might not for a very long time. Supervisor (Mon 8.47): Yes. […]
On schools of fish, or Open-heart surgery as an encounter with (post-)Theory
What ifIt was as simpleAs the gentle terrorOf falling snow[…] The jury is in – I got the feedback on my Political Discourse Theory course assignment, and now I have no excuse not to write about the experience of my first head-on collision with theory. Despite discovering early on that Laclau and Mouffe go down […]
On dancing with the shawl, faux pas, and being chiselled through research training
El mantón, the flamenco shawl, refuses to do my bidding. It refuses to levitate in the air in front of me, in order to then fall softly on my chest – like it levitates in front of my teacher and then falls on hers, right under her collar bones and covering her entire wide-open arms. […]
On power, self-doubt, and the collective nature of novel-writing
The day I held in my hands a book written by one of my supervisors (physical, i.e. IRL ink on IRL paper), the other sent me an email. The ones and zeroes assembled themselves to spell out, digital ink on digital paper: ‘difficult work’ and ‘tough ask’ (I had to etymologically trace the latter all […]
On vueltas, roots, and the (field)work of love
In Latcho Drom, a music film by Tony Gatlif, there is a footage which invariably enthrals me: a Rajasthani girl performing pirouettes. Her back is bent at ninety degrees to the rest of her body, almost parallel to the ground, and she uses her arm as the centre of the propelling motion with which she […]
On deconstruction, acute social theory overdose, and Guernica
In the first couple of weeks of my PhD, I made the mistake of reading The Structure of Sociological Theory by Jonathan H. Turner. It’s an old book and somewhat out-of-date (at least the edition I had), but I just happened to run into it in India and brought it home. Not that it wasn’t […]
Fathom 