Hey guys, my sister is currently doing her psychology dissertation on the individuals decision making regarding environmental choices. It would be a HUGE help if you could participant in the questionnaire linked below. All personal information will be recorded as anonymous from those participating and the researchers. (See link below)
I’m currently in my final year studying BA History and Politics, and am in the process of applying for a scholarship to study MA History of Medicine. For the application I need to write an diss proposal, it only needs to be a side of A4 and I have some ideas but no idea how to tell if they have potential or where to take them from here. If anyone has any advice or experience with these sorts of applications or with the field it would be amazing to run some ideas past you. Thanks!
THE LODGER: A STORY OF THE LONDON FOG (1927) PADDINGTON (2014) GHOSTBUSTERS (1984) THE SIXTH SENSE (1999) BEST SELLERS (2021) THE LIGHTHOUSE (2019) 10 THINGS I HATE ABOUT YOU (1999) MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE - FALLOUT (2018) VERTIGO (1958) NOW YOU SEE ME 2 (2016) THE SPIRAL STAIRCASE (1946)
So… Throughout the last 6 months, I’ve been coordinating with a teaching faculty member on a BIG mandatory tutoring project that he began to support the subject of his dissertation. Today, he told me that my name will be included in any research he publishes for the dissertation! Holy cow, am I excited! I might even get to take part in writing the conclusion. This might be smol beans but I’m stoked nonetheless!
you know that thing when you’re trying to write an analytical paper (cough cough dissertation) and you read an article that inspires your next draft? yeah i slowly worked my way through like 125 pages of scholarship the past couple days and i think i’m ready to frame my chapter 3 so that’s exciting
Spent all day yesterday battling the horrors of MHRA referencing (if all your citations are in footnotes, your word count drops dramatically, NATCH) and smashing my bibliography. Six hours of peering at document footers has left my neck feeling like this…
A brief moment of relief as I wait for dissertation edits . . #york #england #englandtourism #englandtrip #yorkshire #unuversity #uni #masters #dissertation #photooftheday #photobooth #photography #buildings #blog #bloggers https://www.instagram.com/p/B1cCwD1F_-F/?igshid=u22sq00197op
Now that I’m left to my own devices with dissertation writing, I’m going to try to take artistic mental breaks, here’s the first doodle for the journal ~ it’s been quite a while since I’ve done any drawing! . . . #コーヒー #japanese #japan #coffee #coffeeshop #draw #drawing #art #artist #pencil #anime #drawings #doodle #archaeology #dissertation #masters #studyblr #gradblr #journal https://www.instagram.com/p/ByV_sPYgAwv/?igshid=z2d9914pl91y
Some version of these things is now my one-step-short-of-OFFICIAL dissertation topic! As such, get ready to see a lot of fire around here for the next… oh, hundred years.
Our WiFi has been down for the past two days, and it was finally getting to that point when we could no longer put off finishing our dissertation proposals and so, here we are in the library. Altho, I swear I have never seen these seats before in my life. Was doing some Latin as well cus as long as there’s no WiFi I will buy drinks (read: my friend bought me drinks :)) and vibe!! Also, in case y'all were wondering, the Latin test went amazingly!!! I don’t know if I’ve already said this, so if I have, my apologies :))
I’m spending this crisp winter’s day on my couch with my Behati-blessing napping on my legs, while I read Harry Potter for my dissertation. I honestly couldn’t be happier
Tomorrow I begin my first day of work as a postdoc at the University of Denver, which means that my PhD chapter has officially come to a close. It feels like an appropriate time to post the acknowledgements for my dissertation, “Reluctant Reception: Understanding Migration and Refugee Policy in Egypt, Morocco and Turkey,” which will otherwise just end up in a library archive never to be read by anyone.
Acknowledgements
I began this project in 2012, just following the Arab Spring and as Syrians were only beginning to seek refuge in neighboring countries. I did not anticipate, as I was finishing fieldwork in the summer of 2015, that the migration and refugee ‘crises’ I had been researching would suddenly become front-page news in Europe, the United States and across the world. What had been a niche topic as I was writing proposals, seeking out contacts and conducting interviews, suddenly became mainstream. Initially this seemed promising: increased attention would mean increased support in terms of international funding and perhaps even refugee resettlement. But the momentary global sympathy after the body of three-year old Aylan Kurdi washed up on a Turkish beach quickly dissipated, and was replaced by xenophobic nationalism, anti-immigration platforms, and calls for reinforced borders.
Against this backdrop, the process of writing this dissertation between 2015 and 2017 was difficult. Often I felt that my efforts would have been better directed toward activism or public engagement that attempted to counter some of the racist and exclusionary rhetoric that has become so prominent. But I persisted in my efforts because I believe that the topic addressed in this dissertation is a critical yet neglected component of the broader contemporary migration picture: the reception of migrants and refugees in the states that are arguably doing the most ‘work.’ As I have written elsewhere, countries in the Middle East and North Africa need to be taken seriously by the international community and donor countries. These states are not mere migrant or refugee hosting vessels, and their incentives should be better understood.
While my focus in this study is primarily on the host state, the interviews I conducted with individual migrants and refugees living in Egypt, Morocco and Turkey formed the backbone of my thinking for this project. I am extremely grateful to everyone who was willing to share his or her story and time so generously, as this research would not have been possible without the insight of lived experiences. I am not overly optimistic that the circumstances—poverty, war, insecurity—driving individuals from their homes will suddenly resolve themselves in the near future, nor am I optimistic that the countries and regions—Europe, North America, Australia—currently barring these people from access will suddenly change their policies and permit them to enter legally and safely. But as a collective result of the conversations I had with men, women, and families in make-shift homes, tents and coffeeshops, I am optimistic that migrants and refugees will persevere, even in the face of closed and fortified borders and absent meaningful international protection. These individuals are more tenacious and brave than they are ever given credit for in the media, and while many are victims, all are resilient, resourceful and imaginative, willing to see a future in a new home despite the many obstacles en route.
This research required extensive, multi-country and multi-visit fieldwork, and I am eternally grateful to the many friends, family members, colleagues, and strangers who assisted me along the way. Thank you to the various foundations and centers that provided financial support for this project, including the Department of Political Science at the University of California, Irvine, the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, the Project on Middle East Political Science, the Kugelman Center for Citizen Peacebuilding, the Center for Peace and Conflict Studies, and the Center for Research on Immigration, Population & Public Policy. Thank you also to the Center for Migration and Refugee Studies at the American University in Cairo and the Center for Migration Research at Istanbul Bilgi University for hosting me while I was in Egypt and Turkey respectively.
I am extremely grateful for the tireless mentorship of my advisor, Louis DeSipio, and my committee members, Sara Wallace Goodman and Kamal Sadiq. They were encouraging of this project since its inception, and very understanding of my need to be away from California frequently, always willing to offer advice by phone, email or Skype. They also read seemingly endless drafts of this dissertation, particularly Chapter 2, and pushed me to think more critically and coherently about what it means for a state to enact a ‘non-policy.’ In addition, many colleagues graciously read or listened to parts of this dissertation in various forms and provided invaluable feedback. In particular, I would like to thank Fiona Adamson, Hannah Alarian, Rawan Arar, Ibrahim Awad, Ilka Eickhof, Lisel Hintz, James Hollifield, Karen Jacobsen, Michael Kagan, Audie Klotz, Lev Marder, Erin McGrath, Dana Moss, Lama Mourad, Carrie Reiling, Craig Damien Smith, Leila Tayeb, Phil Triadafilopoulos, and Gerasimos Tsourapas for their advice and encouragement. I am also grateful to the organizers and participants of the ‘Forced Displacement in the Middle East’ workshop at the Middle East Centre at the London School of Economics, the ‘Regional Security Complexes in the European Union and its Neighbourhood: a Critical Reflection’ workshop at the University of Dundee, the ‘Comparative Responses to Asylum Seeking in Europe, Australia, the U.S., and Middle East’ workshop at the Center for Comparative Immigration Studies at the University of California, San Diego, and ‘The Stakes of the Middle East and North Africa Migration Studies’ workshop at the Moise A. Khayrallah Center for Lebanese Diaspora Studies at North Carolina State University, for the opportunity to present early stages of this work.
I am deeply indebted to the family and friends who hosted me between 2012 and 2017, whether for a night, a week, or several months at a time. I could not have done the traveling that I needed to do for this project without your kindness and hospitality. Lastly, my thanks go to my father, Jon Norman, for being a proponent of the PhD endeavor from the get-go (for better or worse), and to my mother, Deborah Norman, for her unwavering confidence in my abilities. And of course endless thanks go to my husband, Mohammed Ali, both for his willingness to draw many iterations of the diagrams in this dissertation, and, more importantly, for his love, patience, and ability to always see the bright side
I’m starting my main research into my Masters dissertation now.
At the minute I have three sort of key areas that I want to focus on: drag, feminist theory, iconic women’s “fashion equipment” (meaning things which are inherently part of a woman’s day to day life, not just clothes).
Reading a lot of general background texts to get me going at the moment. If you see anything you think is relevant or know any writers/artists/even drag artists, let me know. I’ll be forever grateful.
I’ll possibly start another dedicated blog for this project, so only the really relevant posts etc go there. Maybe, I haven’t decided yet. Only been working on this project for four days so far!
Summer Fieldwork 2018- Suwannee chert outcrop in northwest Florida. I will be sampling this location later this summer. Samples collected here will be characterized using neutron activation analysis (NAA) and laser ablation-inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometery!
1 am. Brain fried, kidneys sore, heart beating ridiculously hard, so I distract myself with looking for the most ridiculous fonts for my dissertation. My favorite by a long shot is the last one. It would probably still make as much sense as if I wrote it in fucking Times New Roman.
Listening, wishing I could be sitting outside with a cup of coffee and some pen and paper. Wishing I could read all the books lying about in my room. So soon, so soon. Hopefully this month won’t kill me, and then I’ll be free. All those books, all those unwritten words, all those train rides. So soon.
Hallo liebe Bücherfreundeich hoffe, Ihr seid alle wohlauf und es geht Euch gut. Bei mir hat sich in letzter Zeit einiges getan. Ich bin jetzt offiziell Dr. phil. Melanie C. Das bedeutet, dass meine Arbeit nun online publiziert wurde und mir der Doktortitel nicht mehr aberkannt kann. Darüber bin ich sehr froh, denn die ganze Überarbeitung meiner Dissertation war wirklich sehr nervenaufreibend und…
