Post-Examalyptic

Wow..it’s only been more than a month since the Field Exam experience ended. A few people pinged me through other channels and I now realized that I never gave an “all-clear” here on the blog. In case you hadn’t heard, I passed!

Thanks again to everyone for their support and encouragement through the whole process.

Many of you expressed great confidence in the outcome, but truth be told, it was a bumpy ride in the end. I may have cut the balance between inputs and outputs a little too close to the bone on this one. The pressures of getting it all down on paper in the space of two weeks again reminded me the weaknesses in my approach to writing (namely, wait for the Muses to show-up and then write like a madman). Let’s just say that those answers won’t be seeing the light of day anytime soon. Thankfully, I was able to pull my bacon out of the fire in the oral defense. I’ve come out of this feeling a little humbled and with lots of things to think about in terms of what I’m doing and where I go next.

I know he hears this all the time, but without Jorge Cham, I don’t know how many of us would keep our sanity doing this. Thanks to his important “research,” I know I’m not alone in suffering the “post-quals” slump.

So what happens next?

I’m now entering Phase III: The Dissertation (the final phase) of the program. By the end of next fall I hope to have completed the first part of that, the Dissertation Proposal/Preliminary Examination. Depending on how things go I may try to schedule a defense before the close of the fall semester, but I think a more realistic expectation will be to hold in the beginning of the Spring 2009 semester. That’s still a little ahead of the timeline expected by the department (and the slightly more aggressive timeline I set for myself).

So what’s your dissertation going to be on, Richard? Huh? Huh? Tell us, tell us!

At this point I’m still undecided. Fortunately it’s not for lack of ideas, but too many tempting options. While I’ve been here I’ve jumped around and explored a number of different approaches, topics and methodologies that I can bring to bear on the dissertation. In the exam, I tried hard to stretch the boundaries around some of my different interests. I think this made my job harder rather than easier – and left me feeling a little like a jack-of-all-trades and a master of none. Lesson learned.

Everyone I’ve talked to so far has said the same thing – make the dissertation about something that you’re passionate about. It’s a long slog and your topic needs to be something that motivates you through the highs and the lows (see figure above). Lately I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about the questions that brought me here in the first place, the things that I’ve picked up since arriving, and where I’d like to be when I’m finished. Ultimately this means some things will have to be put on the back-burner or dropped altogether.

The plan at the moment is to brainstorm lots of questions without much commitment to any of them. Using these as a start, I’ll write up a few different proposal ideas that will be shared with colleagues for comment, criticism and improvement. I will settle on a topic by the end of the summer so I can form a proposal committee as soon as the fall semester starts. If all goes well, I’ll have a draft done by December and maybe a scheduled defense (although I’m leaving a little wiggle room – might not be until late January).

In the meantime, I’m feeling the need to do some more regular blogging here. I’ve decided to turn the work I did this spring in Ontology Development into a little blog series. Stay tuned for “Creating a CDWA Ontology.”