Dr Stevens (pending minor corrections)…

So I passed! Here I am in the pub shortly after my viva, holding my thesis (check out all the post-it notes…).

I’m not sure I prepared myself in the best possible way for the viva since at 10am on the same morning I was still editing my article from the Paris conference I attended in January (the deadline for submissions for contributions to the publications of the proceedings was the same day and, unusually, I had left it to the last minute). The viva itself was a surprisingly enjoyable experience. The examiners (Professor Charles Forsdick from Liverpool, French Studies and Dr Beverley Butler, UCL, Institute of Archaeology (Museum and Heritage Studies)) kindly put me out of my misery at the start and after that we just had a very interesting chat about my work. They gave me lots of helpful suggestions for things I might want to consider or bring out more when it comes to turning it into a book, which I feel encouraged to try to do. When they’d finished with their questions they sent me out for 10 minutes or so while they wrote up their report and then called me back in to say I passed with A1, which means no corrections (apart from typos).

For anyone interested in the viva experience I’m going to be contributing to a set of videos for the igrs research training site PORT where recent PhDs talk about their experience of the viva and of going for job interviews. Filming is scheduled to take place in the next few weeks and hopefully they’ll be up on line before too long (I’ll update this post when they are).

One of the things they were particularly interested in – and of which I didn’t make that much in my write-up – was this blog and the specific contribution it had made to the research experience. I talked about the inspiration, in particular C. Wright Mills‘ idea of the research file, and how it helped extend my presence in the ‘field’ into the virtual arena. Overall, they seemed to think that in an ideal world all researchers would be blogging, as a way of communicating their research to their peers and to the general public, and as a means to keep a kind of intellectual diary. Their enthusiasm has inspired me to find some way to carry on, although I suspect in a new form, as I think this blog has outlived its usefulness (as my failure to post over the last few months has amply illustrated). It also made me think that I would be interested in writing an article about blogging as a research tool in the humanties (and specifically in modern languages) if anyone has any suggestions for anyone who might be interested in publishing such a thing?

On Monday I start a new research project in the School of Library, Archive and Information Studies at UCL and since the project is a) not my own (I’m working as a post-doctoral research assistant) and b) involves a significant ethnographic component I’ll have to think very carefully about what I post. I will also be trying to juggle my own research and a blog may be a helpful way of me recording my ideas about this, as well as more general thoughts about museums/heritage industry (such as exhibition reviews or policy notes). Anyway, watch this space…

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Tags: PhD stuff, viva

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