Proposal committee approval score: 2 out of 3! :)

Another ‘squeeeeeee!‘ moment for me this morning! I opened my email inbox to discover that my second (of three) committee members has approved my proposal — woohooo! Lots of really great suggestions and critiques too, which are both really helpful and a relief to receive — that tells me that my proposed research actually engaged my readers! Also lovely and encouraging was her email to me, in which she said:

It was a pleasure reading your proposal, which I just finished.… You write very well, and have clearly given this much thought.

Equally exciting were some of her notes on the dissertation proposal itself, such as:

This is a wonderful section! You write so well throughout, it is a pleasure to read your writing!

So very happy about this! Only one committee member to go now — and also I must get approval from the Human Research Review Committee (HRRC). They’re the committee that makes sure all the research the university approves is also ethical — though neither my Chair nor I foresee any issues with what I plan on doing during my research. The HRRC requires the associated paperwork to be turned in by the first of whatever month they’re reviewing it — and I would so love to have them check my proposed research out this October, considering it’s my birthday month! Got all the paperwork done — just waiting on the cover page to be signed by the right folks, and then I can FedEx it all to CIIS!

I was excited to have the committee member express surprise and interest at some of my research —  and even ask me for citations! That was a very nice feeling, in that I felt like I was able to give interesting data as well as receive it… if that makes sense? I like to feel that even though I’m a student, I have something to offer as well, to my profs and committee members. :)

It was also weirdly cool to have this committee member make a comment on one of the authors I cite — by stating she knew the guy, and his work had developed since that book, and I should check it out! In retrospect it makes sense that folks within the field of Women’s Studies, and specifically in addressing violence against women, would know each other, of course — it was just kind of startling and interesting to… to have the realization hit me quite so directly, I guess?

Incidentally, I now also know when my head is far too deeply into proposal writing — because the other night I actually had a dream… which was also tidily footnoted! ;)