Leicester Adventure: Hearing Back

So, last week I sent an email to the person I most definitely hope to do my PhD with, and he basically told me that my topic sounded interesting but I needed to send in more.

Makes sense, I think, so I'm now working on a PhD proposal, which is really a lot of work. Especially since I wish to put in evidence that I know what I'm talking about, so I'm currently at 45 references for 1800 words. Perhaps that's overkill.

Kristy heard back from one of her applications too (not Oxford though) and got accepted. See, that's where the joy of applying finally comes in. Congrats :)

I'm also writing an abstract for this summer's Pala conference. It's fairly tough to do so, though, seeing as I want to present on an aspect of my dissertation topic (which makes sense if you knew what my dissertation topic was on) and I'll receive a stern talking-to if I start researching before I get my dissertation proposal through the Ethics commission, so I can't really write down any preliminary results yet... pity. Yet I managed 180 words so far, just describing what I want to study, so I guess I should be able to fill those 400 words. Especially as I managed 1800 words for my PhD proposal without referring to results.

UPDATE: I am also applying for an internship. I'm keeping the details secret for a little longer, but let's just say that if everything works out, I may be improving my French this summer.

Completely unrelated (but fascinating!) I came across this quote yesterday, which sort of justifies my interests and the belief that I can combine them (I like justifying myself):

"Constitutive criminology, then, is a theory proposing that humans are responsible for actively creating their world with others. They do this by transforming their surroundings through interaction with others, not least via discourse. Through language and symbolic representation they identify differences, construct categories, and share a belief in the reality of that which is constructed that orders otherwise chaotic states. It is towards these social constructions of reality that humans act." (Stuart Henry and Dragan Milovanovic, Constitutive Criminology, 1996: ix)

It reminded me of the following:

"Communication is something more than a means of staying alive. It is a way of being alive. It is through communication that we inherit the achievements of past human effort. The possibility of communication can reconcile us to the thought of death by assuring us that what we will achieve will enrich the lives of those to come. How and when we accomplish communication with one another can expand or contract the boundaries of life itself. [...] If I were asked, then, to discern one central indisputable principle of what may be called substantive natural law - Natural Law with capital letters - I would find it in the injunction: Open up, maintain, and preserve the integrity of the channels of communication by which men convey to one another what they perceive, feel and desire." (Lon L. Fuller, The Morality of Law, 1963 [1969]: 186)