![]() really did stand for "all but dead." It was nice that I had foundĪ great place to live and established a good space to write, but I was not Suddenly I realized that I was clueless about how to write a dissertation.Ī.B.D. One-act play), and so there I was in 1999, stuck in Buffalo, 500 miles awayįrom Stony Brook, A.B.D., with a job barely related to my training as a would-be However, instead of writing a dissertation, I wrote a one-act play (a bad Having settled my place and space, the dissertation seemed a sure thing. Once I found the right place to live, I also found that it was essentialįor me to create a space in my apartment designated specifically for writing.Īs soon as I sat down in that particular space, it signaled that it was time I truly believe that if I had not moved to Buffalo, I would not have written Location." What I learned is that that rule also applies to writing a dissertation. This was the place to write a dissertation.Įveryone knows the number-one rule in real estate is "location, location, I rented a huge apartment in Buffalo: big, spacious,Ĭheap, above ground. The best thing for me, I decided, was to return to my hometown Series of small apartmentson Long Island, in Queens, then Brooklyn. No chance of doing any substantive writing there? I had been living in a Still, I wondered, how was it a good idea to stay when I felt like I had To write a dissertation away from the comfortable confines of the department.įaculty members may forget you - it's as simple as "out of sight, out of Inside my head kept telling me that leaving the nest would be the kiss ofĭuring graduate school, according to conventional wisdom, it's impossible In 1998, three years into the sociology program at the State University of That was the essence of the dilemma that I faced Where are you supposed to write the dissertation? Do you stay put,ĭespite your phlegmatic state of mind? Or do you shake it up and pursue a Program - writing the dissertation - but you are burnt out, uninspired, What do you do when you have reached the most important point in your Ph.D. The song is pertinent to a dilemma that many students surely have faced: ![]() Students when the band recorded "Should I Stay or Should I Go?" Nonetheless, I don't think The Clash was singing about graduate Place and Space Is it a mistake to move away from your department while you write your dissertation?
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