Reading and Writing Again

Winter Quarter, 2011 has just begun and I find myself sitting again for hours at a time.  It is a reading and sitting meditation practice. Monkey mind thoughts get in the way sometimes but the lure of ideas inspired by reading draw me into a deeper focus and concentration.  Every few hours I get up for water or to move around.

Blogging is also a distraction and a release -  it is a place to put the thoughts and ideas piling up in my head while I read.  Blogging becomes a place to digest, organize, and make sense of what I am reading and flesh out the forming seed thoughts.  I see connections everywhere.  I want to build bridges between various theoretical frameworks, perspectives and approaches.

My dissertation proposal seminar is taught by Zeke, my former epistemology professor.  He is old-school in the best sense of the word.  Zeke is probably in his 70s and a Michigan alum.

• (An aside:  Michigan is the real deal, where it is too cold to do anything but study and where most grad programs are rated #1 in the country.  Dr. Brown, Director of the School of Social Work at CSULA, is also a Michigan alum and said their graduate school alumni make up the greatest percentage of graduate school deans and directors.)

Zeke is from Israel and his native accent still comes through.  He uses braces to walk because of polio disease.  He is a scholarly heavyweight and a sociologist.  I am a dork because I find myself smiling in class a lot and giving him a thumbs up while I hang on every word he speaks and take copious notes.  It is a small seminar class - 8 students total - so it's hard to be inconspicuous with my painted-on goofy smile and hand gestures.  But I don't care because he is challenging and encouraging at the same time.  He takes my questions seriously and encourages being challenging.

Some nuggets from yesterday's lecture:

• Epistemology shapes the way we think about problems and dissertations.
• By the end of Spring quarter, we will have a well-defined dissertation proposal that we are comfortable defending.
• This is a writing seminar on substance and style, so expect to write and write and write. 
• We will write the proposal piece by piece.  We will read each others work and discuss it in class.  We will write several drafts of each section of the proposal.
• We will create an environment conducive to reflection and being self-critical.
• Dissertations must be well-written, that is, everyone needs to be able to understand the language, concepts and intent.
• Dissertation Proposal:

1. Statement of the Problem (the heart of the dissertation)
2. Critical Review of the Literature
3. Own Theoretical Framework
4. Hypotheses & Research Questions
5. Methodology
6. Timeline

• If you're not passionate about your dissertation topic then you will be miserable and the work will be unbearable
• Shoot above "run of the mill" but not too far in "left field" - get creative and add something new, your own special twist to the knowledge base - frame the problem in such a way that will make it exciting and different
• In his research career, Zeke borrowed a concept from manufacturing and used it as an analogy:  "Human service organizations are like factories and people are raw materials."  Initially controversial, this new way of looking at things set him apart as a scholar.

My assignment is to write the "Statement of the Problem."  He said this is the hardest part of the proposal.  Here I go...