It's Finally "Out There"

As of today, my master's thesis has been released on OhioLINK. So, without further ado... Clicky-clicky! 

Playing Pirates: The Construction of Shared Fantasy and Identity Performance in the Renaissance Festival Subculture

"This is dedicated to those rennies who took me in, treated me as part of the crew, and willingly played along with my game as I played along with theirs. Huzzah!" 

Click "view available files" and then "view" or "download." It's a pdf, so do what you need to in order to open/read one of those.

The Finished Product

It's very satisfying to see my master's thesis in hardcover. Also not too shabby was getting my department's Excellence in Research award for this project. 

See My Magazine Feature Story...

The spring 2013 edition of Perspectives Magazine has a story about my thesis research on page 6. This is the one that I was interviewed for last fall. Having spent a number of years in journalism myself, I was a little nervous about what the end result might be, in that doctors-make-bad-patients kind of way. But I'm rather pleased with how it turned out. And the reporter, photographer, and editor were all wonderful to work with. Click the link, go...look on page 6. Enjoy! 

Officially Official

It's officially official--my thesis is done! The final copy has been accepted by the graduate college and everything has the green light for graduation in a couple weeks. Now all I have to do is teach and grade papers for the rest of the semester.

It's been a wild ride. I'd been to renfaires before, and I enjoy them or I would never have attempted this project. But just as with anything in life, when you start examining the minutia of something in a new way, it takes on whole new meanings. And of course, whenever you run something through a slew of social theory it always comes out sounding both impressively complex and ultimately simple at the same time...at least for me. 

No spoilers on the findings in the final paper. However, as per my university's policy, it did get uploaded to OhioLINK and should show up on a Google search by some time later this year. (I still get a weird feeling in my belly every time I think about that, like my butterflies aren't sure if they're going to be sick.)

No pirates were harmed during this research project...although a few did ask to be flogged later, because they like it. 

Thesis Defense

My thesis defense was this afternoon, and I passed. There are still a few minor tweaks that the paper needs to be perfect. But the important thing is that I survived the process. And no, it was not the torturous grilling over red hot coals that so many people have described to me. There were a few tough questions, but that's the point. It's been nice to work with a committee--and especially the professor who has been my committee chair--who want me to succeed at this. Now, to fix those bits that still need seeing to before the end of the week so I can get this turned in and graduate on time. 

No pirates were harmed in the defense of this thesis paper. (And you thought there was no way to mention pirates in this post.) 

First Draft

The first draft of my thesis is finished and has been sent off to my committee chair for her feedback. In the meantime, I've been working with the draft I have, formatting it to the university's standards. Who knew APA 5 was going to become valuable again? There will be edits to make before the final copy is ready for reading, I'm certain.

 It's coming down to the time when things are going to get serious with deadlines, oral defense, and graduation looming on the horizon. About time.

Nerd Heritage

In case any of my adoring fans (or professors who might be stalking me online to see how this project is progressing *waves hello*) were wondering, I'm into the intensive writing phase of this project now. Today's highlight is that I have successfully and cleverly used the phrase "nerd heritage" in a sociological paper, related to the expression of a connection to or identifying with various fandoms and minutia of popular culture (ex. Browncoats, Trekkies, Whovians). This is a proud day for geekdom, or at least a small moment of amusement for me. The thesis-ing process continues. I have set myself the deadline to have a first "real" draft in the hands of my advisor by the first of March (or there about). Right now there's only about 31 pages (mostly lit review)--not pretty ones either--excluding the four pages of bibliography (which probably need to be cleaned up too). But it's a work in progress; this is the final stretch and I can see where things are going.