cue dorky excitement here

[cimorene]

this quarter's sociology course is a series of lectures on the current research projects being carried out by the faculty and researchers in our department, which i think is an awfully cool idea (and i particularly love seeing people talk about their own research, because they're so excited they frequently make it interesting where it otherwise wouldn't be).  the main grade in the course comes from a ten-page paper on one of the presentations. 

now, when i actually write my own theses (the bachelor's-level one should be in two years) i want to focus on slash fandom in some way (though i might conceivably change my mind by then).  so gcsl's work on transgender culture isn't exactly the most relevant thing and is connected only by queerness, but it's still the most interesting thing on the syllabus¹. 

in fact, i've been curious about it since i first found out that's what his specialty was, and i'm excited to read his thesis.  but today when i went to copy it, i discovered an actual book bound in paperback form by the university press.  we're talking at least an hour of copying and probably €15 of copycards, and two other people wanted the copy machine in the fifteen minutes i was there, so i guess i have to set aside a morning or afternoon in the near future to copy the whole damn thing later.  this is a pity, cause i wanted to get it over with. 

however, it's not like i don't have more to read than i'm comfortable with already and an exam next week.  so whatever.


1. much as i love media sociology, which is sldl's specialty, i am sick of 'do pokémon/the power rangers/video games make children violent?'  i was sick of that debate by the time i finished elementary school.

Comments

[buddleia.livejournal.com]

No chance of asking gcsl to email you his thesis? In my experience, academics are usually delighted to do this.

[cimness.livejournal.com]

you know, i thought about that, but then i had this terrifying vision of being told, "there's a copy of it in the course literature folder! make your copies like everybody else, plebe." the fact that i know nobody would actually say that doesn't take away the fear.

[anglepoiselamp.livejournal.com]

The thing with Finnish research is that although its quality is on par with the rest of the world, ideas and trends surface here later than elsewhere. I don't know if we're really that slow or if it simply takes time for a small country's research scene to adapt ideas and to go through the motions. But, you know, in comp.lit. Finland never had a structuralist phase because it was only beginning to bud here in the late 80's, by which time it was practically over and done with elsewhere in the world. < / random academic tirade >

[cimness.livejournal.com]

ahahhahahaha! are you calling gcsl's research outdated?

[anglepoiselamp.livejournal.com]

Nooo, I was talking about the media/game violence one. I think. :D

[cimness.livejournal.com]

OH. yes. that would be a relief.

because i hate to think the whole sociology world is still on that.

wrt structuralism... ahahhahahaha. so, does that mean they just skipped to post-structuralism and half of academia is secretly thinking "post the what?" but they're too embarrassed to outright ask?

[anglepoiselamp.livejournal.com]

so, does that mean they just skipped to post-structuralism and half of academia is secretly thinking "post the what?" but they're too embarrassed to outright ask?

Hehe, yep, pretty much. Sometimes at theory seminars we're shown essays by the very few Finnish structuralists so we can all point and laugh. I hear some of them still persist. Finland is first and foremost a very stubborn country. :D

[cimness.livejournal.com]

i've never been forced to study structuralism properly. every time i come across it, i look it up somewhere and read the definition until i get it, which is to say, until i have a headache and my head gives up and assimilates in self-defense. then i forget it as soon as possible.