Doing What I Do

People again have been asking what it is that I do on a daily basis. It's a fair enough question, considering UK PhD's look very different than US ones and, further, that nobody seems to know what a US PhD looks like anyway! So, upon the request of inquiring minds and of my wifey, I here divulge the mysterious and enthralling details of my daily life. Buckle up, it's going to get wild.


Observe me in my habitat. We PhD's are a rare and illusive species, as you can see by the picture. This is the library, where I do my work. It's empty, quiet, and cold, and probably the reason I got pneumonia. If you're looking for the training vicars, who make up the bulk of the college, you'll find them in the common room drinking tea. Perhaps I chose the wrong field.


Ah, how beautifully this passage speaks. Don't you think? Well, it actually says something like 'and these are the names of the sons of Israel...' The title of Exodus in Hebrew is 'And these are the names', which follows the protocol of naming books by their first two Hebrew words. Not too exciting. Of course, when it comes to Leviticus and Numbers, I think the Hebrew titles are a steep improvement: 'And he called to Moses' and 'In the wilderness'. You win some, you lose some. Either way, the point here is that this is the Hebrew text, which I read for an hour to begin each day (to keep my Hebrew-brain muscles big and strong).


And another fickle language: German. I'm currently spending a good deal of time learning German. After the hour of Hebrew, I spend a couple in basic German grammar. So why learn German? Good question, one that I ask myself at least two hours a day. If you ask my sister Summer, she'll tell you it's because I need to read ancient German manuscripts of the Old Testament. I like this explanation because it's mysterious and exciting. The problem is that it's entirely untrue. I actually have to learn German because a vast amount of scholarly material has been written in German. But why not read those things that are translated? Because only an itsy bit has been translated, most of which is not helpful for research. Those are the cold, boring facts about German.

Okay, so we're now 3 hours into my day and all we've done is study languages. Apparently this is normal. The rest of my workday is spent in reading and writing. I don't have a picture of my recent reading, so please imagine a few books on the psychology of memory. Yep, that's my most recent endeavor. Basically, my advisor Gordon has me do readings and then essays on particular areas, in hopes of turning some new stones. The reason I'm now reading in psychology of memory is because it might help frame my particular interest in memory and community formation. I really do think it's going to be valuable. Thus far it has been incredibly interesting as to how our memories work. Let's do an experiment: imagine two things, the first your most recent trip in the car and the second your earliest childhood memory. Searching, searching, searching...Got 'em? Okay. If you think about how you view those memories, you probably see the recent one through your own eyes and the older one from a bird's-eye persective (that is, you see yourself in the memory). Is this true? This is the tendency of remembering: we see old memories through an observer perspective and new ones through our own eyes. Interesting, isn't it?

At the end of the workday I go home and prepare dinner for my lovely wife. After that, I work on a whole variety of things, including preparing talks, completing job applications (for CCU!), or composing articles for either outdoors our academic journals. Anywho, I know this isn't nearly as exciting as our other posts, but felt it'd be good to do nonetheless. I promise more exciting posts are coming soon!