Another cycle turning

Getting close to the end of semester 8 in the slog toward the PhD and it's been probably the most hands on, tangible semester of work directly related to the dissertation yet. It is no surprise, after having been immersed in this process for 4 school years, that some people take a lot longer than 5 or 6 years to complete their degree. If I had not been self directed and a very strong advocate for myself along the way, I could have taken a great many detours and ended up wasting a lot of time. My advising has been not so great and the department doesn't really map out a very clear path either, so I have had to stay vigilant for sure. 


I went in not having any idea at all what I was going to study, other than in the most general ways. By the end of year one, I still didn't know what I was doing, but I started to have a stronger sense of distinct categories research might fall into. My original idea was to do a cross disciplinary dissertation that included a chapter on ecotourism and small scale economies that might benefit from that in my study area. But by the end of the second year, I had discovered that the inclusion of social and economic policy would require almost a second PhD, so I narrowed things down. 

The next two years were about learning what the goal was. No one told me that the goal is to write a dissertation that is basically 3 or 4 journal articles. I made the mistake of enrolling in a dissertation prospectus writing seminar at the beginning of year three that was led by humanities professors. So my original prospectus, which they loved, was not in the right format for a science PhD. I revised it twice with extensive feedback from each committee member between January and November, and finally advanced.

Advancing to candidacy meant I could more aggressively pursue funding. I crowd funded about $4000, which was great. Pursued a few grants. The $8,200 price tag of getting some DNA sequencing done for one chapter was about 80% paid by the crowd funding and grants, with some of my own funds thrown in. Coming up, another full plate of 95 samples for about $7000 for a population genetics chapter, and, again, that looks like it will be about 80% funded by grants. Of course, I would have preferred 100% project funding from outside sources, but I have done the entire PhD with no funding from my lab or my committee chair other than some half RA's over the summers. I haven't been able to secure grants from science granting agencies either. The grants I have gotten have been from private clubs of aficionados of the organisms I'm studying. All of my attempts to get grant funds from peer reviewed agencies have been kicked back. I think this has been a reflection of my being completely ignorant of the conventions of my field. I am only now beginning to understand how to write a research grant that has a shot at getting past a peer review process. I'm sure as I finish the chapters for the dissertation and send them out to peer reviewed journals, I'll get even more practice. 

There's definite resonance between the theme of tripping through Hades and getting a PhD.