Back in the Fray

The good news: I’m halfway there. Five semesters behind me, and five to go. I saw my advisor, Dr. Martinez, after summer classes ended and we worked up a new audit sheet showing the program requirements and which I’ve fulfilled. She agreed that after this fall, I’ll have three courses to go to finish the coursework. I’ll take Latin III and two culture and media classes in the spring; then “read” (study for prelims) over the summer, take the prelims at the beginning of fall of ’07, and then be cleared to start the dissertation. I need 24 dissertation hours, which I reckon as 12 in the fall and 12 the following spring; and hopefully will defend and walk at the end of the spring of ’08.

The other news: to stay on this plan I am taking four courses this fall: English History 1714 – 1870 which will complete my major area of Victorian Studies; Gender in Film and Lit, and Latin American Film as a DIS, which will complete half of my minor area of culture and media; and Word & Image which fulfills my Art History requirement. I’m also slated to teach two more online sections of the American culture in film course. It should be an interesting semester. I feel slightly burnt out, but I know I can handle two more semesters and that once classes start I’ll have the old excitement back; I just plain love being in a classroom (on the student side) and I know I’m going to learn a lot. During the spring I have to decide on a dissertation topic and put together my committee. It’s nice to see a definite end to this endeavor, interesting as it’s been.