I woke up this morning feeling kind of lost. Two weeks ago I filed my dissertation with Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, the official end of what has been a seven + year project — earning a Ph.D. Grad school is what got me out of bed every day for the last seven or so years. What now?
Well, it isn’t like I don’t have anything on my plate. I’m now full time with Cultural Anthropology, the journal of the Society for Cultural Anthropology. I’ve been Managing Editor on a part-time basis for the last four years, but the journal and its website (which I manage) has expanded greatly during that time. To reflect this we’ve added Program Director to my job description. Look for the Society of Cultural Anthropology to relaunch its website in early September.
In addition to my position with Cultural Anthropology, I’ll be teaching two undergraduate courses for the Department of Science and Technology Studies this Fall. Both are core courses for the STS major, Senior Project and Public Service Internship. I’m really looking forward to teaching again, and after just finishing my own project, I’m excited to work with others developing research projects.
I’m also starting a second yoga teacher training this Fall, a Kundalini teacher training at the Baba Siri Chand Yoga and Retreat Center in Millis, MA. This is a nine-month training led by Hari Kaur Khalsa.
In other words its not that I don’t have projects to get me out of bed in the morning! I love what I do and have a lot going on. At the same time I think I need to acknowledge that some transition is happening. All these other projects are not the equivalent of working on a doctoral degree or writing a dissertation. They are projects of a different kind. Filing the dissertation marks a kind of end, and a beginning. This shouldn’t be covered over, ignored, down-played or side-stepped (which is exactly what I have been doing these past two weeks). It can’t be covered over because I feel the conclusion even if I won’t acknowledge it. So this morning I decided that I’m going to stop covering over the end, and start thinking about what kind of beginning I want to create.
Perhaps I’m being a typical Type A, pledging to work the transition. Undoubtedly, new structures, habits, and perspectives are bound to support my transition from grad school to…. whatever is next. (I spent some time reading about Type A personalities this morning. I hear the term from time to time but know nothing of its origins, and before I refer to myself as something I like to know its genealogy. Not sure what I think of it, but I’ll just keep it here as a familiar representation that serves to call up a particular image.)
Where to begin? Well, I decided to start with this website of mine. It desperately needs updating. A few times over the past nine months I started to update, changing the theme and revising site content. I never finished though; the dissertation superseded everything. So I’m using my website as a jumping off point, not only updating information, but also changing up the design and redefining the projects I’m working on, and want to be working on, this year. Giving the site a more central and active place in my work world is one way to shape the transition that I’m experiencing. (One site I read this morning stated that Type A’s are very controlling… hmmm…)
What’s new? Well, I finished my dissertation. That’s something. There is a lot going on with Cultural Anthropology right now, a lot of really exciting developments. The Asthma Files, the collaborative social science research that I’ve been doing for the past two and a half years, is also expanding. And of course yoga: I’ve been spending more time researching and practicing yoga. I’ll be writing about all these things — developments in my dissertation research, Cultural Anthropology’s expansion, and my experiences with yoga — on this site. You can find some outdated information on these things here and here. Again, I’ll be updating this information in the coming weeks.
One thing that worries me is having a site that covers so many different things — this site bridges three very different projects: my dissertation research, my work with Cultural Anthropology, and lessons in yoga. I know that it can be problematic to have a site that’s unfocused in this way, trying to cover too much, for example. On the other hand, this is my site, and this is what I do. Who I am. I’m going to stop worrying over being multifaceted on www.alikenner.com, and use this space to explore and experiment with representation, hoping that play in this space spurs me to advance my projects in new ways. In this sense, I take inspiration from my dear friend Adrienne Stiles, who recently created her own blog.
Anyway, expect updates on information and different visual designs on www.alikenner.com over the coming weeks as I play with transition and beginning.
