Saturday, October 18, 2008

Dissertation and Thesis-ing

My dissertation topic got approved! Yay! I went to see my advisor yesterday to discuss it, and though he's not entirely convinced that I'm right in my thesis, he thinks I should give it a go and see where it takes me. Basically, I wrote a paper as an undergrad (actually, it's the paper that got me into UCL) arguing that the depiction of the relationship between Judas and Satan in the Gospel of John was a catalystic changing point for the development of the modern idea of Satan and his relationship with humanity. I want to follow that thread into the Middle Ages and find theological commentary and sermons and whatnot that address that passage, and explore how that relationship affected satan theology throughout church history. Not sure if it's really a feasible topic yet, so I haven't officially submitted my topic for approval, but David (my advisor) informally approved it and told me where to start looking for ideas. We shall see...

On the social front, things are going really well. I've really started to bond with the other people in my program, and we've all been going out for drinks a couple of times a week for the last few weeks, mainly just to get ourselves out of the library/computer lab/graduate common room, a combination of which takes up about 90% of our waking hours, while the other 10% is spent in class. It's nice to get out and clear my head (or fuzzy it up, as the case may be) every so often.

I've also met a guy who I'm really starting to like...he's VERY British, but in a cute way. I won't say any more as I don't want to jinx it, but I will note this-he was at a black-tie thing for work last night, where he was seated next to a PRINCESS. Like, an actual real live one. How a girl competes with that I have absolutely no idea. If anybody has any clever ideas on how to usurp her attractiveness with my unclassy, unlettered, unprincess-y charm, feel free to chime in. In the meantime, I will sit here quietly feeling threatened. :/

That's about it for now-it's now off to the Batcave, Robin! (And by that I of course mean "off to spend my entire weekend in a library, Robin!")

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Have fun in the library! :)

And as far as the princess thing... well, remember you are a Foreigner and guys always love the exotic ones... :) As much as we feel awkward here - other people think we are rare! look at all the old scary latin men in the bars that tried to hit on us!

Other than that.... us "non princess girls" are screwed!