Shonell in TCR Land

I’m not sure how one is supposed to feel when she reaches this moment, but I was over-the-moon happy. What moment is this? Finally having my pre-proposal approved and quals date set.

I went through three revisions of the pre-proposal with my diss chair before we submitted it to the entire committee. Received a comment from one of the members that was actually very much needed and enabled me to go back, revise and rewrite with a different bend to the focus so that the dissertation adhered to goals of the program and not goals of Shonell’s mind. And it was appropriate that this comment came from a professor who knew me quite well. In his classes, I had  always had trouble writing an A paper. I would start off with a topic that both he and I really liked, and my initial thoughts were always well received, but then I would go into Shonell Land and the next thing I knew, the paper had veered into a topic slightly different from what was needed for the course. His comments made me realize that I was right to have chosen him to be on my committee because I know me. I have flights of fancy, and I do love just about every subject in the world, so I can meander. I need someone who knows that and can keep me on the path to Diss Defense Success. Can settle for nothing less.

So, I did a fourth revision, and was quite happy with it. The problem? It was massive, and I had to cut about half the draft and keep the document making sense. I’m a freelance editor, but what I came to realize is when it comes to cutting major copy from my own work, it is excruciating to do so. Especially for this project. All of this is new to me and so in the back of my mind, I’m constantly thinking, What exactly do they need to know for this to pass? When I think everything is relevant, it becomes problematic. However, in my fifth revision, I was able to cut about 45% of the draft, turn it in, and within a week, the whole committee felt comfortable in approving the draft.

The work, of course, is not over. There are many more hoops to jump through and the level of difficulty rises with each new hoop. I believe the next hoop is a ring of fire.

SO, now I feel comfortable in sharing some things about my research.

Current title of dissertation is The Intersection of Race and Gender in Identity (Re)construction and Community Building in the Blogosphere: Developing the African-American Mommy Blogger and Community.

Here are the purpose and research questions explored:

The purpose of this dissertation is to examine the blogosphere as a space where race and gender are negotiated to not only develop identity both individually and socially, but to also foster community amongst the blogger, her readers, and the blogging group community at large. The dissertation specifically focuses on African-American mommy bloggers, a popular group that has been blogging since the mid-1990s.  Using Eisenberg’s theory of identity as mystery, Goffman’s use of the metaphor of theatrical performance, Critical Race Theory, and Black Feminist Theory as underlying frameworks to understanding race, gender, and identity, this research explores the overall process in which African-American mommy bloggers consider their identities as African-American, woman, and mother to create their blog and blogger identities; analyzes how these identities are represented within the blog space by way of three aspects: design, content, and interaction; and examines how these identities and blog spaces are developed to create community.

If you’d like to check out the pre-proposal in its entirety, you can check out the PDF [here].

My quals are set for the last full week of August, so between now and then I will continue reading, writing, organizing my thoughts, and I plan to blog about various components of my research because writing helps me to feel confident in my thoughts, and confidence now will give me confidence for quals.

I’m a Wordle fan, as many who have checked out my blog knows, so of course, I had to do a diss pre-prop wordle…it’s below.