July 17, 2007

I hope I'm not jinxing myself by throwing this out there but I think I see an overall argument shaping up for the dissertation - one that I hadn't seen before but that now seems not only self-evident but that also holds the promise of the quintessential "the end is the beginning". In other words, heading down this path will likely provide me the option of developing the dissertation into an interesting, full-fledged dissertation project. Insert happy dance here folks! Why? I've been told on more than one occasion by professors with whom I've worked and respect a great deal that a dissertation is a piece of research that will define one's scholarly life for some years to come so the best thing to come out of all of this is a defended dissertation that raises questions to shape a book manuscript. So knock on wood, Mashallah, fingers crossed, throwing some salt over my shoulder for good luck...I think I've found my way there. Yayyyy!