Remember When?

Remember my first post? This all started as a result of one of dissertation committee member's suggestions to write soon after my oral exams in order to reflect on the experience, etc. Well, I'm still reflecting - on all kinds of crap. I've just had two of the best days in terms of academic progress that I've had in a while:

- I produced real, actual dissertation writing!! I officially have a chapter in the draft stage, and I've started adding on to my proposal, as my director has told me it's absolutely suitable for becoming my dissertation introduction.
- Another graduate student and I have now co-founded a working group for Early Modern Studies, for which many faculty members and graduate students have already signed up! We'll have funding from several sources to support bringing in outside speakers, in addition to presenting works-in-progress of our own.
- I was invited by my dissertation advisor to speak (as the Centlivre expert) in her Fall class on female British playwrights of the Restoration. Not really an expert, but I'll have lots and lots of Centlivre knowledge to contribute, and it's a line on my CV!
- I got another line on my CV by volunteering to act as the Graduate Student Representative to the faculty on the hiring of a job candidate--just finished that presentation by the way--whew, I still get nervous in front of all those faces. So many people who are so unbelievably smart!!
-Aaaand, I just had a meeting with my advisor about some of the primary sources I'm using for my dissertation and some of the initial reactions, claims, questions, I'll be including in my current chapter. The meeting went very well!! She said that I'm finding all the "things" I'm supposed to find....I'm asking all the right questions...and I'm making straightforward arguments that will be even better supported once I read more material in the area. (Note: I don't think I've ever mentioned what I'm actually writing my dissertation on/about. I'm studying the ways in which women in the late 17th & early 18th centuries participated in various discourses of credit [like paper credit, which would include bank notes, bills, accounting records, letters that function as IOU's, all kinds of stuff]).

Long story...well, still long, it's been a great past couple of days, and I'm thankful for it. I'm still in a really good "zone" in terms of my dissertation work now, and that's a feeling I haven't had in a while. Now if I could just get the funding awards that I'll need to do the needed travel to England in the Fall and buy the books I need, I'll be in fan-freaking-tastic shape!! (I just realized I used the word "need" way too many times in that sentence....it's all I can do not to edit it...)