My desk/our dining room table is literally covered in Post-it Notes on any given day. These tiny yellow pages hold the flashes of brilliance from jumbled up mind and serve as a reflection of the very structure of my everyday existence: semi-linear, bullet-pointed, chaos.
The tide of yellow paper was particularlly thick today and as I tried to find the most recent and relevant Post-it that dictated the day’s schedule, a particular reminder caught my eye:
‘change name’
Upon a closer look, I realised the scrawled message actually said, ‘change name servers’ (regarding my to-do list for the recent change in webhosting services for my domain). I have to admit, it did make me question my sanity for a moment; not because I had made a note to change my name, but in the blurry moments before for bed I had failed to write down what I should change my name to…
‘Woohoo! I’m finished! No more education for me! Unless anyone wants to sponsor my doctorate? Just kidding! Haha!‘
That was a quote from an early entry on my website regarding the completion of my MA in 2006. Contrary to my cheeky little post, I am still in education, despite no one sponsoring my doctorate, except good ol’ Uncle Sam who is waiting eagerly for me to finish so I can start to pay him back…with interest.
So welcome to my blog about my research. I am doing a PhD in Dance Ethnography at De Montfort University in Leicester, England. Under the guidance of Prof. Theresa Buckland I study the tap dance communities in England. My fieldsites are limited to Manchester and London, and yes there is more to tap dance in the UK than those two cities, but I only have a few years and ridiculously limited resources, so I focus on these two cities.
Since my research is ethnographic in nature, I observe and participate in tap dance related activities in the tap dance communities in Manchester and London. This means going to tap jams, taking tap classes and workshops, talking to tap dancers and musicians, and spending a lot of time on trains.
This blog is for updates on my research and fieldwork, thoughts, ideas, and comments regarding any topics related to my research, and the odd critique or two on Great Britian’s rail service. Enjoy!