So, that’s that then. Five years on, and almost nine months to the day of submission, the viva is complete, as is my PhD (bar some minor corrections here and there). There have been various points in this experience where the old, terrible, but in some ways brilliant, theme tune to Star Trek: Enterprise, has served as the theme tune to my life. The opening lyrics: ‘It´s been a long road, getting from there to here. It´s been a long time, but my time is finally near’, is, I feel, a fair summary, though perhaps it would be more accurate to just sample the opening five words, for it has indeed been a long road. This whole process began way back in 2001, with my first degree in archaeology, during the London odyssey. Back then, I had wonderful time of things, highly indulgent, with the occasional academic intrusion into the three years of opulent loitering. I came out with a 2:1, which was all well and good at the time, but I knew that I had more in me, that perhaps were I to do a degree properly, I could actually come out with something more impressive. It was with that rationale that I made way for Leicester, a postgrad in archaeology and heritage. Studying via distance learning – where I spent most of my day time on an isolated farm, a far cry from the distractions of London, meant I had all the time in the world to work on my degree, and it went great. The 60 percents were coming in, then came the 70 percents, and by the end of it, I even brought in the odd 80 percent mark – these were great days. However, going into my dissertation, I liberally ignored the word count, got whacked with a vast penalty, which sunk my overall degree average down to 69 percent. Gone was my distinction, and established was my very unhealthy relationship with word limits. Ultimately, another disappointing academic experience had been registered. For a time I walked away from the whole environment. The word limit debacle had broken my spirit, having come so close to my ever elusive top tier grade. Into museums I stumbled for a period of time, and it was only when I had made peace with the career dead end that that prove to be, did I find a final opportunity to crack the academic walnut. When a bursary was put together for the then University of Wales, Newport, to lecture in heritage studies, and conduct a PhD in the same area, I jumped at it. Granted, options were limited, and this was going to make money – so the mercenary in me gave me a big shove. But here was a University looking to pay me to do a PhD, a beautiful thing indeed. The heritage angle was attractive for a wide range of reasons, partly in that it would allow me to pursue an academic path distinct from that other, most established, Dr Howell. I would wave farewell to my beloved archaeology, and dive head first into my heritage research. I’ve written at length on the actual research, and, at this particular point in time, have no inclination at all to face it again in detail. Covering heritage and politics in Wales, with comparisons in Iceland and Greenland, this was a very interesting, utterly unique and incredible well travelled investigation into Welsh heritage themes. It also took place what feels like a very, very long time ago. It was some point in the autumn of 2013 that I actually submitted the final draft. For one reason or another, most of which were completely unforeseeable and unfortunate circumstances, it took almost a year for us to reach examination. Day by day, my research became a little more dated, a little more contestable. By the end of my revision period, I was probably spending more time analysing events that had taken place after my research had ended, rather than exploring the research itself. In terms of the actual viva, at the second time of asking (having prepared for one already several months earlier), I took a pretty pragmatic approach. I had conducted the research, I had lectured on the subject matter for the last few years, and I had stayed on top of the actual subject field during the last year, all in all, I felt confident in the fact that I knew my stuff. Still, I read through the thesis again, though only the once. I thought I would tackle it several times, but one read through seemed to be enough to jog the memory. I was also finding all sorts of my own minor corrections, cursing the air every few pages as a ridiculous typo jumped out at me. I quickly tried to put such distractions to one side. The main revision ‘event’ took place the day before the viva, where I started sticking neon labels on to a range of pages. I just wanted to make some sort of map of the thesis, mark down where key arguments appeared. I sat sticking neon labels on to paper for the better part of six hours – in the viva, I did not refer to them once. Still, I’m confident that process played its part, I had an instant recall for the position and context of key quotes and themes, a familiarity with my work which surprised myself on the day. As the questions started coming in, I found that I had answers. Maybe one or two questions came as a slight surprise, but I had prepared for all eventualities. In my preparation for the first and cancelled viva, I had pinpointed areas where questions might be asked, and written down, by hand, a page worth of noted responses to each question. I had around eighty of these – it had been some time since I had written so much with a pen in hand. The result was a secondary mind map, full of practiced responses to the more obscure questions that might come my way. I certainly felt tense going in, as if a great weight had been attached to my chest with the expectation that I would carry it around all day. With each question, that tension eased, each response successfully executed felt like a nudge towards successful completion. The actual examination felt very quick, and I don’t think we were in the room for much more than an hour. I had prepared myself for things rumbling away for the better part of two hours, and it was with surprise more than relief, that the examiners began apologising for taking, what they felt, was so long – I would have been happy continuing for some time. Having left the room and grabbed a tea, it was less than ten minutes before I was being called back in. Spilling tea over one hand as I scurried back into the room, I received the news that I wanted to hear – a congratulations. That would have done for me, but some of the platitudes that I received were incredibly touching, and I have no shame in saying that while I was being complimented for my work, I had my tongue firmly bitten in the corner of my mouth to stop myself from bawling my eyes out. That tension, built up from eight months of preparation and waiting was finally over. The words that will last longest in my memory, was being told that my viva defence was the best that the examiners had seen in decades. I usually would not cite something like that, and prefer to keep it private, but for me, those words were the validation I think I had been looking for over these many years. Those were the words that washed away the laziness of London, and the blown distinction of Leicester – I had finally got this academic game sorted. All those shortcomings were obliterated in that moment, and for the first time that I can think of, I feel genuinely confident in my academic potential. I knew I could do this stuff, I think I actually believe I can now. So there we are, a journey that began over a decade ago in London is at an end. Of course, there is that whole needing to find another job thing which is somewhat pressing – and hopefully this will go some way to helping with that, but maybe that can wait until Monday. For now, I can sit back, ignore reality for a moment, and indulge in the ivory tower. Cigar, port, along with some other indulgences all seem in order. Cold, hard reality can wait, I’ll catch up with you next week. After a quest that lasted fourteen years, the start of the next one can wait a day or two.
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Some five years later, and the writing is about there. To my left is a pile of notes, doing its best to cascade off the side of the table. Some three hundred pages, littered with pencil marks indicating a missing letter, a lack of italics, or an incorrect date – and every single one of them has been resolved. This is the fifth time that I have sat down and said ‘that is it’, and resolved to close the edited document for the final time, the fifth and final time it would now appear. While printing, binding, and that whole viva thing are still in the near future, the biggest, most time and soul consuming elements of the PhD process is at an end. So five years on, life may be experienced once again. I have flashbacks to an interview, where I successfully made my case for the bursary that covered the costs of the first few years of the research. The person chairing that interview has since retired, as have at least five other individuals in the University who had some form of significant influence over proceedings at one stage or another. That being said, the University I started my research in does not even exist anymore! This thesis has outlived careers and institutions, such has been the protracted nature of its progress. I bought a house, okay, with a lot of help and others people’s money, but it’s still mine. We had bearded Americans move in, and bearded Americans move out. We went from having no pets, to having three cats, two dogs and as many horses – it would seem that for each year of the thesis the animals incrementally increased in size, a sixth year, while resulting in an overall failure, would surely have had to have been commemorated with the purchase of some manner of domesticated bison. And while we have not quite got married during the period of research, we did get engaged right in the middle of it all – perhaps submission will actually allow for that ceremony now! I started my research in Wales. Before long I had taken tea in the House of Commons, discussed Nazis in the National Museum of Ireland, flown to Iceland with a French documentary filmmaker, then been given a book by every museum professional (there were a lot of them) I met in Iceland, got lost in the wastelands that surround the airport in the capital of Greenland, Nuuk, before distributing Welsh flags in every cultural building that I could find in Greenland. Oh yes, we also went scampering around live volcanoes and narrowly avoided being sunk by increasingly large icebergs, but those are stories for another time. One day, I’ll really need to work out the carbon footprint of the thesis – for a consideration of heritage in Wales, I think it’s going to be surprisingly large. I was in my twenties when I started, and thirties now I’m finishing – which makes the whole process sound a lot longer than it actually was, but equally makes me feel tremendously old. Wales have won two Six Nations championships in that time, and reached a World Cup semi final, while the Lions won a test series, all of which surely bodes well for the viva I’m sure. While I have been able to enjoy some sporting glory, there are lots of other things that I have not been able to enjoy. I don’t even remember the feeling of cold mud under a pillow made from t-shirts, such is the length of time that has passed since I last went to a music festival. Exhibitions have proven to be too far away to be able to justify the time, films too expensive a luxury as the bursary began to run out. Birthday celebrations of loved ones were missed as time became a slave to the whip of editing, and for that, and to each of you who I did not celebrate with, I am sorry, and hope you will let me make up for it with birthdays to come. Yet a week from now, those few hundred pages will have been printed and bound, packaged up and sent away. Life may resume. I’m not sure what will come first, going to rugby matches, booking up some festivals somewhere, catching up on the latest touring exhibition in the British Museum, reading something that is not related to the thesis, or reading something that is not related to the thesis but not feeling terribly guilty about doing so, seeing where computer gaming is after parting ways with it about half way through the thesis, or returning to my beloved kendo and smacking some skulls with bamboo. Maybe, just maybe, sitting down without having to think about what needs correcting in which chapter, will suffice for day 1, there’s plenty of time for catching up on all the other things from day 2 onwards! The end...until the viva... |
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