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| Mama PhD |
I hope you've enjoyed reading my blog so far! I'm going to make this one a little short!
As a college student, I marvel at the professors raising young children amid the intense demands of academia. I often worry about keeping them for longer with my questions about course material when I know their family awaits them at home. I want to know more about how professors balance a life of publishing research, while caring for their children. So here I am, working on researching this vague topic about motherhood and professorhood for my senior seminar class. The main goal of the research is to explore the scholarly conversations on motherhood and professorhood.
I became interested in this topic when my professor showed me a book called Papa PhD. I automatically asked, "Hmph! What about mothers!?" He replied, "Ah, yes! Mama PhD came out first, and then fathers wanted to create their own version of the book." Heh heh. I thought that was silly. But hey, I actually find it very interesting! And now I'm researching all about it!
Ooooh, I remember the first time when I had to do research like this. It was painful!!! It was very difficult to transfer from an introductory women's studies course to the ultimate senior seminar intensive research course. What made it worse was that I felt I was not provided with enough tools and support to conduct research. The one hour tutorial of how to research was not enough to help me at all! And prior to this course, I had no idea how to do research nor navigate through scholarly databases!
But now, I am nearly an expert!!! After taking a quantitative research methods course and conducting research, I have become very familiar with the process and components of research. Right now I am using A Writer's Reference and I highly recommend it--especially if you're new to this research process!
Pretty soon we will be working on an annotated bibliography (which I found to be absolutely trembling the first time around).
Here are some samples:
As a college student, I marvel at the professors raising young children amid the intense demands of academia. I often worry about keeping them for longer with my questions about course material when I know their family awaits them at home. I want to know more about how professors balance a life of publishing research, while caring for their children. So here I am, working on researching this vague topic about motherhood and professorhood for my senior seminar class. The main goal of the research is to explore the scholarly conversations on motherhood and professorhood.
I became interested in this topic when my professor showed me a book called Papa PhD. I automatically asked, "Hmph! What about mothers!?" He replied, "Ah, yes! Mama PhD came out first, and then fathers wanted to create their own version of the book." Heh heh. I thought that was silly. But hey, I actually find it very interesting! And now I'm researching all about it!
Ooooh, I remember the first time when I had to do research like this. It was painful!!! It was very difficult to transfer from an introductory women's studies course to the ultimate senior seminar intensive research course. What made it worse was that I felt I was not provided with enough tools and support to conduct research. The one hour tutorial of how to research was not enough to help me at all! And prior to this course, I had no idea how to do research nor navigate through scholarly databases!
But now, I am nearly an expert!!! After taking a quantitative research methods course and conducting research, I have become very familiar with the process and components of research. Right now I am using A Writer's Reference and I highly recommend it--especially if you're new to this research process!
Pretty soon we will be working on an annotated bibliography (which I found to be absolutely trembling the first time around).
Here are some samples:
Im glad you have found a topic that really interests you. Are you thinking of getting a PhD in your future? Because it would be cool to be able to connect you research to your plans. I wonder if you could add some case studies of professors at St. Olaf with children to your research to add a personal and local touch. Good luck with your research!
ReplyDeleteYes, haha. I recently posted on Facebook how "I must earn a PhD before I die". Sometime, somewhere, somehow, I'll get my PhD in the future. I really want to study at the University of Massachusetts. They take the study of sociology seriously!
ReplyDeleteAs for my research plans, I believe this type of research will help with further research on women's rights/voices. And I definitely want to talk to several current St. Olaf professors about how they balance work and life.
How about you, Dory? Do you have any future plans of conducting more research pertaining to women or gender studies?
ReplyDeleteThanks for the helpful links and tips, Mo! I'm really looking forward to hearing about what you find in your research. I so hope your conclusion to your research on Motherhood and Academic life is that it's better to not have children at all. :)
ReplyDeleteThanks, and do not worry!! Balance depends! The conclusion is HOPEFUL!!
ReplyDelete