This is Not a Drill

[homais]

So, I've been really busy/productive in the last month since I've posted. For one, I seem to actually have a dissertation now, one that I like, and my advisors like. I'll probably be able to defend the proposal in the next few months, and then I'll be ABD (which is academese for all-but Dissertation i.e. you have cleared all PhD requirements except

Comments

[zero_the_fool]

Congratulations! That sounds like it's going to be quite the interesting excursion.

What's the dissertation about?

[homais]

The relatively to-the-point version is that I've figured out a way to combine my obsession with identity with my obsession with cities: essentially, studying the politics of the building industry (i.e. the firms involved in, uhh, building stuff - highly relevant in Cairo, which is growing at a scary pace) and the strange political fantasies, anxieties, and government strategies that come with it. For whatever reason, even though we know that real-estate speculation has political consequences, political scientists just haven't been studying it. So I'm in pretty open territory here, academically.

As for the politics-and-identity issues that tend to come up around this sort of thing, this article's a pretty good intro: http://www.thenational.ae/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20100304/REVIEW/703049974&SearchID=7338417774946

[purejuice]

i think richard sennett is kind of full of shit, but he always has an interesting and fruitful starting point.
http://www.amazon.com/Flesh-Stone-Body-Western-Civilization/dp/0141007591/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1271428121&sr=1-1

and, a wonderful book no one has read but me is deborah parsons Streetwalking the Metropolis, about the female flaneur.

[dubaiwalla]

Mabrook! That sounds really exciting!

And do try to make it here, at least for a weekend.

[homais]

Only if I get to stay at the Burj al-Arab.

(but seriously, I am so there; Cairo-Dubai flights are pretty cheap, yeah?)

[dubaiwalla]

You can get from Alex to Sharjah and back for under $200 on Air Arabia.

Your thesis sounds fascinating, and I'd love to learn about what you discover.

[tcpip]

Great news... Oh, and absolute superb photograph as well.

[erf_]

Congratufuckinlations! Woooooo! You are just one step away from being a Real Doctor! :D

(Edited to insert more alcoholic enthusiasm.)

[henkkuli]

When you're done with the dissertation, will you be abu al-dissertation?