mhs, PhD

Today I successfully defended my doctoral dissertation, which means I am only a few bureaucratic steps away from being an official PhD. In keeping with tradition, my professors greeted me as "Dr. mhs" after my defense, which was very strange and exciting. The defense was a challenge -- the professors asked really hard questions, but I passed.

Tonight Kate and I celebrated with sushi at our favorite sushi place, Shiro's, in Belltown (that is the same place we went the night we got engaged). Now I am very tired and relieved. If you live in the Seattle area, please try to make it to our party on Thursday!

Here is a picture of us at dinner:

A question for our readers...

This question is directed at our readers who have earned PhDs or are familiar with the process. Is it a good idea to pay the extra $45 to copyright my dissertation? I am having trouble figuring out what benefits a copyright confers, but I am definitely open to the idea.

Please discuss.

Graduate school is a long road

with few high points. But I just reached one of them. I just submitted a draft of my last dissertation chapter to my committee. Yay!

Hisashiburi!

That is Japanese for "it's been a long time!" Kate and I have been quite busy with our teaching and "other obligations." Kate's major "other obligation" is her job, and mine is my dissertation (I have one chapter left to write, for those of you keeping score at home).

The academic job market is a nasty place, but I have just gotten a piece of good news. It seems that my department has hired me for next year as a lecturer. Now, this is a one-year position, without a chance of rolling over into a tenured position, but it is really great news, because I will be able to graduate this summer and go on the tenure track job market with my PhD in hand, which will increase my chances of getting a tenure track job.

Also, in March I went to a conference in Boston, and I finally got to meet Josh, the son of my childhood friend Seth. Here are some pictures from that trip.

Nerd Camp

While Kate skiied, I attended a dissertation workshop in California. It was quite an intense workshop. There were 12 PhD students, and the workshop actually resembled summer camp in a lot of ways (Kate called the workshop "nerd camp"). We had roommates, and they rang a big bell before meals. The Ph.D. students also bonded really nicely -- I feel like I made a lot of new friends. On the first full day of the workshop we each had to be completely silent for 30 minutes while the group discussed our dissertation projects (we had all read 10 page abstracts of one anothers' projects). This was quite strange, but not as bad as I had feared. On the second full day, we each got to lead a discussion of our own dissertations, and on the third day there were limited activities, and we got to go and play. I joined the largest group, and we went hiking. Here are some pictures: