Master of Puppets is Pulling Your Strings

I am a Master!

I successfully defended my MA thesis Online Music Communities: Challenging Sexism, Capitalism, and Authority in Popular Music a week-and-a-half ago. The defence was rigorous and lengthy, but instructive as a result. I think I will take some time away from it before I look at it again and decide whether or not to post it for all to see.

It was a curious feeling, finishing the MA. After all, I spent two years of my life working on it and at times it was to the detriment of my sanity and interpersonal relationships. I felt at once relieved and proud. Throughout the process I had felt the constant nag of ‘work’, even when I was supposed to be ‘relaxing’ or ‘taking time off’. Among the myriad things I learned about my topic, I learned something else, perhaps a little more abstract, but nonetheless something that I feel is important to pursuing my career and life successfully in academia: I have to make sure to structure my time so as to permit some real ‘time off’! I need to learn to make ‘work’ work and ‘play’ play as I pursue my PhD.

My thanks to my advisor Dr. Christina Baade, my second reader Dr. Susan Fast, and the School of the Arts at McMaster University.

Big thanks also to my esteemed editors: Susan Aitken, Claire Blaustein, Basil Chiasson, and Valérie Savard for their input—it would have been a far poorer thesis without you!

Now, onto the PhD, yeesh!  (I don’t know any heavy metal tunes about doctors, anyone?)