No, ok it is sunny and raining at the same time, but that wasn’t what I meant! I have this week discovered that if the PhD doesn’t go well and no academic career beckons, then I should have no trouble in getting a job presenting the weather forecast on telly!

Anyway, I’ll elaborate more on that later. What a busy couple of weeks! So much to update on and an important week ahead.

It seems like a while ago now but I went to Salford for a 2-day European Studies postgraduate conference. This was a really enjoyable experience, I heard some interesting papers and talked to some interesting people about their research. While on the one hand I was glad I wasn’t presenting, I did feel a bit left out as it was such fun! There were a few first year PhD students doing foreign policy research which was particularly interesting and something I could get my teeth into when it came to questions. And it’s always good to meet some Portuguese people, there were two Portuguese PhD students at the conference. Also it was my first ever trip to Manchester! Which I was impressed with and after the conference dinner, we had a few drinks in the city!!! Good times!

Upon my return to Newcastle, aside from catching up on my emails, I had lots to do, namely preparing for the presentations coming up. So that has kept me busy in the last couple of days, especially ahead of my Camoes research seminar on Thursday. But there was a moment of light relief, although it was definitely still work, a Portuguese political cartoonist visited the University and gave a talk about his work. Was an interesting and entertaining insight into Portuguese culture, identity and politics. Let’s hope my seminar can follow that one!

With much to keep me busy, I envisaged a nice and productive Bank Holiday weekend. While that can be said of the Saturday, the Sunday and Monday were largely written off as I had a very nasty bout of sickness. But thankfully it was short and I got over it. Least it wasn’t swine flu! (Although I was worried for a bit!!!)

So my weatherman skills… On Thursday we, a handful of volunteering PhD students, each gave a 5-minute presentation and had it recorded. While it was odd to see and hear yourself giving a presentation, looking back on it, it went better than I thought. But I noticed that I do gesture rather at the powerpoint slide on the board, just as if I was pointing to patches of cloud and cold fronts and the like. So if all else fails I’ll try the BBC for a job!

Another thing which has kept me busy this week has been doing my working hours for the School as part of my studentship. It’s the time of year when the 2nd semester work has been submitted and all those little first years (and the odd final year student), bless them, try to get away with plagiarism. It falls on me to stop them! And I’ve found quite a few instances, some more obvious, blatant and serious than others. But a few of the staff have commented on how I’m doing a good job, so it’s nice to be recognised.

So the week ahead…

Well the diary is blissfully empty at the moment. Just as well! Thursday is the red-letter day! On that day I have my Progress Review panel (which I am told I shouldn’t worry about, so I’ll try not to but no guarantees!) and, in the same afternoon, I give my Camoes research seminar (which I am bricking it about!)

So if I survive both and don’t have a nervous breakdown or anything or don’t decide to run away to a remote Scottish island and hide, I shall report about how they go in my next post.

Three years to do a PhD, plenty of time! Not so, as it turns out. Forget 3 years of time, I have a mass of things to get done in the next 3 WEEKS and my to do list is starting to get out of control. Hopefully, once the end of May passes I will have a nice long summer in which to do some theoretical framework thinking and write my ‘state of the art’ on Portuguese foreign policy/Europeanisation which still needs doing this year.

But until I can work in the pleasant surroundings of the garden, nice cold drink, laptop, sunshine, feet up, perhaps even strawberries and ice cream (!?!), I need to banish all these tasks into the dark annals of history.

The first major demand on my time at the moment is my annual progress review. Now I’m happy with my progress and so are my supervisors. But I have to formally justify what I have done since October and what I intend to do next year. Yes, these people have the power to ‘pull the plug’ on my PhD, but I really don’t think that will happen and I should pass. But I need to upload lots of documentation to my e-Portfolio and write a report (circa 1,500 words) on my progress. I am in the process of drafting the report now, which to be honest, isn’t that long and allowing for reasonable procrastination on my part, I should have it finished by Friday. (Procrastination is proportionate to the size of the to do list! Hence why I’m escaping from it by writing my blog this afternoon!!!)

My progress review panel has been scheduled for the afternoon of May 14th. Which is long enough away. But I will be having a very busy afternoon because I have to give me Camoes seminar paper after my progress panel. Now with the demands on my time, I haven’t actually written my paper yet or got anywhere near doing the slides for the presentation. I shall promote it and send emails round and I have done a poster to stick up around the Politics Building. I just need to have the space to prepare for this thing! I hope I eventually do get this thing prepared as I am looking forward to it. I am particularly looking forward to the pint (or eight) after that day is over!

Not only that, I need to put together an application to the Instituto Camoes to be considered for a grant to help fund my fieldwork. I need to put together letters, abstracts, a CV and covering letter and have all that done in time to send by May 18th. Although, this shouldn’t mean that much work really and the cash would be gratefully received!!!!

So plenty of time between now and the middle of May to sort out those things…??? Wrong! Sunday, Monday and Tuesday are effectively written off. Although I shall be working, I won’t be working on crossing off things from my to do list! I have a conference to attend in Salford which should be good. I shall report back with news from that when I have time.

So it’s Wednesday afternoon… 4pm we have a guest speaker coming, by the time I’ve dragged myself away from the wine and crisps afterwards it will be 6.30-7ish. Back to the office and try and sort out something. Then have tomorrow, Friday and Saturday to get some serious work done before leaving on Sunday. Doable you’d think?! But my office is now full of boxes the EU has decided to send me. The postgrad roundtable at the end of May, which I am organising, will be on Europe and they have very kindly sent me lots of publications. Oh yeah, so the roundtable is another thing to organise, promote and make sure our guest speaker turns up! Oh dear.

Anything else…? Well I have promised to reply to the Portuguese foreign ministry and tell them what I want to look at in their archive, which is quite difficult because I don’t know what they have and I want stuff that is still classified under the 30-year rule. So that particular email is being severely put off. Also I have some secretaries to talk to in Lisbon but I really am not in the frame of mind to be dealing with organising things in Portuguese over the phone. Maybe put that off till the Autumn!!!

Surely that’s everything….? No, a week after the Camoes presentation is the Faculty presentation. That’ll require tweaking my Camoes paper and doing new powerpoint slides. But that’s far too far away to think about now! Put it off some!!!

So that must be everything, or at least that’s all my brain can process at the moment, I’m sure there are other things which may or may not be pressing which I have forgotten about. I’m too swamped to know! And what’s worse it that things will continue to get added to my to do list! Grrr!

There were some nice moments of relaxation and calmly getting some things done over the Easter holiday. But now, now I have returned to Newcastle, it’s head down for some intense work!

If I make it through the next 3 weeks then I should breeze the rest of my PhD. If I don’t, I’m kinda screwed!

I’m writing this on the train home. Another term has quickly passed us by but I think it’s been a good one! I feel like I have direction, purpose and there are lots of exciting things to look forward to. The first 6 months of the PhD have more than lived up to expectations and I’m looking forward to more!

Although it is a bit studenty of me to be talking about the end of the week on a Thursday morning, the working week which has just passed has been a good one. The weather obviously helps and although it’s a bit cloudy and foggy this morning, we have had some glorious days this week which makes me feel like Spring has sprung!

Monday: I received feedback on the draft of my literature review/theoretical framework. On the whole, it was positive and it seems that I have made good progress this year. I’m told I clearly like social constructivism and sociological institutionalism so should spend less time trying to justify other approaches as I don’t really sound convincing when I do. So I feel I can position myself in academic debates a bit better, and dare I say it, label myself a ‘constructivist’?!!? I know this is a big deal for me, always one to avoid nailing my colours to the mast!

Tuesday: St Patrick’s Day. For once I managed to get through the day without consuming a drop of Guinness. The day started off with a presentation by one of my fellow politics PhD students, this was really interesting. And although I’m no IR theorist I enjoyed the talk and I felt I could make some connections with how I see the world. Whether my questions were that perceptive is another matter!!! Then later in the day we, me, the PhD student giving the presentation, another PhD student and a friend from the MA year went for a drink in Wylam, in the Tyne Valley. So I’m told, Wylam station is the oldest railway station in the world that is still working! The pub in Wylam is superb, largely because the brewery is in the same village! Anyway, the reason we went there was to try the special St Patrick’s Day brew – Paddy Whack! A nice tasting bitter coloured GREEN!!!

Wednesday: I went to Hull to meet the Portuguese academic José Magone who has made a brief return to Hull where he was a lecturer before he took up his chair in Berlin. As he’s the main man writing books on Portuguese politics in English he’s an important chap to make contact with. As the weather has been good, we sat in the street and drank coffee and a good chat. Although you couldn’t really mistake Hull for Lisbon! Anyway he gave me lots of tips and suggested lots of people to contact. Most importantly it’s just good to let him know that I exist and have read (and purchased) his work! Once we’d done I got the train back to York. I had a wonder round the city streets and had a couple of pints and got some dinner. Had a walk up to the Minster in the early evening sunshine, was nice! Most importantly found a few very good pubs and a beer shop. The problem comes in convincing the girlfriend to get me what I want… I have decided that when I submit my thesis or pass my viva (one of the two) I want to crack open a bottle of Chimay Grande Reservé. This is a trappist Belgian beer, about 9%, but this particular one matures in the bottle so gets better with age and it comes in a magnum champagne bottle! So it’s a litre and a half of dangerously strong (and rather expensive) beer!!!! But I need something to work towards!

So, Easter holidays… I need to get my progress review stuff sorted and prepare for my two presentations in May. And, most importantly, have some time out and relax!

So with my theoretical framework redrafted, hence the Yes Minister quote, today has been devoted to tidying up those loose ends and preparing for next week.

It’s been really useful to have a day in the office and the freedom to organise my library books which need returning and work out what needs to be printed off and photocopied etc before I go home for Easter. As the progress review process begins after Easter I don’t want to be doing much in the way of proper work, but I do need to make sure I have sufficient materials to organise the two presentations I shall be giving in May. These will be exciting opportunities although a bit scary! I’ll feel much happier once I feel prepared for it!

Last week I had a very nice day out in Leeds contemplating the future of democracy in Europe. I saw a very interesting video made by the students to try and educate school kids about the EU which was really good. I can see it being compulsory viewing for everyone! Also some very distinguished speakers, including 2 MEPs. As keen as I am on Europe, and democracy for that matter, I don’t think the day has helped me to decide whether I will vote in the forthcoming European Parliament elections, and certainly not WHO to vote for. Keeping the BNP and UKIP out of the European Parliament is much more difficult in the proportional representationsystem and would mean voting either Labour (don’t think so on Gordon’s performance as PM), Tory (which would somewhat go against the pro-EU bit) or Lib Dem (I might as well get a hammer and sickle tattooed on my forehead!). Anyway I shall need to give this some more thought.

This coming week… I’m meeting my supervisors on Monday to discuss my theoretical framework and I need to be sure of what I am doing over Easter. I am meeting a Portuguese professor in Hull, visiting from Berlin, on Wednesday. Tuesday night will mean raising a glass or two for Saint Patrick! And Thursday I’m going home, not been home for nearly two months. Looking forward to that.

The events of the coming will be reported on in my next post. Until then…

Nice thought. After a long weekend of actually doing work, I’m entertaining the thought that perhaps the PhD is the sort of dangerous addiction I should be giving up for Lent.

Of course, this is not the case. But it does help me illustrate what I think the situation is. I have now reached the stage where I can’t turn it off!!!! Thoughts and ideas running through your head, when you are in bed and meant to be sleeping (or whatever), the mad scribbles of notes on any piece of paper that comes to hand, the addiction of the PhD is really starting to manifest itself!

Now, that’s not a bad thing, but it is potentially very dangerous. Time to reflect and think about ideas is always a double-edged sword, you can get some things clear in your head, but then you are faced with a whole new set of problems to analyse and solve. Do you really want to go there?!?

Over Christmas I had the space to switch it off, but over Easter I know that’s not going to happen. So those nearest to me will have to put up with me going on about what I’m doing and writing notes all the time as an idea comes to mind. The creative process, I guess is what makes it addictive. Those moments of inspiration and the moment where it all falls into place is what makes it worthwhile. Those moments have largely been missing in the first five months of the PhD. I have, instead, been slowly demolishing my initial PhD proposal and now my theoretical framework is a nice complicated mess! But much better for it!

So since my last post, my time has been taken up by redrafting my Literature Review/Theoretical Framework section. I did the first draft before Christmas and then received some feedback from my supervisors. Then I set about engaging with more of the Foreign Policy Analysis literature and getting into understanding foreign policy in terms of conceptions of national role identities. This seems to me, to be really useful for thinking about Portugal. Its niche in European politics is its connections with its former colonies and broadly with the Mediterranean, so Portuguese foreign policy can then be constructed according to this broadly cultural role. Or so it goes, it’s been a long weekend my head hurts! So, with nearly 10,000 words chalked up and a section on ‘small states’ still to write, and the concluding analysis and loads of signposting and introductory bits, the 2nd draft is taking shape. And after meeting with Jocelyn and deciding on a better structure for the chapter it flows much better and is organised a bit more logically.

So progress on the theoretical side, but it comes at a price. I’m not a philosophical person and am reluctant to dwell too much on theory, largely because I’m scared of getting in too deep (and getting out of my depth and drowning!). But reflecting on the finer points of International Relations, European integration and how we conceptualise and construct political institutions and national identities has been an enjoyable experience. The ongoing structure-agency debate is something I have been trying to get my head round. I definitely agree that they can’t be separated and that one constitutes the other, but then you get into the whole muddy water of which came first and which one is more powerful. I told you my head hurts, so I’m gonna stop there.

I’ll try not to leave it too long until my next post! I am meeting another Portuguese professor this month so will report back about that. I also need to get my head straight as to what I need to do over Easter. But for the moment I need to get this Lit Review/Theoretical Framework draft done by the 12th.

But it’s nice to have had the afternoon in the office on my own with the freedom to do work, to procrastinate, to go on Facebook etc. in relative peace.

Belatedly, Happy New Year!

Now there is a reason I have left my first post of 2009 until February and that is that I have been rather busy. But not in a bad way!!!

Like in a previous post, there is snow on the ground today and more to follow! So from the snapshots of Newcastle’s weather I have given you through these posts the attentive reader could quite easily deduce that it gets rather cold up here during the winter months and a bit of snow is not uncommon. Even to call it ‘heavy snow’ would not be a huge exaggeration, but it would be ‘heavy snow’ in the very British sense, that one inch of white stuff brings the country to a standstill whereas other countries seem to be able to deal with such, relatively minor, snowfalls without traffic ‘chaos’ ensuing. OK, rant over…!

Today I took the first step towards being a seminar tutor. In order to do that I need to complete a two-day course on how to run a seminar and go through the necessary hoops presented to me by the powers that be in the University. The session was really quite relaxed and interesting full of useful ideas about what makes for a good seminar and we had lots of discussion with the group. As this was something open to all disciplines in the University, and not necessarily PhD students, there was a wide array of people and, unsurprisingly I was left alone to fly the flag for politics (and in fact social science in general with several medical/sciency/mathsy-typed people there). Anyway, this was a useful experience and I hope for more of the same tomorrow. I am looking forward to writing here about the time leading up to taking my first seminar and, hopefully, reporting back on it passing successfully without major disasters or hospitalisations etc.

Throughout January I was reflecting on where I want to be at the end of the term. Specifically, trying to plan ahead for my fieldwork and developing my theoretical approaches. I submitted a literature review on Europeanisation before Christmas and have received feedback from my supervisor who (yes you guessed it…) suggested further reading still. But I do think things are starting to come together now and I’m beginning to see what I want from my research and am getting an idea of how to achieve my goals.

Last Saturday I did something which was long overdue… I sorted out my office space. It now has very little on the shelves, but at least what is on those shelves is now MINE! I needed to remove the stuff of a previous user and box it up and I had been putting that off for most of last term. So now I have a desk and some shelves in the Politics Building, with an office I share with three other people. This makes me feel a bit more ‘academic’ as well as having good practical uses, particularly working in there and making the most of free heating! The shelving does give me lots of room to store the further reading outlined above!

OK well I think that’s enough for now. I think for my next post I shall go into a bit more detail about my struggles (or not?!) with developing my theoretical framework. If I outline what I do in here as I grapple with the thing it may also relieve some of my frustrations with it. So apologies in advance if it gets a bit too scary and if I start swearing a lot!

Até a vista!

Merry Christmas to all!

So I thought I better reflect on the term (and the year) which has passed.

I have done my Christmas shopping and have this afternoon sent my project approval form to my supervisor, so as of tomorrow (as I still have a few loose ends to tie up tonight) I will put my feet up for Christmas. Chill out and get started on that garage full of beer!!!

It’s been a great term and I feel I have come a long way already since starting the PhD. The end seems like quite a long way off but hopefully in two years time I will be writing up my thesis over the Christmas holiday. Oh my God that does seem very distant! But I think things are starting to come together and I got some positive feedback from my supervisors when we all met last week. I have done a literature review on Europeanisation which has helped me organise my thoughts and get to grips with some of the reading. I feel I’m a lot more critical about things now (which is a good thing, although I do see myself launching into major rants about minor things which annoy me!).

So after Christmas… I need to get started on my theoretical framework and start planning my methodology. In addition I will have to start to contact people in Portugal and start to get my fieldwork planned. Jens, my supervisor in modern languages, has invited me to give a talk at the Instituto Camões seminars in May. This will be my first major presentation and it will give me the chance to try out what I will have prepared for the Faculty presentation later in that month. A bit scary to think I’ll be presenting my work! I won’t have any hard evidence to present but I hope I’ll be in situation where I can give some insight into what I hope to find out and problematise the concepts I am dealing with and present them in a way that people will be able to understand.

Now all that sounds a long way away, but it seems like only yesterday I started my PhD and I’m already 3 months in!

So Merry Christmas and I’ll look forward to blogging through 2009 and having lots more new PhD experiences.

Hello everyone, it’s December and there’s snow on the ground and more to follow tonight! It’s been a while since my last post but there are lots of things to report on…

Today I returned to PhD work (gradually) after a little break to celebrate the weekend leading up to my MA graduation which was yesterday. In stark contrast to the hot July day I graduated from Newcastle as a Bachelor in 2006, the day I became a Master was cold and with some snow! But it was a very enjoyable day and marks the end of the my time as an MA student. It was good to see some people again I’d not seen since the Summer. Also it gave my supervisors the chance to talk to my parents and girlfriend and give them a little taste of what they might expect Steven to be like in the coming years as his patience wears increasingly thin.

Incidentally, it is more of a cold than a hangover I am nursing today but this has been partially remedied by access to free Portuguese wine this afternoon. The Postgraduate Director asked me and my fellow “ambassadors” to give a talk to the current undergraduates about the joys of postgraduate study. Free wine and mince pies is always an effective lure! This I was happy to do and was as enjoyable as last week where we were available to answer any questions at the postgraduate open day. As Jo has eluded to in her blog, it was a very reassuring experience for us and the prospective new postgrads. It certainly made me think about how far I’ve come (and now I have formally graduated too!!!) and that I don’t regret postgraduate study.

So I’m sipping on the wine slowly as I write this. It’s not mulled wine unfortunately that would be lovely. So I may go back via the Christmas market and have a shot of that! Yeah, Christmas in Newcastle is looking good this year. Fenwick’s window is all Oliver themed and my parents were very impressed. The Christmas lights look nice and the market is full of nice things too. But I won’t be doing my Christmas shopping just yet! Alas I’m far too busy!!!

Other things of note that I have done. Well on my project side I need to do my project approval form and complete my PhD proposal by Monday. This is mostly done already but will keep me occupied for the next couple of days. And I shall meet with my supervisors next week and discuss what I have done on my Europeanisation literature review. Oh, I better do some work on that before the weekend!

I also have some good news in that the Portuguese Embassy in London has written back to me and are willing to co-operate in getting me access to places in Lisbon to do my fieldwork. Hopefully a clear plan will emerge after Christmas on quite what I want my project to be and where I will go and who I will talk to. For now, let’s just accept that we have had positive communications.

One thing last week was particularly interesting. I saw the other side of the fence! Meaning that my supervisor got me to help her mark her second year undergraduate presentations. So I was in charge of setting up the tape recorder and had to make notes and mark the presentations. Some were better than others. While I was impressed by the way some students communicated, some of the others left me rather puzzled. Looking back on my old undergrad days (I did that module but we didn’t have to make a presentation in my day!), I remember that ok some of us were half decent, but other students weren’t so good and/or were rather lazy when it came to group work. On the whole I was impressed with what I saw and the next lot will be tomorrow. I guess the best part was trying to give them a mark. This I thought would be quite difficult. However, me and my supervisor met up at the end of the day and discussed each presentation in turn and agreed a mark (in a quiet pub over a pint). I was impressed in that the marks we gave them were quite similar and maybe my marking was little on the harsh side, but we came to an agreement. Alas I can say no more for fear that said undergrads may be reading this blog!

For sure there will be another post before I finish in Newcastle for Christmas. Maybe the end of next week.

As I have been quite a bit so far on my PhD, I find myself on a train. This time I’m actually going to Newcastle (as opposed to home, or somewhere random!).

So since my last post I have been ‘out of office’ but busy doing work. However, upon my return, which train permitting should be less than 2 hours away now, I seriously need to get my ass in gear (can I say that?!)!!!! So I shall report back on my trips to London and Hull last week and reflect a bit about what is lined up for me to do this coming week (mainly so I can get it into my head what needs doing!!). But I think this is the most productive thing I can do for the moment on the train.

London: On Monday last (November 10th) I went down to the UACES Research Students’ Conference at the European Commission and European Parliament offices in London. This is a very useful experience. Firstly, it seems that UACES is a very good organisation for me to be a part of and they seem very good at involving postgraduate researchers in their activities. The workshops at the conference looked useful and did not disappoint. As I am planning conducting fieldwork in Europe and looking to get published during my PhD I gained some useful tips and insights. The scary topic addressed at the end was what to do after the PhD! (Scary I know!) This was useful and although I am a long way from that it gave me lots to think about.

I guess the most important aspect of the conference was to meet other students at various stages of their PhDs on European studies. To that end I had a very mixed feelings moment talking to a guy at LSE doing, you guessed it, Europeanisation of Portuguese foreign policy! And being in his second year and being Portuguese and being quite well connected in Lisbon he seems to have a bit of an edge over me. But I’m sure our topics are similar but are arguments and theses will not be. This will come with time. But I have his contact details and he is someone to remember for the future!!! So this is the joy of conferencing, meeting people who know your subject! To be honest we are a bit short of EU studies people at Newcastle, so it was good to meet with other students too at the conference. Not to mention the freebies we received!

Hull: On Friday (November 14th) I made my first ever trip to Hull. Now, I have to say the University campus is quite nice, but alas the rest of the city (no offence) does suffer from considerable neglect. I have to say I don’t think it’s the kind of place I would want to live and study (especially compared to Newcastle), but each to their own. My reason for going there was to meet a Portuguese MP – António Filipe. He gave a paper on reforms of the Portuguese Parliament and there were 6 others in the room. I had tea served to me by a Lord!!! (The Prof. Lord [Philip] Norton of Louth, Head of Department). And was good to meet Cristina Leston-Bandeira a Portuguese lecturer in politics at Hull who I had been corresponding with a few weeks ago. Both her and the MP gave me some useful tips about who to talk to when doing my fieldwork. So again I was networking and it seems I have a good contact base emerging now!

So this week… I need to get my Europeanisation Literature Review largely done. I’m looking to have 25 entries by Sunday night. It doesn’t matter if the writing is a bit weak I just need a starting point for most of the articles and I can add further detail later. But I really need to lock myself away and get this done! As I don’t appear to have many empty days in my diary for the coming few weeks I really need to get most of this done this week! I think getting my head down and doing it won’t be too bad, but we shall see how I get on! Aside from that I also want to get my PhD Proposal done and dusted as that’s due December 8th and I haven’t got much more time to finish it! But it’s started and shouldn’t take too long to finish.

I have another bit of work to do and that is checking whether the undergrads have been naughty! I have to go through the work submitted this term with plagiarism software! So I think I shall devote an afternoon over a coffee and bickie looking at those this week too.

So I hope I get all these things done…!

Yesterday was quite an eventful day. Amongst other things I got my MA dissertation mark back and my overall result. I know some of my fellow MA people from last year did well and well done to them! I did as well as I expected to really. It’s quite a relief to finally put that to bed now and I can think purely in terms of being a PhD student without that in the back of my mind. Having said that, I need to make good use of my MA dissertation for developing my PhD thesis, theories, questions etc.

Also yesterday I went to one of the staff seminars. So far I can boast 100% attendance of these so far this year and they are really useful things to go to. The latest in the very diverse range of topics discussed was Buffy the Vampire Slayer! Really interesting talk given by our own Matt Davies. Now, having never ever watched a single episode of it, I have to say I learnt quite a bit. But, more importantly the connections he made to work, global capitalism etc, were all very well articulated. This promises to be a very interesting paper and eventually maybe a book. I guess the lesson to be learned here is that any topic is fine for a politics PhD so long as you can locate into current theoretical debates! So if you are thinking of doing a Buffy PhD apply to Newcastle and you would have a few members of staff happy to supervise you!!!!!

The other main event yesterday was the meeting between me and my supervisors. I sent them a very rough set of research questions and a rough chapter outline for them to discuss. It was useful and I think my Europeanisation literature review will make me leave some of the earlier Europeanisation framework ideas behind as I realise that the ‘goodness of fit’ isn’t as good in the Portuguese case. But I do need to decide quite where I fit into all this and where I want to be at the end of it should I go into an academic career.

Oh and my main supervisor did some work on my behalf when she went to a defence conference in Marseille last week. There was a Portuguese official who was laying into the Portuguese having to conform to the European defence policy in typical sovereign sea-going Portuguese fashion!

After the staff seminar we all retired to the GPS office for a (few) glasses of wine! Those of us with something to celebrate in particular! We were also toasted by the staff for our success. It was good to let off steam in this way, but it also felt as if I had nothing to celebrate! The PhD is a long way off from being completed so, although I deserve to celebrate, it doesn’t mark a clear moment of finishing the MA when I am already nearly 2 months into doing the PhD. Shit 2 months, only 34 left!!!! That’s nothing! But I feel I have made progress nonetheless.

The most eventful thing of course was waking up to the news that Obama was elected President!!! The Republicans are getting kicked out of office and we were spared President Palin (because let’s face it McCain wouldn’t have stayed alive for the whole term so would leave it to his eminently capable *coughs* vice President)!!!

Next update will include my trips to London and Hull