Let's share research interests

[George]

 I really don't know if this will be greeted with praise or criticism, but I decided to give it a shot. I'm really interested to hear what other people's interests are, whatever they may be. Even though my background is in mathematics/computer science/robotics, I would love to hear about the persecution of the Alevis in Turkey, the lyrical devices invented by James Joyce, sexism in ex-communist satellites: anything and everything! My fear is that it looks like I'm asking you to write me a SoP or to paste your own. I don't want that. I want us to just let loose and share our excitement, our pride and joy, with the words we want to use, not the ones we think will be deemed correct by a third party. There is no need for 'fit' either which will eliminate a lot of the stress. I know for a fact that every one of you can share something interesting if someone is willing to lend you their ears. Well, I'm lending mine to begin with.

I want share my own story, but I don't want to appear conceited as if it's any more important than anyone else's. I would like to know if others are interested in sharing their stories, and then I will more than gladly share mine.

What do you, fellow comrades in arms, think? Feel free to write as much as you like, though, personally, I would love to read even pages' worth from each person. I know it takes room to explain things.

Edited December 31, 2009 by George

[melusine]

um...

i'm kind of on the fence with this one. i mean, i love to talk about my topic but in these times of applications/submissions, my paranoia has hit an all-time peak.

it's not that i'm scared anyone will bother to "steal" my topic- it's nothing that original anyhow.. but a professor-friend of mine told me her colleagues in Harvard won't even share their current projects outside the privacy of their respective offices. i think i've already posted enough for people who really want to know to figure my specific interests out, but i'm not sure if i have the guts to put it all out in the open in a single post on a public forum. maybe later, but not today.

[George]

um...

i'm kind of on the fence with this one. i mean, i love to talk about my topic but in these times of applications/submissions, my paranoia has hit an all-time peak.

it's not that i'm scared anyone will bother to "steal" my topic- it's nothing that original anyhow.. but a professor-friend of mine told me her colleagues in Harvard won't even share their current projects outside the privacy of their respective offices. i think i've already posted enough for people who really want to know to figure my specific interests out, but i'm not sure if i have the guts to put it all out in the open in a single post on a public forum. maybe later, but not today.  

Hmm. I see where you're coming from. I guess I didn't really expect future plans for research to come into play. I wanted to share something that I have already done and is a closed chapter in my life. It might be that in Humanities your whole research revolves around one interesting idea, which you don't want to share because then others will start working on it. In my situation, if I told you that my idea was to build a robot that could take over the world, that wouldn't at all hurt my chances of achieving it first. =) The idea is not even half the battle.

I'm still curious to hear a few other responses. I apologize if I inadvertently asked too much of you.

[George]

I have thought this through and decided this is not a good idea. melusine is right. This forum is not the place to discuss this topic.

[modernity]

I would love to share my research ideas with the people ON the forum, because I've grown to respect a lot of the individuals on there - or at least, their internet personas! I would love to hear what everyone is interested in doing. But... because it's a public forum, and I never know who will stumble on it, it makes me reluctant to do so. It was a very good idea in theory.

[rainy_day]

I find people's hesitation to discuss their research interesting, and also surprising. It never would have occurred to me to be hush-hush!

I study English, with a primary interest in gender studies. The thing I really like about English is the way you can incorporate history, cultural artifacts, and theory into one field. It's like the catch-all for everything I find fascinating.

While I really love modernism/contemporary stuff, it's damn near impossible to get a job in that specialty, so my hope in grad school is to develop some expertise in something, well, older. My objective in my research is to challenge assumed ways of thinking (both my own and others).

There. That wasn't so bad!

Edited December 31, 2009 by rainy_day

[LateAntique]

I'm interested in the early Christian reception of Classical literature. I want to explore how classical philosophy shaped the categories the early Christians used (this includes the NT authors) to discuss their own theology. I'm also interested in how the Greek and Latin languages helped to shape the respective theologies of the Eastern and Western Churches.

[jacib]

I find people's hesitation to discuss their research interesting, and also surprising. It never would have occurred to me to be hush-hush!

I study English, with a primary interest in gender studies. The thing I really like about English is the way you can incorporate history, cultural artifacts, and theory into one field. It's like the catch-all for everything I find fascinating.

While I really love modernism/contemporary stuff, it's damn near impossible to get a job in that specialty, so my hope in grad school is to develop some expertise in something, well, older. My objective in my research is to challenge assumed ways of thinking (both my own and others).

There. That wasn't so bad!

Man, I'm also surprised that people are really worried about being "scooped". I guess I've already shared my main research interests elsewhere in the forums (Secularism, Turkey, Religion and the State), so all I can say is, "Good luck learning Turkish before I start churning out brilliant scholarship, you pathetic bunch of potential thieves"! İzinimi almadan benden bi fikir araklarsan Allah ceza versin! Rekabet olmasın, haydi berbar araştıralım.

I feel like I already know about the three or so graduate students working on Secularism and Turkey, one of whom I already emailed and was really supportive about me applying to his institution; even with those three, I have only the broadest intersection of issues, but with the two of them whose research project I know well, I don't even have intersections of methodology, never mind ideas. I found one more person working on secularization... of Australian and American education systems in the 19th century. There are probably a few working on Secularism in South Asia, but I can't be sure. I found maybe a dozen more people with Turkish names studying for sociology PhDs, but most of them are working on politics/economics, none of them are touching religion as far as I know. Therefore, it had never occurred to me that stealing ideas could be a problem -- just the opposite, I get super excited whenever I hear the word "secularism" brought up by other PhD candidates and applicants. Granted I work in kind of a small field, but I'm sure in other, slightly larger subfields, there might be more opportunity but how much overlap is there really? Hell, if I here "religion and politics", "modern islam", "Turkey" or "secularism" I get excited. Am I just naive, or is this stealing thing really a big problem?

Every single academic I've ever met is super psyched to share their research with anyone who would listen. I mean, I wouldn't want to say much more than I've already said on these boards to avoid sounding pretentiously premature ("Yeah, maybe I haven't done the 'research' yet, but I've already got my brilliant point so you can just sign that little PhD diploma right now, thanks, the rest of this is just going to be formality"). Some professors definitely list their next four projects on their website.

Anyway, this reminds me of the Tom Lehrer song ostensibly about Nikolai Lobachevsky that you guys might enjoy.

Edit: Okay I now reread the other posts and realize that you said you WEREN'T necessarily worried about stealing, just in general. Fair enough.

Edited December 31, 2009 by jacib

[rainy_day]

Edit: Okay I now reread the other posts and realize that you said you WEREN'T necessarily worried about stealing, just in general. Fair enough.

Oh, Jacib, I'm quite surprised that sharing is a concern of people's. My "There, that wasn't so bad" was definitely facetious.

You're research sounds really interesting!! Now if only I can find a way to incorporate that random bit of Turkish I don't understand into this writing sample I'm sending out today.

[captiv8ed]

Well, I will compromise and tell about the general interests I put in my SOP and then some more specific interests that I haven't talked about, but hope to do someday.

My general interests are the intersection of class and religion, and also gender and household labor.

A few not-discussed topics:

I did a really interesting survey on body image that left me with a lot of questions and I want to do more. Specifically looking at how media literacy has affected women's body image, and men's true thoughts on women of all sizes.

I also really want to spend some time on the marketing departments construction of gender. I am specifically thinking of the pink movement in girl's toys, and also gender-specific toys (girl's bake ovens, girl's-can-draw books) and what affect that has on boys' desire to use those toys, and also the general public (kid and grown up) response to boys playing with those toys.

And I want to study the marketing of Christianity. I am not sure what my exact questions are there yet though.

Gee, maybe I should go to a place that has a strong sociology of marketing focus, if such a thing exists!!

OK, just one more (and it is in the marketing field too): the homogeneity of places and people in America. It does not hold true for everyone, but you know how you can go to any town in America and see types of people? We talk about kid cliques, but it spills over into adults as well. I don't have any specific questions there yet, either.

Alright that is it. Those are all secondary interests, so who knows if I will ever get to them.

[jacib]

Oh, Jacib, I'm quite surprised that sharing is a concern of people's. My "There, that wasn't so bad" was definitely facetious.

You're research sounds really interesting!! Now if only I can find a way to incorporate that random bit of Turkish I don't understand into this writing sample I'm sending out today.

İzinimi almadan benden bi fikir araklarsan Allah ceza versin! = May God punish you if you pilfer one idea from me without getting my permission.

[glasses]

İzinimi almadan benden bi fikir araklarsan Allah ceza versin! = May God punish you if you pilfer one idea from me without getting my permission.

Jacib, is there any way that you could let me know what "Please, please let me in" is in Turkish? I find myself muttering this all the time, and it would be cool to know how to say it in another language!

Well, all this fear about getting scooped has only enhanced my own fear of getting scooped, but I will say this: I study English, and my reason for studying it is the exact opposite of rainy_day's (which is part of why I like the field as a whole). I'm al all-text-only-text-all-the-time kind of gal, and I study poems.

Edited December 31, 2009 by glasses

[captiv8ed]

glasses, I say this a lot too!!

I have had to fight myself in SOP and emails to profs to not say, "I really really really want to go to your school and will wash your car every week for a year if you let me in. Please please please please!!!"

[modernity]

Oh, Jacib, I'm quite surprised that sharing is a concern of people's. My "There, that wasn't so bad" was definitely facetious.

I'm not worried about being "scooped"... so much as I would prefer to stay anonymous.

[melusine]

I'm not worried about being "scooped"... so much as I would prefer to stay anonymous.

exactly.

and to kind of rephrase what i said earlier.. i am not scared of plagiarism either (as i said before- there's only so much originality out there, when it comes to literature), i just wouldn't want to have something i stated on a public forum biting me in the bum later if i end up accepted somewhere and somehow come in contact, in real life, with someone who's read some forum discussion where i've made myself clearly identifiable.

i mean, all the programs i'm applying to are very small so if/when i come back posting some acceptance result on here, people might end up being able to relate "melusine" to "real live X studying at Y univeristy"..

to come back to the actual focus thing: mine is v specific and has a pretty strong standpoint, so whenever i elaborate on it, i end up (much more so than in my carefully edited sop) expressing what i know to only be a private, unproven conviction of mine, which i, unfortunately, am pretty damn passionate about!

however, this my opinion and focus are limited by my extent of knowledge and expertise (as an undergrad), of my subject at this point. i'm 99% sure it will change in the course of my grad studies, and i don't like immature ideas, unrsearched ideas that could turn out to be completely wrong to come haunting me later as the proverbial "demons" of my foolish youth.. lol

i know, i know, that's a lot of "what ifs".. but this kind of thing has happened to me in the past, and trust me, it's not pleasant.

[captiv8ed]

Melusine, I understand this! When I was a senior in high school, I was dating this boy. I was telling some of my friends about him in class. Nothing outrageous, just about the date and how much I liked him.

It turned out that one of his friends was also in my class and sat behind me. She called him and told me that I was saying we were engaged (after one date!!) and that totally spooked him. he had known this girl for awhile and trusted her opinion so no amount of denials would change his mind.

[jacib]

Jacib, is there any way that you could let me know what "Please, please let me in" is in Turkish? I find myself muttering this all the time, and it would be cool to know how to say it in another language!

Actually, I dont think there is a way to say this in Turkish, "Lütfen, lüften beni kabul ediniz" which means "Please please accept me".... but it sounds almost religious and I'm pretty sure no one would say that... It's a very different university system here anyways, based almost entirely on weighted GPA and one exam that is only given once a year (that's undergraduate... but graduate is similar but I don't know the details) and you apply to a department/program rather than a school. So you're not "accepted here"... you "win/earn" (same word) a university. So in short I really don't know!

Oh and the other people: yes I totally agree with you about protecting your anonymity, but I figure that most people tend to post their acceptances and their final decisions, and if I had to debate between two schools, I'd probably end up talking about it here. Since that info would be here, a dedicated person could still figure out exactly who I am based on that web info. Since all of the original questions I had here involved some specific aspect of my study (if I even mentioned something as broad as "modern Islam" or "religion and the state" I'd still probably be the only person in my cohort at every university to study that, and I had exactly questions dealing with how best to study those two topics), I figured it would be a better policy for me personally if I could actually used some details and just try not to say something I would regret later...

Before undergrad, my university set up an incoming freshman messages boards (in those innocent, pre-facebook days), and I was a much bigger prick on that thing (oh, youth), but still a person or two I met as an upperclassman would say "hey, I think I remember you from those first year boards..." Yes, I did say somethings that were, let's say, "proverbial demons of my youth" (I was a superhipster and was looking for other superhipsters to hang out with), but I think people understand that we develop and no one held it against me. So, if you do happen to recognize me at a conference years down the line, please say "Hi, I remember you from the boards" and trust that I am not who I was.

[melusine]

most people tend to post their acceptances and their final decisions, and if I had to debate between two schools, I'd probably end up talking about it here. Since that info would be here, a dedicated person could still figure out exactly who I am based on that web info. Since all of the original questions I had here involved some specific aspect of my study (if I even mentioned something as broad as "modern Islam" or "religion and the state" I'd still probably be the only person in my cohort at every university to study that, and I had exactly questions dealing with how best to study those two topics), I figured it would be a better policy for me personally if I could actually used some details and just try not to say something I would regret later...

that was my point. i know i've already made myself recognizeable and probably will even more when i post results. so far i have not said anything that i see as something i might regret, but posting my current research focus and the very biased opinions attached to it just might be. hence my decision from refraining to share it!

[coyabean]

Well, I will compromise and tell about the general interests I put in my SOP and then some more specific interests that I haven't talked about, but hope to do someday.

My general interests are the intersection of class and religion, and also gender and household labor.

A few not-discussed topics:

I did a really interesting survey on body image that left me with a lot of questions and I want to do more. Specifically looking at how media literacy has affected women's body image, and men's true thoughts on women of all sizes.

I also really want to spend some time on the marketing departments construction of gender. I am specifically thinking of the pink movement in girl's toys, and also gender-specific toys (girl's bake ovens, girl's-can-draw books) and what affect that has on boys' desire to use those toys, and also the general public (kid and grown up) response to boys playing with those toys.

And I want to study the marketing of Christianity. I am not sure what my exact questions are there yet though.

Gee, maybe I should go to a place that has a strong sociology of marketing focus, if such a thing exists!!

OK, just one more (and it is in the marketing field too): the homogeneity of places and people in America. It does not hold true for everyone, but you know how you can go to any town in America and see types of people? We talk about kid cliques, but it spills over into adults as well. I don't have any specific questions there yet, either.

Alright that is it. Those are all secondary interests, so who knows if I will ever get to them.

If you haven't already you might be interested in picking up "Whitopia". Despite the name it draws interesting conclusions about how and why adults filter their environments. Very interesting read.

[George]

I'm glad a few people came out and shared some things.

My interests are in robotics. I specifically dream of having humanoid robots that are as agile and swift as we are, and maybe fight the way the robots did in the movie I, Robot. =) I often walk down a street and start thinking about what it is that makes me step here and there and not there and here. This gets especially tricky when you're walking on an icy road and do nothing with your sight but look for favorable places to step. I find that fascinating! It's completely absurd that just through blobs of color and a bit of depth perception (not very much really) we are able to discern the slope of the surfaces we step on.

While this is a fascination and interest of mine, it's not what I want to do. Vision is something I'm completely unfamiliar with. What I want to do is design the locomotion system that will take into account the vast quantities of information that we as humans perceive while walking, not to mention running. I think we are very aware of texture and of friction coefficients of the surface we walk on - maybe not in accurate numbers but in more relativistic terms: "this surface is safer than that one" sort of thing. We are also very aware of accelerations that occur in the body through various little perceptions, the major one being the inner year, and others are possibly restricted to cognition. What I mean by cognition is that when someone pushes you, your inner year will report that to you, but if you also see the person pushing you, you can very accurately estimate how much force was applied to you. I think everyone can find it believable that we use vast quantities of information in order to make decisions about how best to move. This doesn't even go into energy efficiency which is something that current researchers are banging their heads against.

Getting all this information is a real challenge, but even if we could get it, we still have no way of using it. Designing systems of control that can take advantage of all of this will take a lot of work. The mechanics (dynamics, physics) of the robot as a physical system are modeled by highly non-linear differential equations. Even though they are complicated, you still know how changing one variable will affect another. The problem is that you want certain variables to behave in a certain way because you know the movement they describe will keep you balanced. Three of the variables can be accelerations in X, Y, and Z coordinates centered at your torso. These might be important if you want to walk with books over your head and you want all these accelerations to be as close to 0 as possible. Of course, you don't have control over these variables. You have control over your muscles. This is what control theory is all about. You have variables that you want to control but can't and you have some that you can control but they're pretty rudimentary. You need to find the bridge between these two worlds.

That's what gets me excited in a nutshell! =)

[captiv8ed]

Thanks coya! It looks like a counterpart to Sundown Towns, with a look at modern societies. I put it on hold.

[rising_star]

and to kind of rephrase what i said earlier.. i am not scared of plagiarism either (as i said before- there's only so much originality out there, when it comes to literature), i just wouldn't want to have something i stated on a public forum biting me in the bum later if i end up accepted somewhere and somehow come in contact, in real life, with someone who's read some forum discussion where i've made myself clearly identifiable.

melusine, I'm in a small discipline. I know several of the past applicants in my discipline who are on this forum because I subsequently met them at the national conference or, in one case, when I ended up applying to the school two years later for my PhD and visited. It has never been awkward, at least not for me. In fact, I'm now real life friends with someone I originally interacted with when this website first began because we were applying to the same discipline but different departments. So, rather than be worried about meeting these people later, think of it as an early networking opportunity.

I should also add that there is a related thread elsewhere on what people are studying and why. Check it out if you're interested.