Dissertation and Boston

Well, friends, today is September 25. I would be submitting today if the School of Music stuck by their original deadline. My diss is now due in five days. I will finish Chapter 4 this morning and start polishing Chapter 3 aiming for a Sunday finish date, so I can reformat the entire document. I am now asking myself why I left Chapter 3 for last. In reality, Chapter 2 (the one with the least revision) was polished first. Chapter 1 was completely rewritten and that took a few days. In regards to Chapters 3 and 4, I'm adding material and cutting very little of it. So that puppy is due in its bound form on September 30 to the College of Arts and Humanities.

I just found out last night that the deadline for papers for a conference on my Ph.D. topic is one day after my dissertation submission deadline, October 1. You submit abstracts first and then they select from a pool of applicants. My Ph.D. topic, as mentioned in earlier posts, is an expansion from my undergraduate research: discovering the medieval and renaissance techniques that Arvo Pärt uses in his tintinnabular composition style. This conference takes place on March 26-27 at Boston University combining the Schools of Theology and Music for Arvo Pärt and Contemporary Spirituality. It is also the composer's 75th birthday, so I wouldn't be surprised at all if he was present.

My opinion is even though that deadline is very close, I would be the world's biggest moron if I did not send an abstract. This is my composer whose music I will probably study for the rest of my days and opportunity is definitely knocking at my window, if not banging on my door. If I don't get accepted, then I will at least have the peace of mind that I did submit to a conference within my specialty.

On the plus side, my paper, which I presented at the North West North Wales Music Postgraduate Exchange at Manchester University, is on the Boston conference's topic. I am not sure if it is prudent in academia to redeliver a paper, but my audience would be different this time around consisting mostly of post-docs, so I'm sure it would not hurt. The Boston conference requires a 25 minute paper so I would need to expand my presentation by 10 minutes. I have an abstract ready from the last conference, that I need to expand as well by 200 words. It's definitely doable and I was bouncing around last night like a kid on Christmas morning when I discovered the conference thanks to an old counterpoint prof of my mine from undergrad. November 1 is when I would find out whether my abstract was accepted.

The way I look at it..
If I get accepted: I have another conference to add to my resume. I get to go to Boston for the first time, or "Beantown." I'm already starting my Ph.D. research as soon as this beast is done-no worries regardless.

If I don't get accepted: I still get to attend the conference as a curious scholar. And I get to see Wicked in New Orleans with Annie. And I'll have that peace of mind just the same and may to get to meet Arvo Pärt!

Eitber way, I win.