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Cassie Scheidegger: Hi, my name is Cassie Scheidegger and I am a student in the Public Policy program here at UCL.
My academic background, I have a bachelor's of art from the University of Wisconsin Madison, where I double majored in both political science and history. After spending time in Madison, I worked for nine years in education non profit in the city of Milwaukee, where I thought a lot about the programmatic experience and how to develop programs in order to support students in the city of Milwaukee. My work included a significant amount of team leadership and management, as well as thinking about how to really build a program to achieve goals.
Home for me is Milwaukee, Wisconsin. I've lived there my entire life. And I came to London just very specifically for this program. I'll probably end up back in Wisconsin after this year but it's been a fun [00:01:00] year exploring. My project is looking at and thinking about the different experiences or ways in which minority women in state legislators very much present themselves as compared to the rest of the state legislator. So, so as compared to the other women in the state legislator, and as compared to specifically minority men in the state legislator. This is based off of past research that has looked at a, a national level in the United States.
But mine's going to dig more specifically into the state level and see if there are any differences in what's kind of been noted as a kind of national trends in this area. Yeah.
I'm very specifically focusing on three cities in the Midwest of the United States. So Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Detroit, Michigan, and Indianapolis, Indiana and thinking about those three cities and how the minority women specifically in those cities present themselves differently.
It's going to be largely a qualitative approach. I'm going to be using the [00:02:00] biographies that everyone puts on their congressional or state legislator website. And I'm going to be using that and coding those in order to begin to identify patterns and trends in what they see.
As I was looking through different master's programs, I understood that there would be some that had dissertation components and some that didn't. I have always been kind of, I guess, blasé about the idea of a dissertation. Research in and of itself is not my favorite thing and I'm not, necessarily in, in this program or like hoping to continue to do research after I move forward.
But I felt it was a gap in my skill set and a way for me to, like, think differently about kind of bigger social problems. So I was, I think I was a mix of nervous and anxious about it, but ultimately I, like, I wanted to do something that I knew I wanted to do. would push me. And it is definitely has been something that has been pushing me over the course of [00:03:00] the year to think about how do you actually really approach such a big project in a space that I haven't done any type of research like this before.
My undergraduate program didn't have any other type of thesis or dissertation required. So, you know, the longest thing I've written is maybe like, you know, 10 pages long, and this is going to be significantly longer than that. So, I am interested to see how it goes, but yeah, so I, I was definitely a little bit nervous about it, but I like, I was actively aware of the choice that I was making to, to pick a program with a dissertation component.
So in Term 1 I did, I spent time thinking about the research more generally. Kind of thinking about where my areas of interest were and trying to think through, you know, if I had to focus in an area what would those be? And I was interested in the idea about elections, about the role of women in politics, about the role of race in politics, and so I had these broad areas that I was really [00:04:00] interested in.
And I wasn't, like, actively looking to kind of narrow those down, but I was trying to as I was doing the rest of my coursework, occasionally do some reading about those different areas and starting to talk to my personal tutor about, you know, kind of where I wanted to go, so that way as as the first term was ending, I would be able to, over break and as a second term started, to dig in more on the reading and try to start actually kind of narrowing in on what what I wanted to do.
I honestly didn't think at all about methods during that time. Partly because we in the first term, you only do quantitative methods. So that was my mindset, but I wanted to learn more about the different qualitative methods approach as Term 2 started. So I wasn't super in in a methods mindset, but I was very much in thinking about what general areas would I be interested in.
So I think for, like, as you're thinking about you know, what to do in [00:05:00] Term 1, I think it's really important to kind of start narrowing your thoughts down about where you want to go. There are so many different interesting spaces that you can explore and that, you know, would be interesting to delve into. Further into and that I added on top of that is, you know, as you're in your classes, you're like, "oh, that's also interesting. I also want to learn more about that and dig deeper". But it was helpful for me to narrow it down to like the idea of elections and the idea of, you know, what role do women play in politics?
What role does race play? And that was able, I was able then to start pulling reading s, and really think about that. And also, and so I didn't hear this advice until Term 2, but I think it's really helpful to think about in Term 1s are in Term 2, our qualitative methods professor talks a lot about the idea of like research coming from a place of passion and indignance.
So like if it, if it's not interesting to you, if it doesn't move you in some way, if it doesn't motivate you to think about how you could solve a problem or, you know, help [00:06:00] advance an issue then it's probably not for you. So ultimately, you know, it needs to be something that compels you and you want to dig more into what those topics are.
So after winter break I, I don't know if I had any more clear of an idea of what I wanted to do but I... it was definitely an opportunity and I knew that I needed to spend more time reading and really actually focusing myself. I did do some reading while I was home for the holiday break, but not enough.
But that is what it is, and I was able as Term 2 started, I, like, I had a mindset of, I needed to build an actual dissertation time into my weekly schedule. So your, your weekly schedule, you have all of your regular classes and all of that, but then I made some mandatory time in my schedule that was dissertation reading time in my schedule, and really making sure that I, I was starting to like, continue to [00:07:00] narrow what I wanted to focus on. And then through talking with my personal tutor a couple of times, we generally knew that I wanted to focus on the role of women in elections or in politics. So she started to suggest a couple of different people that would be helpful to potentially talk about, that could be potential supervisors.
I met with two different people in that process. And that was a really helpful, they provided a lot of understanding and context about the work that they did. And how they, you know, they would potentially guide through the process. And that was more than anything, it ended up that I, my personal tutor is also my dissertation supervisor.
But the idea of just like talking to other people was really helpful in making it clear, like, people have different approaches and it, you know, as much as possible you need to you have to list two people and it's important to list [00:08:00] people that you think will be able to really guide you in the process.
So, talking to people wasn't something that was explicitly shared or like advice that was given, but it was something my personal tutor recommended, and I would recommend it for all students to think about you know, meeting with a couple of different potential supervisors and really making sure that that you find someone that understands your project and that you think you can work with because they are a really important part of your process in, at the end of Term 2 and into Term 3.
So I narrowed my topic down in a couple of different ways. So as going through my qualitative methods course, that was a really great way for me to understand the different ways that I can approach research, and that actually helped me narrow down what I would be able to do. I think most master's students, myself included, struggle to get something that's like the right size projects so some of my ideas were way too small and some of them were way too [00:09:00] big and going in our qualitative methods course each week, we kind of answered the same set of questions.
And in doing that, I was able to kind of continuously revise a potential research question that I wanted to ask based off of what we were learning that week. And that was really helpful. It also allowed me to see where my interest and curiosity really were because then I would get motivated to kind of explore certain ideas more than others.
And ultimately, you know, you have to think about what's interesting to you, what you're passionate about, and then also, the reality of time is really important. Some ideas are just too big for a master's project and that's okay. And it took me pretty much from, from January to June to like get to the right size project.
And that's based off of, you know, revising your ideas, talking with your supervisor, continuing to read and continuing to think through what you really can ask and what you can really do with the 10, 000 word limit. [00:10:00] Term 2 is challenging because, at least for me and I think for a lot of my classmates, you are taking an additional course, so you take, most people take three classes in Term 1. But for me Term 2 was challenging in that you end up taking usually more classes in Term 2 than in Term 1. So most of us take three classes in Term 1, and then you take four classes in Term 2, and so there's already an extra workload meaning you already have, you know, a significant amount more reading and more things to be doing over the course of the week, so you have less time. But you also then have to add on you know, more specific dissertation work and more reading and also then thinking about some bigger things like if you want to do a project that requires, you know, any type of ethical approval.
You need to start thinking about those things. And so it's just challenging to find ways to kind of squeeze it all in and it at times feels frustrating because you, your project feels so big [00:11:00] and you don't really know like you're reading all of these things. And you're kind of going down different rabbit holes and seeing like, is this the way I want to go?
Or is this the way I want to go? Or you're compelled to say like "oh, this is really interesting. Maybe this is what I want to do." And it starts to feel like, you know, your mind is exploding with all these ideas and it's hard to get yourself back to like, okay, but what is my real focus and what do I want to do?
And then over the course of that time, I, like I mentioned, I really thought and made sure that I had dissertation time planned into my schedule. And even though it was just like this big block of reading, really like holding my, myself to like the, this is the, you know, two to three hours this day that I'm willing to do dissertation reading and really making sure that I had a goal by the end of the week to have read, you know, three to five articles for my dissertation specifically.
And holding myself to that, which meant sometimes I was reading on Saturday because I forgot to do it during the [00:12:00] course of the week. But it was really important for me to set myself a goal because no one at this point is holding you accountable to it and it can be so difficult to like make yourself do it, but like I benefited from it when I made sure that I had my reading done.
I don't, in Term 2, I think I would have tried to meet with even more people, whether or not I wanted them to be supervisors. I think meeting and talking with more people about where my ideas were would have been helpful. And the term went by so quickly, you know, I didn't really realise that until, not that it was too late, but I didn't realise that until I already had my supervisor and I, you know, I was already kind of into a more specific focus.
And I really I think I would have benefited from just talking with some more people, hearing some more ideas, even people who, who maybe it wasn't their line of research but just, you know, kind of the perspective they have on how to approach a research project and how to really make use [00:13:00] of the time that you have to plan and think about ideas.
For Term 2, I really think it's important to give yourself some structure. No one is holding you accountable to doing anything really for your dissertation in Term 2. You don't get your dissertation supervisor until the end of that term. And it's really on you to, to set yourself some goals and to really kind of stick with pursuing some different ideas and making sure that by the time you meet with your supervisor, that you have something for them and you're not coming with them kind of being like, I don't really know what I'm doing.
I, at least having a clear sense of, I'm pretty sure this is the direction I want to go is really important. So build in time to read, build in time to talk with people, and just even building in time to think and kind of dwell on where, you know, what you potentially want to do is really important.
I felt really good when I heard who my dissertation supervisor was.
She had been my personal tutor, and so it was really helpful that I already knew her, and we [00:14:00] already had a working relationship. For our first meeting she asked that I come with two to three pages written out on different, kind of where my head was at and the different thoughts I had regarding you know, what question I wanted to ask.
She didn't expect me to have a fully thought out question. She wanted to kind of hear a couple of draft questions and hear a loose idea about what methods I was thinking about, but it was nothing, like, she did not expect anything super developed, which was really helpful. It took some pressure off. of you know, feeling like I was behind and the meeting went well.
I left with more clarity on where I needed to focus my time. And she provided some guidance on, you know, kind of, I had two or three different pathways that I was still thinking about and she asked some good questions and provided some good thought about like, what why one space was maybe too complicated and why maybe I want to pursue, you know, you know, a [00:15:00] very specific path down a different, down one of the different questions.
So that was really helpful. So my plans didn't fully change after the meeting, but I definitely was too broad in most of my thinking, and needed to continue to narrow my focus down in order to make sure that I could ask a question that was answerable. And also my question at that point wasn't really like a question that was, I guess, researchable and like in a really good way.
It was kind of more this big question and it needed to get down to a point where it was like really asking something that was easy to research and, you know, something that would be contributing to a, you know, a larger question. I think at this time it was a combination of my supervisor and I kind of both driving the process.
The thing about writing a dissertation, having never written one, for me it was hard to really know what I was supposed [00:16:00] to be doing besides doing a lot of reading, and I was making sure I was doing a lot of reading, but my supervisor helped put some structure around what else I needed to be doing.
We made sure early on that there, there wasn't going to be an ethical component, so we didn't have to pursue any additional steps that way. And we also then started to talk about, like, you know, how do you, so, begin to develop what methods you want to use. So she gave me more things to think about and actually like put some, some structure around it for me in order to make sure that I can move forward.
I think after that first meeting, in my head I told myself "you've got work to do". And that was good. Like I was excited about it. I having picked something that was genuinely very interesting to me. I, it's easier to kind of continue to move forward and to keep reading and to keep thinking and developing an idea when you are interested in what you're doing and so it was exciting to think about, you [00:17:00] know, where else can this go and what else should I be thinking about in this line of thinking.
I knew that there, there weren't going to be any probably any ethical decisions involved in kind of thinking through any major risk. For a long time, my project was going to be interview based so early on in the process it was starting to think about, you know, what is the timeline to conducting successful interviews?
And did I have enough time to get those interviews in place? It turns out that my project shifted in a way that it's no longer interview focused but for March and April the project was going to be interview focused. And so I spent a lot of time thinking about, you know, who would I interview?
How would I make sure I could interview them when they were in the States and I was here in the UK and try to starting to think through that process. And I ended up not using the process I was developing but that's okay. It can be hard in, at the end of Term 2 into the Easter break time and [00:18:00] exams time to everything that's going on.
I had you know, four different papers to write and two exams to sit between the end of March and the end of April. So a lot of my time was necessarily taken up by those projects and like my dissertation definitely kind of got pushed to the side. I was still trying to do one or two readings a week, which was like a break from doing the other things.
And thinking about and just building in some time to think about my dissertation. So it wasn't as much kind of active work on my dissertation. It was just kind of something that was floating in the back of my mind. And I would occasionally come back to, and I would write some notes down if I was thinking about it and trying to just think through once May came and I had time, full time to work on the project again, you know, where did I need to go from there?
My supervisor, she gave us a choice and said we can meet before before you sit all of your exams and all of your papers, or we can wait until [00:19:00] after. And I chose to meet before, and that was helpful for me because it, like, it was just, it gave me a little bit more focus and guidance on my project.
And that way over, you know, the month of April, I was really able to dedicate time to to my exams and my papers. But also still have some focus and ability to think about my project in a way that didn't feel like it was too big or or anything like that. I think in Term 2, I... I don't know what I would have done differently.
It, the term goes very quickly. It went much more quickly than Term 1 went in it. It feels faster in, in every sense of the way. I think if anything, I would have I would have spent more time talking with some people and developing my idea with some people who weren't necessarily in the same line of research and just exploring a little bit more how to do it.
develop a good research question outside of, well, we were doing that in qualitative methods trying to run my idea past a couple of [00:20:00] other people would have been helpful. So I think it's more about bringing more people in, into your project and getting ideas and feedback before you have to really start narrowing it down.
So after my exams and essays were all done and turned in I gave myself a week off and just took some down time to kind of, you know, clean my room and reset myself. And then after that I picked up my dissertation work again, which at that point included... I was still doing some reading and still, at this point I I basically knew where the question was going to go but I, I needed to do more reading to really, you know, understand the research that already existed in that area.
So I was still doing reading and trying to make sure I had all of the information I could. And then I was at that point starting to realise that I was no longer going to be using interviews as my main method. Which meant that I needed to adjust my approach [00:21:00] and so I had to start thinking about, so what am I going to use and why, you know, you know, how am I going to adapt my question in order to be a question that can answer. Like, I knew it was the right thing to do to change from interviews.
I had been trying to schedule some interviews. It was complicated. And also my question was shifting in a slight way where it wouldn't have quite made sense to be using interviews. So it was definitely frustrating to have to change. But also I, like, I felt like it was early enough in the process that I could still, you know, overcome that, that hurdle.
It'd be a lot harder if it was, you know, the end of June and I was like, oh, now I need to change my method. So I was, you know, frustrated or irritated mostly with myself for being like, well, you know, we have to kind of start over on something. But I felt like I had enough time and I was able to go back to my supervisor and say, this isn't going to work.
Like, what if, you know, I did this and there was a couple of other different options that I [00:22:00] explored. And I felt good ultimately with landing where I did with a content analysis but it definitely took took some time to kind of shift away from that and then figure out what instead of interviews.
My research isn't overly linked to my past academic or professional background. It's more so linked to just areas of interest that I've always had and in some ways, like I, I'm interested in leadership and especially women in leadership. And I have been a woman in leadership. So, so that has always been something that is, you know, close to my heart and I want to learn more about, but I haven't ever really explored it in a political space.
And I haven't worked in politics, so I don't know what that unique experience is like. So, ultimately, they're not overly linked, but that's a part, partly why I came back for my master's degree was to kind of, expand my areas of interest and expand my areas of understanding. I spent a lot of time working in education and [00:23:00] I know education very well and I was excited to come and explore something completely different from that.
It would have been easy for me to pick an education focused topic because I already know a lot in that area, but I wanted to challenge myself and expand my, my own knowledge about some different things.
I think my research choices were driven to some extent by some of the coursework I did. And, I mean, I, like, I already knew in Term 1 that I was interested in studying something that was probably women focused.
But that informed me signing up for a gender and politics class in Term 2. And that class helped me kind of see the whole spectrum of what I could be exploring. And it gave me some like it was a built in reading list for my dissertation, which was really helpful.
There were several weeks where, you know, things that I had to read for that class were helpful for me in my dissertation thinking and helpful in providing guidance or, you know, providing an additional, an additional reading list for things [00:24:00] moving with my dissertation. So, yeah, my, my classes definitely definitely helped in that process.
I don't entirely know what I want to do in the future, so whether or not this will fully align with what I end up doing next, I'm not sure. I do want to do work in politics, and I do want to do work that focuses on advancing women, especially minority women within politics or within other spaces.
So, hopefully I'll be able to find a job that lets me do that. And I, I'm, so I'm excited to hopefully have those opportunities. It, you know, it's a space I eventually want to get into. So that's the goal, whether or not that's what happens, we will see.
I mean, most challenging for me in this whole process was changing my methods and trying to figure out you know, how do you move from interviews, which are, you know, a very specific type of method to something completely different. So that was the most challenging part of this process.
I think I was, at this time, I was just, even though it felt like there was a [00:25:00] lot to be doing and it didn't feel like I was, you know, I was focused yet or like I really knew what I was going to be asking. I was just really excited about about the general topic and about what I was reading and I could see how it was going to come together.
I started to, like, as things focused and as things started to narrow down. I could see kind of the path forward and now that there was, you know, nothing else to worry about but my dissertation, that was also really helpful. There was no other classes or nothing else to get in the way of, you know, dedicating my time to the dissertation specifically. And that was really helpful because then it felt like things started to move more quickly and that it could just be, you know, the most important thing that I was doing every day.
My project right now is at a stage where, like, I feel really good. I have my final dissertation supervision in a couple of days, and I feel really good about where the project is right now.
I've started doing you know, kind of some [00:26:00] initial, I've collected my data, and I've started building the codebook that I need to analyze that data. And so I feel good where the project is right at this point.
Something that was really important for me as I was developing and shifting from interviews into a content analysis was taking a course offered by the department around a content analysis program called In Vivo, in learning how to actually do content analysis in a way that isn't just by hand and all of that. So that was really helpful and I've been spending some time just playing in the program now, so I have a better understanding of how to use it once I actually start doing my dissertation work in the program.
Once I had a, you know, I shifted methods, it was easy for me to find the data that I needed. I'm focusing on three cities within the Midwest. I spent a lot of time exploring different cities and seeing what kind of information was available for each city. Because I'm using biographies [00:27:00] on state legislative websites as my main form of data. Obviously the state legislator needs to be able, or the state legislator needs to provide those biographies and some states don't. So that informs some of how I was picking cities and making sure that the biographies were robust enough to do an analysis on.
At this point, besides biographies, I'll be looking and using kind of the makeup of every state legislator and thinking about, you know, their gender and race makeup and also thinking about within the city I'm exploring, the gender and race makeup of that city. And then thinking about city demographics in a couple of different ways, including the race demographics of those cities, the wealth and poverty levels within those cities and other things that could potentially contribute to how women of colour do or do not present themselves the same or differently than their colleagues within the state legislator.
I do already have all of the data that I need which [00:28:00] has been really helpful. It included a lot of copying and pasting from state websites and then making an individual Word document for each biography that I need, and then doing some exploring on some other websites like the U. S. Census website and things like that.
It took a little bit of while to make sure I was finding, you know, like good quality data and making sure I was using sources of data that were, you know, the best sources I could. I relied on, you know, different readings that I had done where they, you know, finding kind of themes and like most readings reference this website to get their gender data. Most websites reference this to get their demographic data and things like that. But I think I have everything that I need. I will find out if I don't when I start writing and doing my analysis.
Analysis will be a content analysis. So that will include coding keywords and phrases within each biography. And then from there assessing if there are trends or patterns and, you know, making comparisons and contrasting what [00:29:00] I see in those things. So I'll be able to, within the In Vivo program, kind of separate out women of colour, separate out white women, men of colour, et cetera, and I'll be able to manipulate the data in a way that shows me what the different trends are in that data and the different patterns that, that are there. So, yeah, content analysis is the main approach.
So past reading suggests that women of colour well, so women specifically focus on particular policy issues. So I'm looking first to see if just women in general are focusing on certain policy issues such as, you know, reproductive rights welfare, children, family policy, et cetera.
So I'll be looking specifically for that within the data and then within that, women of colour also then tend to focus on specific policy issues that are distinct just from the, you know, just from the women group, women of colour have their own set of policy issues that they often focus [00:30:00] on. So I'll be looking for those trends.
I'll also be, I'm looking for differences very specifically between men of colour and women of colour, to see if there are any overlaps in kind of their, the policies they mention and the policies that they promote on their, in their biographies. And to see if there, you know, there should be some overlap because potentially, because they are of the same race, but not necessarily because men and women tend to focus on different policy issues.
I'll also be looking for instances in which anyone references like being the first African American women to do something or the youngest African American male to do something and trying to see how much they promote kind of a very specific form of identity within within their biography and to really see, you know, how much information they are providing. In my kind of initial, you know, kind of just research of it, you know, there are very different kind of [00:31:00] ways in which different subgroups present themselves, including like the length of their biography and the different words that they're using to talk about things or whether or not they talk about anything at all.
And then also going to look for trends. Most of the biographies list you know, different past experiences and women, and women of colour specifically, tend to have different past experiences or past jobs than other women or men of colour. So trying to look for different themes in, in those areas.
I'm trying really hard to have a good plan for my analysis. I think for me this is probably the most uncomfortable part of the dissertation process because it's something that I've really never done before. I'm using a program to do the data analysis that I've never used before and I'm going to be learning to use it as I go.
Which I think means I have to take extra time to learn and to, you know, be frustrated by the program and to, you know, come back and try a [00:32:00] new approach and all of that. So I'm trying really hard to have a plan in my final meeting with my supervisor. We're going to be talking through my plan to how to do the analysis and how much time to make sure I spend on the analysis versus how much time I spend actually doing the writing of my dissertation. So yeah, I think for me it's the most uncomfortable part, but it's also the part I expect to learn the most from.
So for Term 3, I think the most important things that you can be doing, like you have, hopefully you've mostly finished doing your reading or like the bulk of your reading at this point.
And you really need to be doing a lot of thinking and kind of writing what your ideas are and, and really developing your idea. It feels like in a lot of ways for me, like I've actually begun doing the work, I'm not just reading and I'm not just kind of thinking about it, but now I'm really thinking about the technical parts of the project and what that looks like.
I've also made, started to make a schedule for myself. My supervisor asked to see kind of [00:33:00] my own timeline for the rest of the summer and how I would break down my time in terms of, you know, doing my data analysis and then how many words per week I wanted to write and things like that.
And that's been really helpful to make the project fun. It's something that I can actually do and seeing it broken down into smaller chunks has been really helpful in thinking about like, what else do I need to do? Like, am I forgetting anything? So I think for Term 3, you really need to start making a plan.
And also just really, you know, it's time to dig in and time to start really doing the work.
So, for my supervision meetings, my supervisor usually asks for about two to three pages of, you know, updates about where I am in the project and those, what I'm writing and sharing is based off of our previous conversation where she, you know, we leave the meeting and she says next time you need to bring this, this, and this. So then I spend my time in between supervision meetings thinking about those things, working on those things [00:34:00] and, you know, outlining that for our next meeting.
You know, so for example, for our next meeting, because it's our final one, I am presenting the final, what I think is my final proposed dissertation question. I'm presenting my final approach to methods. I am, I kind of have everything outlined. I'm also giving her some examples of how I would code some different biographies. So in all of that, she asked for me to bring the last time that we met.
I think for me, my supervisor has been really helpful in that she, she asks a lot of questions and provides a lot of kind of pushing like on the things that I need to do do more of or spend more time on. And so she, even though she doesn't know, you know, my specific area of research, like, overly well, she's able to ask the questions that she needs to for me to, like, develop an idea more or to come with a better answer to a question next time and really, you know, she pushes my [00:35:00] thinking on the work that I'm doing.
I think for me, it's been important to come to her with questions and not feel embarrassed about, like, I feel like I should know this, but maybe I don't. Like, I think asking her, it's been really important that I ask her, like, I don't understand how to do this part. Or, you know, can you give me some examples of how that could look, has been a really helpful part of the process for me.
So in between supervision meetings I have spent a good amount of time kind of in between thinking and actually writing, like, kind of ideas and starting to draw links between you know, different thoughts that I've had and going back over the notes that I've been taking for several months and just trying to like, think about like this is everything that I know, you know, what does that mean and how is that going to all fit into the project that has included starting to outline my work and think about, you know, what is the goal of the introduction [00:36:00] section? What do I want to make sure is covered in the literature review? And so I've been starting to narrow down my, my reading list into, to one that actually makes sense for for the literature review and including in the project. So it's a lot of, you know, taking everything I've learned and everything that I've been thinking about and thinking through where it all fits within the scope of the dissertation and having a loose plan for what every part of the dissertation is going to look like while also understanding that I don't know what the data is going to tell me. So there's only so far I can go in making sure that I have a plan.
Right now I've been spending about about four hours a day on, on dissertation work. I expect this will increase after I have my final meeting with my supervisor this week when it is. It's time to do all the work! Once, once she gives the final, okay, on the methods and on the coding process I expect that that will increase. For me, it's, [00:37:00] you know, the only major thing that I'm doing here this summer. So I know that most of my time it needs to be. to be dedicated to this project moving forward.
The only other thing right now that that's a major commitment for me and we'll be moving forward this summer as I need to find a job. So I've been beginning to apply for jobs and at some point we'll begin interviewing for jobs. So making time to balance those two things will be important.
I think for me three words to kind of describe where I am about the dissertation right now and about moving forward is somewhere between I am nervous and I am ready. I think I I have what I need to move forward and I'm good at at being self disciplined and, you know, setting a schedule for myself and following that schedule.
But having never done this before and having it be mostly like a solo independent project it definitely feels nerve wracking. And when I get [00:38:00] stuck or, you know, don't know how to move forward, I don't know quite how I'm going to figure that out. But so somewhere between nervous and ready, I have what I need and I know what I need to do. But you know, the doing it is always the hardest part of it.
So, I, having never done any research before to this extent I don't know what's going to happen if I get into a slump. I think for me, having done other types of work, when I feel like I'm in a rut or I need to kind of take a new approach, I think taking breaks are important.
Sometimes, you know, all you need to do is just, you know, go read something else for a little bit, like get your mind off of the, you know, the project, because for me, at least, I tend to, I'll start to dwell on a specific thing and kind of get myself in a circle about it. And if I take myself out of the situation for a little bit, I read something different. I, you know, go for a walk, any of those things that, that is really important to getting myself out of a rut.
So, as as [00:39:00] we transition into the final part of this dissertation process, I'm very aware that it's a very independent project. There's nothing required, no group work required. There's no kind of optional or mandatory you know, collaboration sessions or check ins with classmates. And so that's something I'm very conscious of. I'm a good independent worker. I've, you know, I know how to manage myself and my time well. But it still feels daunting that there, there is no kind of structured time to interact with fellow SPP students and, you know, kind of talk about our projects or get any type of peer feedback within the project.
So I think for me, it will be important to through the project, like it, it puts the responsibility back on me to reach out to people and ask either how their research is going or you know, if there's anything, you know, help I can provide them and then also asking if I need help or need a new perspective, like, can you provide feedback on this small part or can [00:40:00] you, like, can I walk you through what challenge I'm having? Do you have any advice? I also have some friends that have written dissertations in the past, and they've been really helpful in not only helping me kind of brainstorm some ideas, but also just when I, you know, asking them some questions about how they approach their work, that's been really helpful to hear their experiences about how they approach their writing and how they structured their time.
So it, it's really, I know it's back on me to reach out to people and to you know... it could be a completely independent process, but making sure that I am taking some time to engage with other people will be important.
So for the summer, I I have a planned out schedule. I have weekly goals that I've set for myself to meet for the summer.
Some of those goals include, you know, how many things I'm coding each week you know, how much of my analysis I need to get done, what my daily word count is, et cetera. My supervisor asked to see a schedule, or at least a [00:41:00] plan for a schedule, so it was helpful for me to write that out and think through, you know, between now and September 2nd, how I would be spending my time and what I need to do in order to get that done. And it was important for me within that schedule to, to make it like a job. So I'm I schedule myself to do dissertation work five days a week with the hope that I will be able to take Saturdays and Sundays off unless something, you know, goes wrong or if for some reason I don't meet my weekly goal, I might need to do work on those days. But my genuine hope is that I'm able to take the weekends off. I think part of, you know, being successful is making sure you're giving yourself time away and you're able to come back with fresh eyes and fresh perspective after a couple of days off.
For me, I think a key challenge or crunch time will probably be in August and I'm anticipating that not like my hope is to be done with the actual writing phase in, you know, in early August and then have some time to do some revision and [00:42:00] rereads. But I'm also anticipating in August that I'll be, you know, making final plans for a job and for moving back home to the States.
So I think for me, there's just going to be a lot of different pieces that I'm working through. Not only within the dissertation project, but then also within, you know, a bigger, my, you know, my, my bigger life and what I'm working to do next year.
So I think for me, routine is really important for stress and having a plan and a schedule will be really helpful in making sure that I, I don't ever feel overwhelmed. It's nice to know that I have some goals laid out for every week. And then I have like, you know, something to work towards. So the project doesn't feel so big all of the time. And it's more just, you know, it's 2000 words this week, like get to 2000 words this week, and then, you know, you've done what you needed to for the week.
I've spent so much time with, you know, generally this question and thinking about this area of research, about the role of women in politics, the role of minority women [00:43:00] within politics. I'm excited to see what the data says and what I find and to see if there are differences from what I've read about, you know, national legislators and things like that. So I think, I mean, at this point I'm most looking forward to like... I've spent so much time thinking about this, to see what I learned and to see what information I wasn't expecting or to see if anything is confirmed that I was expecting. It's been, you know, a long time in the making. So as I go through the project, I'm really excited to, to see what the data has to say.
I think when I submit my dissertation I want to know that I did everything I could within the time that I had. I want to make sure that I am able to say that I worked on it really hard, that I committed myself to the project, and that I learned through the project.
Not only did I learn some, you know, good new technical skills, but I also learned more information than I had [00:44:00] previously known about the topic and about my areas of interest. So, and I also want to be able to say that, you know, I, you know, I was able to manage myself and my time while that, even if there were moments of stress, I didn't kind of have to succumb to any like overwhelming sense of over being overwhelmed or being just like too frustrated to know how to move forward. I want to be able to say that I was able, through a good schedule and a good routine, to kind of handle the whole process well.
I would tell future students that, I mean, the dissertation can feel overwhelming and that's okay. Like, it's okay to feel unsure about the process and it's okay to feel like you don't know where to go or what to do especially early on.
It's important to know what you're interested in and it's important to do a lot of reading. I know for a lot of people that's not the most fun answer, but through doing a lot of reading and then through starting to talk through my ideas with my supervisor [00:45:00] I was able to come to a really good question and one that I'm interested in and It's really helpful to ultimately pick something that you're passionate about, that you feel indignant about, that you want to make sure you do something about, you want to help find a solution and you want to help advance an issue in order to do your small part to change the world.