I DID IT!!!

Oh. My. God.  I'm actually done.  I did it!  30 pages.  "Anarchy and Power in International Relations/hips" is finally here.  A full 17 hours before it's due! 

This one was a doozy.  Not like the other one that just seemed so straightforward, it wrote itself.  This one, I tried to do too much I think: present an overview of post-positivist feminist epistemologies, a brief summary of the history of the IR field and a review of some of the major feminist critiques all before finally getting around to THE POINT which was basically my own critique: that the whole anarchy assumption is a load of crap.

Wow.  I feel like I just gave birth or something. It was a lot of work and a long time in the making and now here she is: my baby.  Not that she's finished or anything.  I really have to do some more research, add some pre-emptive responses to some critiques I can kinda foresee my professors making, maybe organize it a bit better and revise this one part where I cited this old article I found from the 80s that made a very similar (but substantively different!) point.  But generally.  She's finished enough for tomorrow.  THANK GOD.

This paper really was different.  I didn't feel like I was just trying to fill up space to get the required number of pages.  Actually I was trying to condense to fit it all in and keep it from being overwhelming.  But it wasn't that I was using too many words, I was using too many ideas and not enough words and it was still too long.  But I think I did in the end.  I think more or less, it's there.  It's a 30 page paper and dammit if this ain't a thesis material I don't know what is!

sheesh.  anyone want to hear about anarchy and power in international relations/hips?

Comments

[Jay Sennett]

I'd love to hear more about anarchy and power in IR? I'm intrigued that you've concluded anarchy is a load of crap. Do you mean in IR or in general?

Congratulations both for finishing and getting it done ahead of time...17 hours is worthy of merit in my book. I used to finish papers with about ten minutes to print them out and then be on my way to class.

[Paul Wright]

Wow, sounds like a big push (pardon the pun). I found that I had too many ideas at one point, and realized that I couldn't fit them into a dissertation. So maybe this paper contains the seeds of a future career.
Wish me luck with my review structure-function relationships in the cingulate cortex!

[sea]

"anyone want to hear about anarchy and power in international relations/hips?"

I do! Sounds very up to the moment! Sounds like you really did a great job with this paper.

[Kevin Andre Elliott]

Yeah! Congratulations!

I haven't even begun my essays yet. I'm currently freaking out about an oral exam I have to take tomorrow.

[barb]

Oh yeah, by the way, to clarify, I mean that what they call anarchy in IR is really hierarchy. So this paper is sorta my critique of the anarchy assumption in realist IR thought. So it's a little more esoteric than the other but it does use a lot of feminist theory, particularly standpoint which y'all are probably more familiar with.

That said, I would love for y'all to read it, and am more than happy to send it to whoever wants it, if you still are interested, just know that it's kinda "internal" towards an IR audience in some ways, ya know? And it is 28 pages.

I actually think the other paper on poverty lines is more practical and relevant to activists, especially to anyone who's been involved in the movements against neoliberal economic globalization. That paper talks about the political consequences of different ways of measuring poverty and how some ways are better at explaining the solidarity movements across borders such as the ones we've seen in recent years in Seattle and DC and Cancun.

but yeah, thanks for the votes of confidence, everyone!

[EL]

Clink. One just-finished-a-paper-drink to another!