Michaelmas 2006 supervision report

Today, I received Dr. Hurrell’s assessment of my performance in the first term of this year:

He is taking the IR of the Developing World paper this term and tells me that he is enjoying it and that it is going well. He also gave a presentation to the MPhil thesis seminar. He is making good progress with the MPhil thesis: the core question is getting narrowed down and he certainly has a range of incisive and very interesting ideas. He should have the two overview chapters of his two case studies by early in the New Year. The task in the new phase is to relate the general issues in the argument as far as possible to specific details of the cases – rather than back to more general issues. I would also note that he has continued to face quite severe financial problems resulting from the fact that he has received less in the way of student loans than he had expected.

A good assessment, all told. The last bit is probably meant to signal that he had said helpful things to the university and college bursary committees when they approached him. They will be making a decision with regards to whether they will help cover my student loan shortfall next week.

My first substantive chapter is to be finished by next Wednesday. There is really very little slack in the system now. The second substantive chapter will be due by the 15th of March, with the third due at the end of March. That will be the last opportunity to discuss anything with Dr. Hurrell. Then, I run off to Dorset for a week of frantic editing (possibly with no internet access – gasp!). Then, I will have the remainder of April prior to the 22nd to finish editing, have the thing printed and bound, and collapse in a heap, quite possibly driven to madness by the stress of the whole thing.

My tutorial reports for last year were blogged previously: Michaelmas, Hilary, and Trinity. Having put all this stuff online in the most searchable and comprehensible way possible, I hope it will help at least one person to (a) decide whether to pursue the M.Phil in International Relations here or not and/or (b) help people in the program later navigate through it.

Author: Milan

In the spring of 2005, I graduated from the University of British Columbia with a degree in International Relations and a general focus in the area of environmental politics. In the fall of 2005, I began reading for an M.Phil in IR at Wadham College, Oxford. Outside school, I am very interested in photography, writing, and the outdoors. I am writing this blog to keep in touch with friends and family around the world, provide a more personal view of graduate student life in Oxford, and pass on some lessons I've learned here.

5 thoughts on “Michaelmas 2006 supervision report”

  1. Well done, once again.

    As for those “incisive and very interesting ideas:” why do you save them all for tutorials, rather than sharing them with your loyal readership? :P

  2. It is a lot easier to come up with the shimmering image of “incisive and very interesting ideas” during a forty minute discussion with your supervisor than to manifest the same thing in raw text.

    Collapsing from stress at the point where you submit your thesis sounds unlikely. I would be exploding with joy.

    We shall see.

  3. Collapsing from stress at the point where you submit your thesis sounds unlikely. I would be exploding with joy.

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