Friday in Kalamazoo

10.28.2005

Chapter 2 is all but finished. I have the last two sections to type up; they're already drafted onto notecards — it's my writing process (yeah, yeah, everyone's got one). But that's the big news today. After a bout of writer's block, I've worked through an entire new chapter. The title? "Imagining Bolivia: The Historical-Institutional Development of the Modern Bolivian Polity." Catchy, yes? Technically, I've not even drafted the conclusion yet, but that's mostly small potatoes. I hope. I'll spend the next week polishing Chapters 1 & 3, before moving into the heart of the dissertation (Chapters 4-6).

I'm also not going to Chicago this weekend. Long story, but it'll just have to wait until sometime later in November. Sometimes things come up, and they take precedence. I'll use it as a chance to rest up, sleep in tomorrow, and get some other much-needed work done around here. I've letters of recommendation to write, a paper to review for publication, more job application letters to write, and a practice job talk presentation to prep for.

Speaking of which, if anyone's interested, I'm giving a practice job talk 7 November (Monday), 3-5pm at the Political Science library. Basically, I'll be using my April MPSA paper as the core, but speaking more ad hoc about current Bolivian politics (i.e. the crisis of the last three years) more broadly (but w/ a focus on the political-institutional nature of the problem), and there'll even be a Q&A period. Also, I'll run my first ever powerpoint (actually Keynote) presentation.

Also, I still can't access the La Razón archives (from before the site changed this June. So I'm gonna get on Plan B: use Google cache to just brute force download everything that's remotely relevant to me for future reference. Should just learn to do this on a daily basis. Ah, the lessons learned.

Oh, tonight? Halloween party w/ friends. Fun, fun, fun.

Posted by Miguel at 01:06 PM

Comments

Remember to email me a copy of your chapter 2. Sounds interesting.
Or will u post it online anyway?

Posted by: stephanie at October 29, 2005 10:06 AM

Sounds like the writer's edge is back! Best wishes, Miguel.

Posted by: beverly at October 31, 2005 09:46 AM