The Queen is dead
May. 19th, 2003 12:48 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jawnbcWell, Victoria is. Happy Victoria Day tout le monde! No mail, no FedEx (meaning another fekkin' day til iPod arrives), but time for friends food and fun. Am off soon to my mate Winnie's (not his real name; Ed, short for EdWin) for sammiches and catching up.
It's only day 3 of my visit, but I already sense being "in-between" two places: Hongcouver and Sydney. Which does not please me, at all.
Getting to Australia as a pdf (post-doctoral fellow, not Adobe Acrobat file) took a lot of advance planning and hard work. I contacted potential universities in Spring 2001, and submitted my application to SSHRC in September 2001. In March 2002 I received word that the funding came through (being a "self-funded" pdf gives me much more input into how my work is to unfold), finished up the fudd dissertation in May, and waited to defend in October. Grad in November and arrival in Australia in Jan 2003--18 months after the process started. All of which is predicated on the ability to accurately forecast where I want (and should) work for a couple of years. In Canada, getting a SSHRC pdf is very rare: getting one to work overseas even more so (only 30 got 'em the year I did--mostly for work in the US). Je suis chanceur.
All things considered, it's gone quite well. In some ways perhaps too well, because now I have to figure out answers to questions I didn't contemplate before.
Recently I negotiated a second position (part-time) at another university--strictly as a collaborator, not a salaried employee. Their orientation is towards adult education as social justice--precisely mine, and the impetus behind my going to grad skool in the first place. In a few short weeks it's clear they do the sort of work I hope to do, were I to become an academic: they seek to meld valuable and pragmatic education with a research agenda that brings voices to the academy too often absent. Like queers, indigenous peoples, working folk, among others. In many ways it's an ideal place for me...
...and they have a full-time, 2 year position opening up. For which I was encouraged to apply. And for which I've been shortlisted.
*gulp*
Those who've read my blog know that my time in Australia has been up and down. More up lately. So here are some of the questions I'm contemplating:
+ could I live in Australia another 2 years?
+ do I want to be away from Hongcouver for 2 years?
+ what would position me best to make a permanent move back to Hongcouver more tenable?
That all this is on the table during a visit home is probably perfect. I'm getting to examine both my life in Hongcouver and my life in Oz; I should have a semi-clear understanding/assessment by the end of my 2 week visit.
But right now I feel déchiré--torn--and would prefer a bucket of clarity be dumped over my head right now!!!
It's only day 3 of my visit, but I already sense being "in-between" two places: Hongcouver and Sydney. Which does not please me, at all.
Getting to Australia as a pdf (post-doctoral fellow, not Adobe Acrobat file) took a lot of advance planning and hard work. I contacted potential universities in Spring 2001, and submitted my application to SSHRC in September 2001. In March 2002 I received word that the funding came through (being a "self-funded" pdf gives me much more input into how my work is to unfold), finished up the fudd dissertation in May, and waited to defend in October. Grad in November and arrival in Australia in Jan 2003--18 months after the process started. All of which is predicated on the ability to accurately forecast where I want (and should) work for a couple of years. In Canada, getting a SSHRC pdf is very rare: getting one to work overseas even more so (only 30 got 'em the year I did--mostly for work in the US). Je suis chanceur.
All things considered, it's gone quite well. In some ways perhaps too well, because now I have to figure out answers to questions I didn't contemplate before.
Recently I negotiated a second position (part-time) at another university--strictly as a collaborator, not a salaried employee. Their orientation is towards adult education as social justice--precisely mine, and the impetus behind my going to grad skool in the first place. In a few short weeks it's clear they do the sort of work I hope to do, were I to become an academic: they seek to meld valuable and pragmatic education with a research agenda that brings voices to the academy too often absent. Like queers, indigenous peoples, working folk, among others. In many ways it's an ideal place for me...
...and they have a full-time, 2 year position opening up. For which I was encouraged to apply. And for which I've been shortlisted.
*gulp*
Those who've read my blog know that my time in Australia has been up and down. More up lately. So here are some of the questions I'm contemplating:
+ could I live in Australia another 2 years?
+ do I want to be away from Hongcouver for 2 years?
+ what would position me best to make a permanent move back to Hongcouver more tenable?
That all this is on the table during a visit home is probably perfect. I'm getting to examine both my life in Hongcouver and my life in Oz; I should have a semi-clear understanding/assessment by the end of my 2 week visit.
But right now I feel déchiré--torn--and would prefer a bucket of clarity be dumped over my head right now!!!
