Committee Formed!
As you all know, I’ve been in a limbo since my exams. I didn’t know if I should be writing or reading, so instead I focused on teaching. I also wasted a lot of time watching TV shows on dvd and updating my MySpace profile, but that’s another story! 
Anyway, once I received the official letter saying I passed, I had to scramble to find names to list as my dissertation committee. Apparently, I needed to list all 4 in order to apply for doctoral candidacy. This was a bit stressful for me because other than my exam committee, I didn’t know who else to ask. We don’t have a lot of rhet/comp and technology folks right now and I’m still not sure if I will be in Tampa this coming year, so I didn’t want to ask someone from another department I barely knew and then never really meet with them in person. blah blah blah…I know I am rambling, but this has been the mental insecurity I’ve been going through!
Our department also recommends “first meeting with the Graduate Director even before asking faculty to serve,” so once I decided to just go with people assuming I will be in Tampa all this year, it took me awhile to get an appointment. Finally, when I met with her yesterday and gave her the 4 names I had decided upon, she was thrilled that she didn’t have to go find them for me and approved of them all immediately!
So my committee is formed and I finally feel ready to start and tackle my prospectus in the coming weeks. I want it done by June 8 [no particular reason, just a deadline I'm setting for myself.] Yes, I am still waiting to hear about lots of summer factors–follow up campus interviews [I hope!], travel plans to Boston for the Oxford Internet Institute, and eventually setting a date for our wedding, but I see nothing getting in my way of drafting a prospectus!
And like I emailed my committee members yesterday, I know I am bound to see my dissertation take on a new form than the one I envision now, but that malleability is what most excites me about studying online spaces!
