Dissertation Progress

In 2005 I started serious work on my dissertation in pursuit of a Ph.D. in Irish history at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia. What follows is a sort of progress report on the process. I do not intend this page to be a blog in the true sense of the term, in which I discuss issues of interest to my readers and solicit responses from them. Rather, this is more like a journal in the traditional sense, in which I basically post whatever is happening with my academic work as well as any other happenings I feel like including. I have no real intended audience other than myself, though I welcome contact from outside readers. I am reachable at "wcarpent [at] gmu [dot] edu."

October 10, 2009:

I spent a week in Pittsburgh last month, getting another start on a chapter. I made progress, but a little less than I had hoped. I have blocked off Columbus Day to think about my task again.

August 25, 2009:

I have been traveling for work quite a bit since that week in Pittsburgh: Huntsville, Austin, then Albuquerque, followed by a weekend in Massachusetts for my mom's birthday. Dissertation progress has therefore been minimal. I have another week of in September, though, for another chapter.

July 22, 2009:

It is slow going this week; my chapter on the '98 is less a straight narrative than an analysis of oaths, reports, rumors, and historical accounts. My page count is low, but I am trying to stay focused.

July 20, 2009:

I am back in Pittsburgh for another week of writing; ths week I'll be roughing out Chapter 4 on the rebellion of 1798. I am off to slow start, but the week is just starting.

June 28, 2009

I had lunch with my advisor, Mack, today. We agreed that I am still on track for completing my dissertation on time, and he gave me some good advice about improving my existing fragmentary chapters. I'll need to write up a pre-Chapter 1 introduction, which will outline my argument and frame the chapters. This I will try to complete before my next week of writing in July. Next week I meet with my dissertation group to discuss my work so far.

May 22, 2009

At the end of my fifth day writing I have 22 pages of Chapter 2, which is a good and not discouraging start. I had been worried that this writing experiment would fail; thankfully it has not. I have new resolutions, though, which include printing out my research notes for reading on the Metro (a tip from Rob T., who just graduated) and trying to write a little each Sunday. I am thankful to have been able to concentrate this week solely on my writing, but am also happy to be heading home tomorrow.

May 20, 2009

I am still at the table in Pittsburgh, making slow progress. So far I've covered the lead-up to the establishment of the Orange Order: the Peep O' Day Boys, the Defenders, and the Forkhill Incident of 1791. I also found a little hummingbird in a nest outside the door. 13 pages so far...a little less than I had hoped, but not too bad.

May 18, 2009

I am at the dining room table of my parents' place in Pittsburgh, on the first of five days writing chapter 2, on the establishment, spread, and consolidation of the Orange Order between 1795 and 1798. Dottie is with me to help. I made decent beginning progress today, but it takes me a long time to get focused. Not having Internet access at the house is actually a blessing.

April 4, 2009

Progress has been limited to planning for my week off in May to write; recent events conspiring against dissertation progress have included the successful trip to Dublin, a work trip to Las Vegas, a visit from my folks for my dad's 70th birthday, and around-the-house stuff. Outside reading included a few novels (Roth's "Plot Against America" and Doctorow's "Billy Bathgate") as well as Orwell's "Homage to Catalonia" and Bruce Montgomery's "Bush-Cheney Administration's Assault on Open Government." Coming up is a trip to Pittsburgh to hear Montgomery speak, an Archives conference in West Virginia, and who knows what else.

February 27, 2009

Following our anniversary trip to Hawaii I was able to schedule several weeks off this year to devote to writing. The plan is to write a chapter each week, using the intervening time to plan the next. I am off to Dublin for my last research trip tomorrow (with Ellen and her folks to keep her company); following that, my first week off is in mid-May. Some good news: I had lunch with Bob M., the outside committee member on my dissertation committee and a 18th-century Irish literature ptofessor at Catholic who is retiring this year, and he is still excited to be on my committee. This last trip, to primarily visit the Dublin City Archives to run down records on John Giffard, will get me going again.

January 1, 2009

I start the new year cautiously optimistic about progress in 2009. This is a make-or-break year: by this time next year I must have at least four of my five chapters done, or be in grave danger of running out my five-year time limit. With one last researc trip in early March, a few more weeks off of work to write, and several shots of discipline, I'll do what I need to do. In the meantime, my outside reading has brought me some excitement. I picked up John Lewis Gaddis's recent synthesis of the Cold War, which pointed me to a subject I knew nothing about: Cuba, Africa, and the U.S. in the 60s and 70s. I checked out a book by Piero Gleijeses from the NARA library, called "Conflicting Missions: Havana, Washington, and Africa, 1959-1976" (Chapel Hill: UNC Press, 2002). It is an eye-opening and incredibly researched work, incorporating Cuban records, US records, East German records, and interviews with Cubans involved in Cuba's African programs. Some highlights: Che Guevara led over 100 Cuban soldiers in a failed effort to aid the Simba movement in Zaire in 1965; the US financed and transported several hundred primarily South African and Rhodesian white mercenaries fighting for Mobutu in the mid 60s (think of the Warren Zevon song, "Roland the Headless Thompson Gunner"); Gulf Oil (where my dad worked from the late 60s to the early 80s) operated a major offshore oil operation off the Cabinda region of northwest Angola, and they paid royalties to the Marxist MPLA Angolan faction, who wanted to bring the Romanians in but were persuaded to stay with Gulf by the Cubans; the Cubans sent 30,000 troops to Angola on their own volition in 1975-76, in response to South Africa invading that country, and defeated the South Africans; the US set up a covert action program called IAFEATURE to prop up the MPLA's opposing factions, which consisted largely of financing fewer than 200 primarily British mercenaries who failed miserably. Gleijeses, an Italian who teaches at Johns Hopkins, explains Cuba's relationship to the USSR as analagous to Israel's relationship to the US: allied, intertwined, but independent. My only criticism of Gleijeses is that when briefly discussing Cuba's relationship with North Vietnam on p. 376, he seems unaware of the well-documented "Cuban Program" in which a Cuban interrogator nicknamed "Fidel" was allowed access to US POWs in the North Vietnamese prison system in the late 60s (See the Rochester and Kiley work, "Honor Bound"). It was exciting for me to learn something entirely new for a change.