Countdown: 294 days until submission

Today I received my first fellowship check from the Chiang Ching-Kuo Foundation for International Scholarly Exchange. The next check will arrive after Jan. 1, 2010. The deadline for submitting my dissertation to the Graduate Center of the City University of New York is April 30, 2010. Graduation day is May 27, 2010. I will receive more fellowship money from the AGEP (Alliances for Graduate Education and the Professoriate) Program in September. I am thus contractually obligated to complete my disseration by April 30. In addition, Spring 2010 is the 4th semester after passing my 2nd exam (proposal phase), which is the limit for the Graduate Center. In short, I absolutely have to submit my dissertation by April 30.

That gives me 294 days to go through the required steps. I will be staying at home, taking care of my 3-year-old daughter and my infant son during that time. My daughter will be going to summer school and then regular school during the Fall Semester. This will give me "lots" of time to write the dissertation. That seems like a lot of time, but with two kids and a house to manage, a day goes by in a flash. A week seems more like a day. This means that I have to have a way to keep track of time, meaning working without letting too much time pass. This is the reason I started this blog. Without it, I will have a much more difficult time completing my dissertation by April 30, 2010.

For this inaugural post, I will describe the steps I intend to take daily toward completion of my dissertation. I will write three paragraphs, as I am in this post. I will include the activities I am engaging (the books, dissertations, papers, web sites, interviews) to complete the disseration. I will write about one significant step per day. I will write about the subject matter itself: The formation of the Formosan Association for Public Affairs as the grassroots lobby of the Taiwan Independence Movement from 1977 to 1987, and the corresponding changes on Congressional policy toward the Republic of China on Taiwan. Finally, I will share my thoughts on the nature of the All-But-Dissertation Phase that every graduate student goes through to complete the dissertation.