Category: Thesis

  • A Thesis Abstracted

    I found writing up my thesis to be an exciting time. I have always enjoyed writing (hence this blog), but the assembly of so many words, ideas, arguments, was something new to me. For various reasons (publication, the fact I’m writing this before my viva, copyright), I cannot publish the thesis online here. I can,…

  • When does a PhD end?

    When does a PhD end? This is a bit of an awkward question. I’ve now handed in my thesis, typed, proofed and bound, and am waiting to have my viva on 2nd October 2015. My PhD isn’t officially over until my examiners, Tiffany Stern and Christopher Tilmouth, decide that my work is good enough and…

  • The Zotero Quest

    Those who know a little about role-playing games (RPG) may be familiar with the concept of ‘levelling up’. When your character acquires a certain quantity of experience (all experience is quantitative in these games), they pass from their current level to the one above, becoming – in a variety of ways – more powerful. In…

  • On the Legality of my Thesis

    My thesis has five pictures in it. They have caused me quite a lot of problems, enough to merit this post, which will – I hope – veer between entertaining lament and useful advice about copyright and doctoral research in the age of the institutional digital repository. My thesis has five pictures in it. They…

  • Orphan Black and General Sensibility

    Have you been watching Orphan Black? I have, and enjoying it immensely as a way to get away from writing up my PhD. Unfortunately, though, the fact that my thesis is all about performance makes it pretty much impossible to ignore my research completely when watching a TV series. Especially this one. I can’t help…

  • A wave o’th’sea

    My posts have been few and far between of late, as I am nearing the end of my thesis, and pouring my energies into making three years of thinking and reading presentable. I couldn’t, however, resist a little post about these lines from The Winter’s Tale. Florizel is watching Perdita. FLORIZEL When you do dance,…

  • Lead Weights on Rubber Sheets

    I’ve lost count of the number of times that I’ve written a summary of my PhD. When I created this blog, I had five chapters (on editors, theorists, actors, illusionists, and ambassadors), and instituted blog post categories accordingly: the way they have fallen into disuse is but one symptom of the gradual evolution of this…

  • Shakespeare and Outreach

    It’s been a while since I did a real post on this blog (January‘s doesn’t count). And I’m afraid it’s going to be a little longer yet until I do again. This is because I have begun writing up the thesis, and I’m finding it hard to switch between blog-mode and full-blown PhD chapter-writing mode.

  • 2014: Looking Forward and Back

    This is a little late for New Year navel-gazing, but I thought I’d write a short recap of my blogging last year. It seemed like a good way to pass the time until my book emerged from the depths of the British Library.

  • Monsters

    This post is so far out of the Christmas spirit that I’ve decided to put this warning at the head of it. Apologies. Continue only if you’re feeling Scroogish. Continuing my sideline of reading whatever roughly contemporary anecdotal accounts of acting and performance I find in secondhand bookshops (e.g. Sher’s, and Brook’s), I’ve just finished…