I’ve been working on my PhD in history at Fordham University for roughly the past 5 years.  I liked living in New York City, but I’m happy to be back in the Midwest and closer to loved ones.  I’m getting settled in Indianapolis and gearing up for adjunct teaching jobs at the University of Indianapolis and Butler University. 

I’m still plugging away on my dissertation, but I’ve got a few things going for me.  First, no one has written much about my topic.  I don’t feel the pressure of trying to find some new angle to a topic that’s already been beaten into the ground.  Second, sources exist, and I have access to them. No matter how much preparation one does before arriving, there’s no fool proof guarantee that an archive will yield helpful results.  Luckily, the places I’ve visited in New York, Atlanta, and Philadelphia have given me far more materials than I originally anticipated.  Third, I find the topic genuinely interesting.  Nothing would be worse than slogging through a dissertation for years without having a strong conviction that it’s a worthwhile story with modern relevance. 

I’ll look forward to giving folks a run down of my research later this week. I’ve got some pictures from the archives I’ve visited, and I can give some insight into the whole writing process.