Data collection delayed again

Right now I should be in St. Paul finally conducting interviews but alas another delay. Unfortunately, the executive director of the association I am working with fell and is out of commission so she asked if we could push the interviews back three weeks. “Of course” I said and while I’m very sympathetic (these things do happen), I guess I’m just a little frazzled with the time it takes to complete a dissertation. I realize that not all dissertations take 5 or more years to complete, but many of them do so I shouldn't be so hard on myself. However, it has been 4 years now of serious working and I’m just ready to move on. It seems like it has been one thing after another, first it took me 2 years just to find a topic, then another 6 months to put together a proposal, then the hardest part was putting together a committee, which took about a year and ½, then finding study participants (another 6 months), getting committee members to allow me to hold a proposal hearing and advance to candidacy (another 6 months). Ugh! Will it ever end! I’m venting but staying focused. I think this has been more than anything else, an endurance test. I just keep thinking and hoping that once I complete all the interviews and start analyzing the data the rest will be smooth sailing.

So now I leave for St. Paul on February 17th. I will be interviewing Hmong women who have been born in this country and those who have been here less than a year. I am truly excited to meet these women and listen to their stories. For those of you less familiar with Hmong people, their culture has recently been minimally showcased in the new Clint Eastwood movie “Gran Torino”. Hubby and I saw this movie on New Years Eve and Clint was absolutely spectacular. I also loved the fact that he did not hire professional established actors but instead looked to the Hmong community for aspiring actors. Well, the next time you hear from me writing about my dissertation it should be after my data has been collected. Until then...

Advanced to candidacy

It's done! I had my dissertation proposal hearing last week and passed. Officially, I've been advanced to candidacy (whatever that's suppose to mean I'm not exactly sure since I thought I was a Ph.D candidate before this hearing). But what I do know is that now I can apply for a few research grants and actually start my research project. I will be interviewing all participants in January. It feels so good to be moving forward.

I have scheduled a proposal defense date!!

FINALLY, FINALLY, FINALLY, FINALLY...did I say FINALLY? Yes, I have finally been allowed to schedule a date for my dissertation proposal defense! YEAH! It has only taken me an extra year and a half to get to this point but let me not complain and instead just revel in the great news. So the big day is November 12th.

To catch a few of you up to date, I finished my graduate school coursework the year before Maya was born and then took my preliminary exams. So for the last 4 years, I have been trying to put together a study proposal for my dissertation and form a dissertation committee. I took a lot of time off while I was pregnant with both Maya and Armani, but once I started actively working on the proposal (about two and a half years ago) I had it done within the year. However, trying to form a dissertation committee has been unbelievably difficult; my department wasn’t very willing to work with me after I had taken almost two years off.

So what does all this mean and where do I go from here? It means that I will present my study proposal to the entire department on November 12th and if they accept my proposal I can move forward to conduct my study. This is more of a formality than anything else; they usually don’t let you set a date until they are confident that you will be advanced. So what am I studying? I’m studying acculturation and infant feeding among the Hmong people. The story of Hmong people in the U.S. is truly fascinating (I will post more about the Hmong in the U.S. at a later date). Hmong people are an Asian ethnic group from southern Vietnam, Laos, Thailand and Myanmar-Burma but most Hmong living in the U.S. came from Laos and Thailand during the late 1970s. They came to the U.S. as refugees after fighting the communist-nationalist Pathet Lao and assisting the U.S. during the Vietnam War. Hmong culture is truly unique and they have a strong sense of independence. Like many refugees and even other immigrant groups, I think that the obstacles the Hmong people have overcome and their resilience are amazing. I’ll post more about my study later. I certainly don’t want to bore you all at once.

About a year ago, I thought I would never get to this point and to be honest I even thought of quitting. I’m so glad I stuck with it. Many thanks go out to my hubby for always believing in me and encouraging me to continue. I LOVE YOU! From here on out things should go relatively smooth and I anticipate being completely done by next October. I CAN’T WAIT!!