If anyone is interested in looking at my dissertation, please follow the link provided below: http://ir.lib.uwo.ca/etd/341/ This is only the first version of course. For the published book (of which I have not even thought about yet let alone looked for a publishing house or anything but which I'm sure will become a # 1 international best seller...guffaw) all arguments, golden threads and examples will be ironed out and beautiful!

Anthropology Forever!

It's been a while since I've written any posts and I can say, life is different now. I graduated from my PhD last December (2011). It was a challenging experience but one that I learned a lot from. As I worked to finalize and defending my thesis, I was lucky enough to have an opportunity to teach a class to 2nd year students, the Anthropology of Business. This particular course married my experience in the corporate world (at P&G Co. no less!) with my interest in anthropology. I still had approximately 12 hours to sleep during the week with all of that which was of course, unacceptable and so I also worked part time job at a Global Health Office where I am still working today. I'm also happy to write that I am doing some postdoctoral work for the university with a great team. It's not just academic either...we're partnered with a community organization who I meet with and update regularly. This work is about finding out what kind of community and integration programming is needed and/or wanted by newcomers (which we've arbitrarily defined as individuals living in Canada for 10 years or less) in London, Ontario. It is fantastic research but I have to say, I believe that this project, the stories, and the people are affecting me more deeply than in some of my previous work. I can only guess as to why I feel this way. Perhaps it is because I'm not struggling as much with my own place in the story line. As a researcher, I now have more experience and so following up on research leads is not as difficult as it once was. I am obviously more comfortable conducting fieldwork in my mother tongue and I don't have to worry about learning a new language, or as much about my finances (well, not AS much), or as much about my family being so far away (again, not AS much since none of them live in London), etc. etc. etc.. In fact, I find it quite baffling since what I originally thought of as making me empathetic...being an immigrant too in the Netherlands...is now gone yet, I feel that much more affected. Perhaps this has to do with being able to take more time to think about, take in, and worry about others' situations and not my own. The stories that I'm hearing are wonderful and at times terrible. I'm struck by the range of emotion and the ability for humans to continue to find courage regardless of circumstance. It could just be that time has dulled my memory of how much I felt when listening to others' stories in the Netherlands. (I heard from PDot just yesterday via email and I have to say, he still rocks!) Whatever the case may be, at the very least, I realise that few other sciences allow you such insight and experience into other people's lives. While it's a bit of a tough ride at times, you can't help but feel richer at the end of the day.