My current, and foreseeable, dilemma.

Contingent Social Spaces.
Modes of Belonging.
Zimbabwean Farm Workers.
Farmers.
NGOs / NGO Workers
Communication Systems.
Communication Frames.
Ritual.
Media.
HIV/AIDS.
Xenophobia.
South Africa.

Somewhere in amongst, cutting across, and / or bound by these terms is my dissertation. I spent our fall, and part of winter in northern South Africa doing field work for my PhD. (I'm Canadian). I'm beginning my data analysis and the road ahead is so unknown that it isn't even daunting. It's not a tangible part of my consciousness yet. You might think that years of graduate life would prepare me for this last, long journey, but no. Like so much of graduate work, it is a solitary learning process that can be explained but only understood in situ, in the middle of things. In that way, it's much like the 'real life' I hear so much about.

My real dilemma is how do I accomplish this task and fulfill the criteria of a dissertation without being subsumed by academic hubris. I don't want to fall prey to the easy use of jargon that my colleagues are often unaware of. How do I make an impact in the world of academics without being the kind of self-absorbed, pompous ass that it is full of? Maybe awareness is all I can hold to. That, and the models of balanced and decent people in the academy that I know.

Either that or I will become a Zamboni operator full-time.