Wartime Hymns: The blog: It is time to break the radio silence!

I realize that my last blog post was probably a couple of months ago (possibly more?) and I apologize for that. One would think that with so much time elapsed between posts, I would have a lot more events to discuss by now. That is unfortunately not the case.

In all fairness, it might be slightly misleading to claim that the past few months have been boring and uneventful. I can now proudly boast that I now have a Civil Engineering Technology degree from McMaster University (well convocation is not until November...). I've also served as a tour guide/driver to my mom and some family friends for the past two weeks. It has been both fun and stressful (see pictures below).

Nevertheless, I anticipate my experience going forward to be substantially different from anything I've had to deal with yet. Also, things look like they're finally taking shape for my project! I have met several times with Prof. Gilbert (my faculty advisor) and Prof. Ibhawoh (an extremely kind professor who is actually from Nigeria!) to establish a more or less detailed work plan for the coming months. It appears that I will:

1) Work to develop a critical bibliography to familiarize myself with music used in the context of social movements. (So. Much. Reading.)

2) Take an ethnographical research methods course for about 10 weeks to gain practical skills associated with carrying out field research. The syllabus looks so relevant to my project!

3) Clear the ethics approval process with the university so that they're sure that I know what I'm doing (it would be good if I knew what I was doing...) The application is also about 20 pages long. No big deal.

4) Try to set up as many interviews as I can with relevant artists, scholars and journalists for the next phase of my project.

This little list basically sums up my plans for the coming months (September to December). It doesn't look like it will be walk in the park, but it definitely doesn't seem like it's going to be impossible. Let's go Renaissance!

Enjoy some beautiful landscapes from Ontario!!!