Minutiae ultimately add up to make meanings. Maybe it won't be so easy to convince a search committee that I'm a serious scholar, or the right serious scholar for the job. Then I came home and wrote a dissertation. I'm not a dilettante. I admit that I like to find and tell interesting stories, and I'm not ashamed of my goal to produce a jargon-free dissertation.
Serious scholarship can still be fun.
The search committee's focus was perfectly matched to my own interests, and for years I have been drawn to the sessions prepared by the college's faculty members for the American Anthropological Association's annual meetings. I wanted that position. I made the first short list and surprised us both, but got no further. Minus a few revisions, my dissertation is done. I only got through it by NOT thinking or worrying about possible job or postdoctoral opportunities.