So, right now is Lent Term, which is what LSE calls their spring semester.
Although as you can see by my face and my clothes and probably my breath, it is freezing right now.
And as a Florida girl, I am dying, but it's ok.
But now that it is the Lent Term, it's time to focus on our dissertations
and that starts with a first draft of our dissertation plan.
So, I have that waiting for me at home,
but, first I'm going to go a bakery, get some fun sweets,
and then when we're done with the dissertation plan,
I'll get to celebrate with something delicious!
This is the dissertation plan I was talking about.
It's an outline of the project
and the first section is the topic or theme.
So, I personally have been thinking about the topic of my research project since before I applied to LSE.
I knew that I wanted to do a research project eventually
and so I wanted to make sure that I had a clear idea of what I wanted to research.
so whenever I got to wherever I was going I could hit the ground running.
So my undergraduate degree is in biology
so what really used to appeal to me, and what still does, is the overlap between science and communi-
Ha! My tongue is still numb from being outside, it's so cold.
-from science and communications.
So, I started to keep a scrapbook of stories, news stories, and things that covered that
so I could start to keep track of things that maybe someday that could be something that I was interested in.
Then COVID hit, and it made it very clear to me that that's what I wanted to study.
It was a global case study on science messaging.
Once I got to LSE, I was introduced to so many more resources.
Like I got to go to the public lecture series that they have, which is free,
and see the UK's leading epidemiologists speak, and their policymakers, about COVID.
There was just so much I got exposure to, that it really made it
easier to kind of narrow down what I wanted to do for this project.
But, I mean, it doesn't have to be that formal.
I have that paper scrapbook, I have these books that I've gotten, those lectures,
but also, I have a folder on my Google Drive that is literally called "Dissertation Vision Board"
and I have just have memes and TikToks and things that have to do with science and communication – jokes like that.
The other things that the plan talks about are the theoretical concepts we want to look into and methodology,
and those are the kinds of things that I learned the first semester here at LSE.
So, if you don't know anything about the theoretical foundation of the field that you're in, you don't have to worry.
It's like a boot camp, almost, that first semester.
I learned almost everything there is to know to be able to feel confident in a project like this.
And so now I can fill it out and I know what to do because of all the classes and all the professors I've had as guidance.
And I have such a good support system of not only my dissertation supervisor but all of the previous professors I've had.
They'll answer any questions you have, even if you're not in their class anymore.
So it's nice to have them to throw some ideas around
and, actually, I did that with one of my professors a little while ago when I was still trying to nail down a topic
and he had some really helpful things to say.
I mean a good place to start would be thinking about the theories we covered so far in this term.
We've covered a lot, so you might think about which ones most appeal to you, which ones have stuck with you.
You know, when you're thinking about new problems or questions, which ones stick out? Which ones are memorable? Right?
That's the first place I would begin.
Right.
And how common is it for people to change their minds?
Like if I go home over break and I just learn something amazing that I'm like, "I need to do this"
or over summer I find something new?
Yeah, it's very common.
I think people have a good idea of the kind of world of things that they're interested in,
but the actual specific examples they choose and, in particular, the methods they choose to analyze them,
usually, end up changing or evolving quite a bit over Lent Term and into Summer Term.
But, luckily, we've got lots of checkpoints for you to think about this
and to get feedback from your supervisor.
So you'll have lots of opportunities to come up with a plan, get feedback on it, and change it,
according to your own interests and the kinds of parameters we have for the dissertation.
That's very comforting
[laughs]
because it's a big project to do especially for a lot of us who are doing this type of research for the first time.
And, amazingly, it happens.
You know, it will all come into form and this time next year you'll be a happily graduated master of science.
So, I have faith in him that what he says is true
and I know that doing this dissertaion plan was a great first step,
so now, I'm going to celebrate with my croissant.
Thanks for joining me!