h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

All I have to do now is write a book.

I can do that, right?

If my dad did it, you can too.

So that means that it went well, right?

Of course you can. Congrats. of own choice

What does the letters stand for?

I did it again. Do I mean do? I do.

What do the letters stand for? She told us a little while ago and I'm trying to remember. All But Done?

All But Dissertation, actually. But all but done is close!!

Tell us more. What were the orals like? How were your interlocutors? Do you really think this was the worst part of the process?

Tell, tell, tell!

I can't really explain it. My advisor brought in a map of the Maconnais in the 12th century and had me explain it, then I explained the multiple concepts of feudalism and why it's a sort of catch-all and rather useless, then I explained heresy, and then what drove 15th century Europeans to move outward into the Atlantic.

Then I was asked was there a 17th century crisis, what were the extra-religious consequences of the Reformation, particularly in relation to gender, and what, exactly, Christine Carpenter meant by "community".

I was asked about the historiography of medieval Spain and tolerance, and the historiography of anti-Semitism.

Finally, I was asked about the move from brideprice to dowry (I was expecting that one) and what the outcome of that was, particularly for Venice. I was then asked to talk about Thomas Laquer and the body. And the last question I was asked about the dialogue between Gisella Bok and Claudia Kuntz concerning the culpability of women in Nazi Germany and what, if any, implications that had for post WWII German gender relations.

Those last two really threw me for a loop, as I was not expecting questions on modern history at all, but I managed to get through it. No one was out to get me, and in some ways, I think the unexpected connections I made between colonization and the frontier, and bringing Richard White, a native American historian, into my discussion of the Spanish Reconquista, really did me a lot of good.

Sounds pretty cool. And I'm sure you sounded brilliant.

Good for you, MR!

That would be the kind of thing I'd be looking for if I were a professor interlocutor. Not just whether you had read the material but whether you had internalized it enough to make original syntheses from disparate materials. Well done!

Ditto.

All I know is that the work I've been doing the last 3 years paid off, and I'm planning on not reading anything more than I have to for the next two weeks!

Woohoo! Well done MR!

Exceptional, MR! You have made it your own and will be able to teach others with verve on this subject! Brilliant!

My compliments to you!

B4ilookupallthereferencesyoumentioned

Well done, if I haven't said it before!

Congrats, as stated before, but put here for posterity.

Courtesy