Academic Article Mania

This week I got manically excited about an article I read & realised that over the next three years I may truly become a tragically narrow-focused zombie-like individual who can only talk about her PhD project.

It went sort of like this*…

I had spent the day reading and making notes on various articles when I happened upon one called, “’Food is culture, but it’s also power’: the role of food in ethnic and gender identity construction among Goan Canadian Women.” I read with a kind of rapture and joy that I hadn’t found [ever] doing the readings for my Honours thesis last year. (I still don’t know what possessed me to look at post-colonialism!) Then Significant-Other arrived home and wanted to talk about his day at work (or something tedious like that) but all I could do was drag the conversation back to the article I read and the series of epiphanies it invoked. Then while pouring some drinks for happy hour, I detailed to Now-Relatively-Over-It-Significant-Other how this article backs up many of the things I was thinking about in relation to food preparation and women. Then while cooking us some dinner, I regaled Now-Almost-Completely-Over-It-Significant-Other with the ways in which this article also addresses ideas of the importance of women’s roles in foodwork and how this affords them a special status as the keepers of tradition and culture. Then over dinner I explained how all of these concepts were things I was already planning to address in my creative-practice research, does he see how important this is?!

Significant-Other then asked quite pointedly,

                  “So, have you finished writing your cookbook yet?”

He keeps me grounded.



*This is an entirely fictional account based on the factual excitement of finding this article, the lovely Nic is more than supportive (although he does insist on referring to my project as 'writing a cookbook').