Here I go

In addition to "grammar nazi" I've got to start calling kungfuramone, magic8ball.

You see, back in Jan? Feb? Maybe it was even Nov, kungfu turned to me and said, "I think you're an Irish historian." Having taken only one class on British history, and nothing specifically on Ireland, I skoffed at his remark, rolled my eyes, and went back to pounding through German's dative, genitive, accusative, nominative, der-die-das-dem-den-des cases. Because of the whole public access bit of the interwebs, I've been hesitant to blog about my increasing frustrations with the awful german language and my slow academic distancing from the German history I thought I would be writing. All the while I've had a wonderful (and frustrating, hey, it is academics...) time with my Whiteboys research project. I'm fascinated by scars and markings as the visible trace of the violent intersection be ween two bodies, and it looks like I may have a research "in" into the penal system in 18th century Ireland. Doing work on the penal system and markings on the body would give me: 1) the visual culture I like so much 2) a research topic with room to bring in some cool theoretical works 3) a topic it so far looks like no one has done, and 4) work in English! (some French, but that's fine). Regardless, I've been hesitant to make a quick decision, and so have taken this quarter to talk to everyone I know under the sun for their input, and dwell on the idea of switching countries and centuries.

Yesterday I spoke with my (ex)advisor. He not only was fine with the switch but thought it was a wonderful idea. (20th century German Jewish history is what we call in the biz: oversaturated). So, a few more pieces of paper work, and it's done. I'm not exactly going to be an "Irish historian" (too specific), but will be a historian of the British Isles (see, not Britain-centric, recognizes the isles separately, gives me more room to work with), in the late 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries. We're going to try to reposition the Isles w/in a larger European context, specifically by looking at the Catholic connections between Scotland, France, and Ireland, and just see what I can make of it. I'll be able to approach the 20th century German stuff through my minor in modern Jewish history, which will give me the 19th/20th century background and teaching material for most of Europe as well as religion in modern world history.

So good-bye (at least for the time being):

and hello: