So, I had my graduation ceremony on Tuesday, 9th October 2018. It was a great event – held at UTS in the Great Hall (which, to be honest, I’ve always thought is a little too small to be called the Great Hall), with the Occasional Address delivered by Stan Grant, who spoke about the challenges facing the graduating class, especially the rise of populism and the memorably phrased, ‘militant nostalgia.’
It was the first graduation ceremony that I’ve been two – I didn’t have any interest in attending either my Bachelor’s or Master’s ceremonies, and in hindsight, I think I regret that – but perhaps it made this one a little more special. I went to town too – buying the gown and hat, as well as almost everything I could carry from the UTS souvenir shop – after all, it’s only something you do once, right?
I thought I looked pretty good in the gown – until my brother pointed out a rather unfortunate resemblance to Henry VIII – all I needed was the heavy gold chains and a proclivity for getting rid of wives…
Something that surprised me about the graduation ceremony is that they present the PhDs first – and, of course, I was the first one presented – which caused a moment’s panic as I strode out onto the stage – not remembering that they actually read out a description of your thesis. Nevertheless, that rather nervous moment navigated with a minimum of embarrassment, PhDs are then invited to sit on stage with the rest of the academic procession, while the Masters and Undergraduate degrees are presented.
It gave me plenty of time for reflection about what I’d achieved. I’ve tried to draft some kind of numbers that reflect what I’ve done qualitatively, but, of course, numbers only tell half the story – but it’s an interesting story, nevertheless.
- 6 published, peer-reviewed articles.
- 4 book chapters.
- 10 trade/ teaching publication articles.
- 6 different co-authors on different articles.
- 1 poster presentation.
- 12 different conferences in Paris, Tempe, Melbourne, Brisbane, Sydney and Online.
- Approximately 110 000 words in the thesis (and more than 40 000 words cut from various drafts of the thesis).
But what does any of that mean? What’s the narrative I can shape to provide meaning for these numbers? That’s a little more difficult. I remember, as the ceremony finished, feeling a sense of dislocation. Nothing profound or life-changing, but just a conscious feeling that I really had no reason to be at UTS, anymore. Not so much a chapter closing in my life, but certainly a page turning. Of course, my academic career might continue; I still have papers to publish and teaching to do, and there is other work that UTS has engaged me to be involved in, but the reason to be – that is, being a student, is now over.