My dissertation is entitled, "The Lived Experience of an Enduring Spiritual Transformation in the Everyday Lives of Alcoholic Men in Recovery". I'm going to study how 8-10 men who have been clean and sober for at least 5 years describe what it is like to live everyday with the effects of what was a spiritual transformation they have experienced at some point in their lives. It's a well-known fact - and certainly something that AA strongly emphasizes - that in order to remain clean and sober for any length of time, people need to have some form of fundamental change take place in their lives. Very often, this takes the form of some spiritual change...a visceral movement from the state of having little to no spirituality in daily life to having power that comes from a non-material source in a person's world. It is the movement from dark night of addiction to the light of recovery. It's this phenomenon that I will study.
Right now, I am preparing for the research itself. This takes the form of jumping through a number of hoops that the university makes me go through in order to do good research and have valuable results. I am working on the basic outline of the project right now with all the considerations from the purpose of the study through definitions of terms and ethical considerations. In a month or so I will start writing the actual proposal to the university that has to be approved by the Dean. They have already approved of the topic, but this proposal will review the entire scope of the research and receive their sign of approval. Later on it will be necessary to go through yet another phase where I need to get the approval of the Institutional Review Board, an organization of professors who try to ensure that no one is physically or psychologically injured as a result of the study and that all ethical guidelines have been met. Finally, sometime in the Fall or Winter, I need to get my committee of three professors to OK the work. THEN...I am ready to start the actual work of researching with participants. The final results ought to be available in the Summer of 2011. The dissertation itself will be written for several months. Then I need to defend the project with my committee who will finally sign off on it sometime before 2012.
Certainly it is a lot of work. But, I reason that I am into this whole thing so far right now that I couldn't drop it even if I wanted to. Besides, to me, this is fun! My friend George can't believe that anyone would be stupid enough to put up with this kind of schedule, and generally thinks I am out of my mind. Fact is, I know I'm out of my mind for all this, but I like being there and will put up with all these academic types telling me what to do and how to do it. After all, I want to get into their organization, called "Club Ph.D.", and they are not going to make it easy for me to get there, so I need to do the work.
"Keep your eyes on the prize" was the old civil rights slogan, and it certainly applies to a project as immense as this Ph.D. After all, there was a time in my life when I couldn't see myself fulfilling this kind of dream, so I am grateful for the chance to even be doing it. Compared to the Ph.D., the rest of my work life has been merely preparation for this degree...a tiny boat to keep me afloat. THIS project is my new, super-duper, ocean-going, brand-spanking-new cruise ship. And, I love it!
All the best, Roger W.
2 comments:
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