When your classes are un-ironically very exciting!

Hi everyone! This teaching block, I am taking 3 units:

1. Theology 20 Credit Dissertation
2. Ethics and Literature (Race and Black Philosophical Thought)
3. Feminist Philosophy

My Theology dissertation is coming along really well, and I got to present part of it last week, which was very exciting and scary. This is primarily about Philosophy, but for anyone that might be considering Joint Honours, I’ll just briefly say that in Theology, you basically get to do a shorter version of your dissertation (8,000 words as opposed to 12,000 words) in the term of your choosing. Essentially, you do the same for Philosophy, except its called an Extended Essay. I finished my Philosophy Extended Essay last term, which went really well. I did it on the case for including Indigenous Religions in the mainstream study of the Philosophy of Religion, particularly focusing on African Religions. That just shows how wide the choice is for the subject matter of your dissertations/extended essays. You can basically pick anything your heart desires (as long as you can defend your choice and follow through with it).

Dissertations are always exciting (at least in the beginning, when you’re not yet too worried about deadlines yet) because you get to choose your topic, and work on it independently. You learn a lot about research and time management as well, and you begin to trust your own thoughts and ideas much more. However, this teaching block’s Philosophy units are giving the dissertation a run for its money. Feminist Philosophy and Ethics and Literature are turning out to be my favourite Philosophy units ever. I do love ‘traditional’ Philosophy and learning all about dead white guys, but to study something so current and related to my identity from a philosophical perspective is everything I could ever wish for. In the past weeks for Ethics and Literature, we’ve looked at Audre Lorde’s Blackstudies poem, Roots (1977 series), and W. E. B. Du Bois. In Feminist Philosophy, we’ve considered Construction and Performance of Gender, and Intersectionality within Feminism. Don’t those just sound like lectures you want to be in?

Vanessa