oh yes to this. :)

luminocity:

I’ve written almost nine complete pages, single-spaced for my super-exciting-paper due on Tuesday. Nine pages single-spaced means 17 pages double-spaced, which means that I only need to write three more double-spaced pages before I’m free(!) - of this essay, at least.

(It feels rather melodramatic to create a tumblr post about a paper I’m writing, not the least because even if it is by far the longest paper I’ve ever had to write, punching out 20 pagers is probably old hat to a lot of you out there. But, whatever).

My friend Eric put it quite nicely today when he said that this paper was a very journalism-y piece of academic writing. And seriously, I love that. I’m starting to really, really appreciate and admire academics this year because I’ve realized that they seem to have the right idea on most issues that politicians and the media either refuse to cover, cover inaccurately, and/or sensationalize. When you study something in depth and revel in exposing all of the complexities of an issue whether they be positive, negative, in opposition to or in agreement with your argument, you can’t help but stumble upon something remarkably like…the truth.

At the same time, I don’t love being academic. I need something current, fast-paced, changing - and that’s one of the reasons why I love journalism. 

The paper I’m writing is about Yemen’s “Jasmine Revolution” as Tawakkul Karman calls it, analyzing women’s participation and the significance of certain major developments to women’s progress in a country that has consistently ranked last in the Gender Inequality Index (Yemen’s gender inequality is actually dismal, okay), and trying to better understand the implications of the uprising for women in light of economic, social, legal, and political issues that have significant influence in the area of women’s rights.

I’ve learned a ton from all the research I’ve been doing. And the best part is that the research isn’t even boring academic papers on gender and politics or economic assessments of Yemen or analysis of women’s impact on politics in MENA. Because there’s hardly anything in-depth out in the interwebz and print media about Yemen, I’ve had to do my own research. I’ve been reading countless news articles from independent and state-run Yemeni (and international) media, watching Youtube videos of protests, following blogs and twitters of Yemeni activists that are linking me to Facebook feeds with news and pictures of the Yemeni protest movement, and making my own analysis.

The most exciting part is that I’m constantly  bombarded with new developments - with all the Facebook and Twitter and blogging, I’m literally getting minute to minute updates from Yemeni activists about the state of the movement. It’s the coolest thing ever! In course of writing this paper, Tawakkul Karman was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, President Abdullah Ali Saleh agreed to step down, and Yemen’s new unity government was sworn in. It’s ridiculous, and it’s really, really difficult to write a paper on a situation that keeps changing that hasn’t really been in the media spotlight at all (so there’s really no analysis anywhere that I can refer to for ideas or inspiration), but it’s so flipping awesome I can’t even hold it in. Writing this paper has reaffirmed my dream of going into journalism - I love this stuff. I love research, I love finding out about stuff, I love really, fully (okay, I don’t think I’m an expert, so maybe not “really, fully”) understanding something and then writing about it, sharing it, helping spread awareness and disseminate knowledge instead of sensationalized garbage that questionably journalistic (broadcast) news media (coughCNNFOXMSNBCcough) puts out there for the sake of a couple more viewers. (I’ll leave the rant on broadcast “journalism” for later).

Holed up in Ginn Library’s reading room stuffed full of Fletcher grad students and Tufts undergrads suffering in unity during dead week for hours every day, listening to epic music and writing a paper on an incredibly complex, courageous, inspiring revolution…as stressed as I am, this is actually exciting. Sometimes I really hate school, but other times, man, university is the best.

(Source: kharadar-mithadar)