Week 4 seems to have been absolutely flying and reflecting upon it that is almost maybe my doings – Wednesdays were dedicated to our lecture & then PhD interviews and Thursday was a celebratory day for my partner who finished his educational training. So this might be the reason it does NOT feel like a Friday and while I feel like this week flew by, leaving me with the feeling that I haven’t really done enough uni work yet and that I’ve barely started the week.

However, none of this stands in the way of a little reflection and I have to say, those do help me sometimes just order my thoughts. I’ve always been the type of person to write things down in order to process them (even though I prefer writing by hand). While this week hasn’t really given me great new academic insight or just minimal:

1. I’m still super keen but also a bit bamboozled by the creative artefact for inclusive society (maybe one conclusion: doing a creative project when you’re not used to that way of working is CONFUSING)
2. I’ve worked away for Data Civics which is a course I initially chose without really realising what it is about. However, I have really enjoyed reading about future and data-driven city planning & the 15min city concept (from the inclusive society reading list). Which is maybe a strong point for the PhD I applied to in Glasgow (looking at active travelling in Glasgow and the surrounding area). Funnily enough, I had no readings of city planning or sustainable cities last semester, but this semester I dive much deeper into the topic. No having known this by the time I applied to Glasgow. But it does come in handy!
3. I set up my initial supervisor meeting for next Thursday and I think I want to go back and read my own reflection from last semester and then this semesters initial post where I summarised my refined ideas more concisely. I also want to make sure that I have a set of questions I can ask my supervisor in order to get a better idea of what shape and timeline this project will take on. Also fun fact: For one Post-MSc application I was worried they’d want me to start before autumn which turns out they don’t – so I feel quite relieved that I got all summer to solely focus on my project!
4. Maybe one last insight I gained from starting my Inclusive Society Assignment: Whenever I start a creative endeavour what I most struggle with is that I immediately want to get started. I usually do some sketching or planning and have a rough idea where I was to end up, but once I have that plan I WANT TO START. However, usually you need more prep and to buy the right materials and it takes a while until you can just dive in. This is something that was very important for me to learn and an area where I need to do some expectation-setting if I pursue a creative project for my masters. Expectation-setting & practising being patient.

Apart from that, since the week has been very short, I don’t have much to report. But I am looking forward to meeting my supervisor. I am super curious to hear his insights and expertise he might be able to bring to the project to guide me. And I’ll just do a really long library day today to catch up with what I feel like I’ve missed 🙂

Have a lovely weekend everyone!

#lilac

A flying week / Knowledge Integration and Project Planning: Data, Inequality and Society (2022-2023) by blogadmin is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution CC BY 3.0