A-Begging I Will Go

I am certain that my dissertation will be completed and submitted this summer (early to mid-June, I think).

As there is a three-month wait policy between submission and defense, I am not certain that it will be defended this summer.

But New Country is now insisting that foreigners must have degree in-hand when the contract starts. If not, then the school must issue a one-year contract to the foreign worker and conduct a new search next year.

The worst case scenario: I don't defend successfully by the end of summer, accept the one-year contract, and then lose this job in the new search.

I anticipate submitting the last chapter at the end of this month, revising the whole thesis in early June, and then submitting the whole thesis.

And then I anticipate begging my committee members to allow me to defend within two months, rather than three.

In particular, I will have to beg Professor Passive Aggressive, who books hir vacation every year during the last three weeks of August and the first of September (I have heard all of hir colleagues grumble about how s/he never does hir full share of the work and how s/he deliberately makes hirself unavailable during the busiest seasons of the school year).

Prof. P.A. screwed me over with my oral comp. While I was able to have hir demoted from full member of my thesis committee to departmental reader, I have been unsuccessful from having hir removed from my committee entirely.

So, we'll see how this unfolds.

I don't welcome this stress. But it is unavoidable.

And the only thing that I can do is finish the thesis and then go begging for a summer defense.