first draft down. omnipresent stress.

Last week I turned in nine months of work to my thesis advisor.  It’s a first full draft and obviously still has a lot of work to go but it was a major moment of gratification to have the words on paper and in my hands. It has become so utterly life consuming that I am going to take a little break from it before going back for revisions. I need to start responding to the question, “How are you?” with an answer that doesn’t have the word “thesis” in it.

I realized that although I’ve been whining about thesis in this blog, I haven’t actually said much about its content. So forgive me as I ramble; I could and have gone on about this for pages and pages. Basically I’m investigating the status of domestic, socioeconomic challenges within Jewish Israeli society and how these internal issues affect Israel’s foreign policy and negotiations for a future Palestinian state. More specifically, I’m comparing the status of Israel’s Mizrahi community, that is, Jews from Arab and North African countries of origin, to that of Israel’s Palestinian citizens and how their domestic affairs and political engagement reflects on the future of a possible permanent peace in the region. Right now it’s in manuscript form and hopefully with the help of my advisor (Karen Feste) I can get it to thesis-quality work before my oral defense and final submission in April. Hard to believe that I have been working on this continuously since May which means that by the time I’m totally done it will have been a full 12-month process. I think my reaction to that is equal parts “ew” and “awesome”.

Outside of thesis, I am taking two courses that are going really well. They are the perfect compliment to my thesis because they are completely different! It is so refreshing to remind myself just how much is out there that I know nothing about.  I am going to try and dedicate a week or two to these classes and forget about thesis so I can get as much out of them as possible.

For now, it’s time to go home for some dinner and class readings but look for more frequent updates from now on! Feel free to leave questions and/or comments below!

Winter quarter!

I love winter quarter. There’s snow on the ground and people are flocking back to campus after our long, seven week break. It’s a little more difficult to find parking but there’s just something in the air that makes me excited for a new quarter with new classes that require new school supplies!

We had a nice, restful holiday break and returned to class and work last Monday. Application season is back in full-swing and we are preparing to begin the review process. Feel free to leave questions in the comment section and I can address them in my next blog.

This quarter I’m only taking two courses and they are both a little different than my past curriculum but both compliment one another at the same time. One is a global health course that has to do with first responder protocol and the procedures and rights of aid workers. The other is a cross cultural communication course that will fulfill my skills/methodology requirement and is taught by a hilarious and brilliant professor so I think it will be worthwhile and entertaining. What I like most about my classes is that they really focus on the individual level of global interaction and not so much the big picture. Each course stresses the importance of your actions in a one-on-one setting and not a mass-produced, one-size-fits-all policy. I think that it’s easy to get lost in the big picture and so I’m enjoying have the individual perspective.

Other than the two courses my life is consumed with thesis. My first complete draft is due January 28th and I am only mildly freaking out. Stay tuned!

Winter break

Finals have come and gone, grades have been posted, and thesis is looming larger than ever. My first complete draft deadline was moved up to January 28th so the countdown has begun. I was able to get some help through the Jewish Community Center in Denver to help me track down and translate census data so that was a big help.

Other than thesis, I have been working in the graduate admissions office over break. Our applications for the Autumn 2010 quarter are coming in and it’s really interesting meeting with prospective students from all across the country and from a variety of backgrounds. If you have any questions about the admission process leave me a comment and I will respond!

Today is the first day of Hanukkah (I am trying out a new latke recipe) and tomorrow is my dad’s birthday so it will be a weekend of festivities. It has been so cold in Denver lately; I am ready for some snow to compliment the cold!

Please let me know if there are any topics in particular you would like to see addressed. Happy Holidays!

End of quarter progress

It is officially week 10 and I have my last class of the quarter tonight. Technically classes end this Thursday but since I am only taking one course and thesis credit I am done tonight. I have one final paper that I am trying to wrap up and then I have a nice, long break… kind of.

I would love to say that I will be spending the interterm period doing something glamorous or exciting but I’m sorry to say that actually I will be working full-time and writing thesis full-time. My thesis advisor and I just made a major breakthrough with my material thus far so I’m feeling good about things but December will really be crunch time to get a large chunk finished. Thesis is taking over my life but it finally feels like things are beginning to click. In addition to writing I’ll also be working in the admission’s office and enjoying the holiday season. I’m also going to begin training for a half-marathon so I’m sure the break will fly by.

I’m also happy to report that I’m feeling pretty good about my upcoming post-Korbel life. If things fall in to place I will be doing a 9 week Arabic immersion program through the Middlebury language schools this summer before leaving for Jerusalem in early October to study languages and work with the organization I interned with this past summer. But I’m getting ahead of myself, it’s only November!

Next quarter begins January 4th and I am taking 2 courses: Cross-Cultural Communications (to fulfill my skills/methodology requirement) and a Global Health course. First thesis draft is due February 11th : (

I’ll update after finals. Feel free to leave questions in the comments section!

International Studies is awesome!

My name is Kristin Hissong I am a second-year student pursuing my MA of International Studies with concentrations in Conflict Resolution and Middle East Studies. I recieved my BA from Union College in Schenectady, NY and plan to pursue a PhD in either History or Middle East Studies after I complete my degree at DU. This past summer I had the privilege of participating in the Minerva Center Jerusalem program during which I took two classes at Hebrew University and interned with a new non-profit called Emek Shaveh in Jerusalem. This opportunity was so incredible that I am planning on returning next August for a year or two before I go on to the PhD track.

As for now, it is already week 9 of our 10 week term and finals are quickly approaching! This quarter is bizarre for me because I am only taking 1 5-credit course instead of the usual 15-18 credits per quarter. This is because I am writing my MA Thesis and allocating 10 credits towards this exhausting process. Although I wrote an undergraduate thesis and was feeling pretty confident about the MA thesis process, it has proven to be a much more arduous task!

The 1 class I am taking this quarter is entitled “Genocide and Human Rights.” We are looking at various mass killings across the world and throughout history and investigating not only the language of genocide but also the characteristics of human nature and the role of the individual in genocidal acts. The texts for this class are, as to be expected, quite gruesome but it is very interesting to try and find a comparative mechanism for discussing such brutal events and it strips the jargon from the term genocide that is often thrown around without defining features. The final exam asks us to ponder how to question the value of one human life and if we believe genocide will continue or if there will be a turning point in the world… should be interesting and maybe a little depressing.

It is really thesis work that is consuming my life though. I still don’t have a title but basically I am looking at ethnic discrimination within Jewish Israeli society throughout the history of the state and how these domestic relations respond and/or change according to Israel’s international standing. The thing I’m struggling with right now is that many of the questions I want to explore are quite objective and I’m doing my best to find sources that are relevant and recent. I hope to be done by March but at this rate it seems like I’ll never finish!

All in all life at Korbel is plugging along as usual. I’m excited for our up-coming break and for Thanksgiving and I’ll be blogging throughout!