Study diary

This is the end!

On Friday I submitted the thesis officially, after having had it printed and bound at a copy shop, and after having prepared three USB sticks with the film. Sending it off felt fantastic. I am hereby done with this master’s programme, which has been my main focus for the past two years, and the reason why I started this “study diary”.

Although the thesis will now be graded and I will receive a diploma in January 2021 or so, I think I can now say:

I am an anthropologist!

Damn, that felt good!

I’ll end the study diary now. These weekly posts have been a way for me to document my way through this programme, but also to push me to read things, and to keep track of what I’ve read. I’m happy I kept up with it every week until the end, although we hardly had any classes or readings in the last semester (or even year).

But just because the programme ends, my research does not, of course. I’m very invested in my research subject and plan to write much, much more about it, just not here (and as I write this, “here” means on Gapnotes.com, but I often move around my content to other domains so who knows where this text is being read now).

Thank you for reading!

Art

• Christophe Berhault at Panek (remarkable!)

Anime

• 2011: Bakuman, S1 E4-6 (rewatching with S)
• 2009: Tokyo Magnitude 8.0. E1.

TV

• MDR/Boxen live: Krasniqi entthront Bösel mit krachendem Knockout (this happened to be on after Bakuman and we enjoyed it!)

Got my first “Selected” on Filmfreeway! For an ethnographic film festival of course. It seems “selected” doesn’t necessarily mean that I made it to the final selection though, but even so I was delighted! Otherwise the “not selected” keep coming in.

On Tuesday we had the last Editing Forum, which is always such a fun and interesting class that I learn a lot from. Coffee with O.

On Wednesday we saw the Hannah Arendt exhibition at Deutsches Historisches Museum, which was really interesting and well done. We also checked out Von Luther zu Twitter: Medien und politische Öffentlichkeit in the basement.

While browsing the reformation room and learning about Luther, I got an email from my supervisor, who approved the new version of my written thesis. This was such a relief. He told me to submit it, so now I’m just proofreading it and giving it a nice layout – the job I love!

We continued to dinner at A&C’s place – our first home dinner since isolation.

In Japanese, I’m now one third through Japanese Core 6000. Took 116 days, so I guess I have 232 days to go, which is 7.7 months, so let’s say half a year. I think I should speed it up a bit. I started reading 俺のペットは聖女さま, my first book (or light novel) in Japanese, and I immediately realised that I learn in a totally different and I would say better way than with Anki, which feels more mechanical.

I communicated with an academic contact regarding a certain opportunity. She advised me about funding and language proficiency, so I registered for both JLPT N2 and IELTS.

On Saturday we invited F&E for dinner at our place.

Tonight we watched Wallay, a pretty decent coming-of-age story. Earlier in the week we watched the classic Himmel über Berlin, or Wings of Desire. Not what I had expected.

Anime

• 2017: Made in Abyss, E5 (raw).
• 2019: Boku no Hero Academia S4, E16–23.

Films

• Himmel über Berlin (Wim Wenders, Germany, 1987)
• Wallay (Berni Goldblat, France/Burkina Faso, 2017)

Turbulent week.

Tuesday: Last swim of the year at Strandbad Plötzensee.

Friday: Submitted a new version of my essay to my supervisor.

In the weekend I enjoyed working on a new homepage.

I finished Tim Ingold’s book on anthropology, which was simply amazing in the way it did away with the many ridiculous conceptions that inform anthropology to this day. An absolute must-read and a book to come back to. This is how I want my anthropology to be!

Austin Kleon’s book was a fast read, I think it’s been a couple of weeks since I read it. And I loved it!

I find Robin DiAngelo to be mostly intellectual talk and not so much substance – so far.

Chris Gore is fun.

Anime

• 2017: Made in Abyss, E4 (raw, Netflix)
• 2019: Boku no Hero Academia S4, E9–15

TV

• High Score, E4 (Netflix)

Books

• Tim Ingold (2018): Anthropology: Why It Matters.
• Austin Kleon (2014): Show Your Work!

Book chapters

• Robin DiAngelo (2018): White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism
  • 2: Racism and White Supremacy
• Chris Gore (2009): Chris Gore’s Ultimate Film Festival Survival Guide, 4th edition
  • Section 1: Getting into Film Festivals
  • Section 2: Build Buzz: Secrets of Indie Movie Marketing
  • Section 3: Forming a Festival Strategy

A lovely week. We biked to Krumme Lanke to swim on Wednesday, and joined my classmates for beers in Gleisdreieckpark on our way back. I realised how much I had missed them!

My supervisor responded with detailed comments on my thesis, which I’m now reworking. I’m a bit taken by his commitment to my research. I feel that I’m in very good hands, and I see clearly how he betters my thesis. He has suggested some interesting future collaboration.

He also recommended me to check out a job opportunity, a paid PhD programme. As much as I wanted to apply, I realised in the end that the subject was too far away from my research interests. After all, you only do one PhD (if you’re not Patrick Galbraith), and if you’re going to spend several years doing it, the subject better be a perfect fit.

I might have found this fit elsewhere. I emailed a prospective supervisor early in the week and got a positive reply on Thursday. We have since corresponded regarding requirements, funding, etc.

No matter what happens, I must say that it’s such a lovely feeling to be at the end of something and to be totally open for future opportunities!

Got another “not selected” on Filmfreeway. I guess my kind of “ethnographic” film is not a fit for regular film festivals, despite they’re “independent” and I applied to the student category on this last one.

Got a bit caught up in the “MIA drama” in the Japanese learning community.

Anime

• Some episodes of Made in Abyss (2017) on Netflix

Video

• High Score, E1–3 (Netflix)
• Larry David: Curb Your Enthusiasm (series pilot, 1999)
• Ricky Gervais Meets… Larry David (2006)
• Crunchyroll: Adapting ANIME Logos Into English (Rent-A-Girlfriend, Seton Academy, Quintessential Quintuplets)

I sent off a new draft of my thesis to my supervisor tonight!

I got my first “not selected” on Filmfreeway. I also got a no on the “blindbewerbung” from last week, but it was still fun to apply.

I published an article on my research site.

And I worked (as in, you know, a job).

Anime

• 2019: Boku no Hero Academia S4, E6–8

TV

• Babylon Berlin, S2 until the end (E8)

Video

• Ayishat Akanbi: “Victimhood is a State of Mind”

Articles

• New York Times:
  • David Graeber, Caustic Critic of Inequality, Is Dead at 59
  • How a Massive Bomb Came Together in Beirut’s Port
• Onyanserat/Emil Viksell: Spelet om Stockholm i SVT (2014)

Some writing, some working, some Babylon Berlin, season 2. Was stood up by A for our Friday dinner. Talked to R regarding a position that I decided to apply for “blindly”. Saturday ouzo with O, who is back from Sweden, and the rest of the gang.

• Kvartal/Lars Vilks: Konststudenter rasar mot provocerande konst
• Wolf Vogel: Heimliche Liebe (1997)