one of lifes big questions: what should you do for your master thesis?

As most Nordic students, we are on facebook, and my cycle has its own facebookgroup aswell, which is great for sharing ideas and asking questions. Often the questions would be something like this: "Did anyone understand what to do for this weeks assignment?" "When is the deadline for chosing free or fixed exam?" "How many assignments might we miss?" "Where are people planning to stay for the Oslo seminar?"
This semester most of us are writing our thesis, and the facebookgroup is not so actively used anymore. But about a month ago (or maybe more, my memory is bad) I asked people to tell me what their thesis project is about, cause I was thinking it might be of interest to other people then supervisors and your computers document folder.

Here are some projects (copypasted directly from facebookgroup) :

-  My thesis working title is at the moment "The Angel of the Lord as a destructive and menacing angel in the Hebrew Bible". The main point is to view the ambiguous figure of "malak Yahweh" as a distinctive being from God concentrating on the passages where this figure functions as a "angel of destruction"

-  working title: Islamophobia Online?Study Case of a YouTube Video
and the outline (copypaste from the TC): In this thesis paper I examine a contemporary YouTube video, which presents an anti-Islam stance. In my opinion, this video can be seen as a part of a phenomenon of an "intellectual" anti-Islamic notion. While criticism is an important part of modern society , this video and similar Online videos and texts can be seen as crossing a border line between legitimate criticism and promoting Islamophobia.

-the Image of Eve in Judaism, Christianity and Islam". I will look at texts from Hebrew Bible, Apocrypha, Pseudepigrapha, New Testament and Quran and analyze them with the regard of two main topics connected with Eve: her creation and the fall

-the title is "Saint Ephrem the Syrian on Eschatology in the Hymns on Paradise". i just focus on 15 poems of ST. Ephrem, and explore his thoughts of Eschatology. the Fall of Adam and Eve, the salvation of Christ, the finial judgement, Ephrem's ascetic thought, ect. would be considered.

-I'm focusing on Book 11 of Augustine's Confessions, where he expounds his theory of time, and I'll be looking at whether or not he can be said to be writing as a mystic there. I might take up parts of Book 9 as well where he has a famous mystical experience in Ostia.


In addition to this, I know that we have people working with Atonement in the Dead Sea Scrolls/ community, Eco-theology, The Attitude Towards Armed Warfare in the Early Christian Church,
how martyrdom and persecution influenced the Christian self-understanding, Christian theologians of Arab background, topics related to gender and religion...

well, you get the picture. people are working with a lot of different and cool stuff. If you are reading this blog, working at a Nordic or other university and thinking: this person sounds perfect for our newly planned project about..., then dont hesitate! Contact us and we will put you in contact with the person working with the project you are interested in (if the person agrees to of course). Or maybe you just think it interesting to read one or more of the thesis, again, please tell us.

religiousroots@gmail.com is where to find us :)


-Hilde

The Art of Procrastination!

Pro. cras. ti. nate
v. pro. cras. ti. nat. ed, pro. cras. ti. nat. ing, pro. cras. ti. nates

1. To put off doing something.
2. To postpone or delay needlessly.

As hinted at in the title of this blog, procrastination is an art. Fact.  

As a master of procrastination myself, I intend to share some useful tips and websites in order to improve your procrastinating style.  Remember, procrastination is an individual art form and therefore as a budding procrastinator (you, perchance) one must find a way to suit ones own procrastination needs.  However, hopefully by sharing my own knowledge, I can bestow upon you some of the fundamental basics in procrastination.

1.  Prepare procrastination area.

Whether this be in the library or at home, you need to prep your surroundings.  I often choose the library as this subdues the side effects of procrastinating, mostly guilt.  If you are in the library, it means you have made the effort to leave home and procrastinate elsewhere.  You can also convince yourself that you actually did want to work, but you are tired from the journey into town and you need to unwind. 

Before actually beginning the process of procrastination, you must first make it look to all outsiders that you are actually doing some work.  Lay out pens, etc. the more stationary you have out the better it looks. Take the lids of pens for extra effect.  Open books and notepads to pages you have actually written on.  It is needless to say that the internet is the greatest and most fruitful source for procrastination, so get the laptops out!  Another handy tip is to have a Word document open; either the essay or assignment you have been working on, or, if you haven't even reached that stage yet, an old essay will do the trick.  

2.  Wikipedia it!

Wikipedia is a great way of making procrastination feel like learning!  Once you open one page, you're off!  Open extra tabs galore and come back to them.  here are some categories I have found most useful for encouraging further reading (more tabs):

• List of extinct animals
• Royal families (not for everyone but I love a bit of aristocratic glamour!)
• World War 2
• A favourite TV show (e.g. Sopranos, Boardwalk Empire, America's Next Top Model, GAme of Thrones)
• Harry Potter
• Lord of the Rings

Reducing the guilt tip:  Wikipedia a subject matter in your essay/assignment.  This not only provides you with very helpful resources, but also makes you feel like you may actually be doing something fundamentally appropriate.

3.  Facebook- making stalking acceptable

Lets face it, we all like a good stalk; we pretend that we do not like someone nosing around our Timeline but really it kinda means your interesting!  When blending Facebook and procrastination, the key is to set your appearance to offline and try to not go crazy with the 'like' button.  This, and only really to other procrastinators which will have to time to recognise your increased usage, will show people that you are, in fact, not working.  Stick to flicking through photos and make all comments in your head.

Reducing the guilt tip:  I am afraid I have lead you into a trap with this one; there simply is not way to make Facebook procrastination not guilt free.

4.  Take a Break.

This is a pure gold procrastination tip, especially if you take this said break with someone else.  This will make it seem like to the person who has asked you, that you are doing work in which you genuinely do need to take a long, long break from.  I recommend coffee... and cake.

Reducing the guilt tip:  Tell yourself and have your friend tell you that working with breaks is a much more productive way of working.

5.  Make a list

Perfect way to procrastinate.  Make a list of all the things you intend to do.  This way you are actually writing and you are kind of doing work, just not the work that needs to be done.  The longer and more detailed the list the more time taken up.

Reducing the guilt tip:  This is already pretty much guilt free, but to make it even less guilt ridden, put deadlines on these 'To Do''s.  Make the deadlines ridiculously lenient so when you do eventually do them, they will more than likely be done in time, thus making you feel great and proactive.

6.  Make a blog

I think this one speaks for itself...

I think/ hope I have provided you with the necessary means to get your very own form of procrastination well on its way.  From here on in I wish you only one thing...

HAPPY PROCRASTINATING!!!!