Hi there,
So in my spare time, I've been thinking a lot about my future and getting my PhD and such. I've decided that the best thing for me to do now is to figure out what it is exactly that I'd like to devote a number of years of research to. My life isn't solely focused on just "moving to Ireland" anymore, so my intent must be more focused on study at this point, even if that does in fact mean a return to Cork. Due to influence from Scorpio, I find myself being drawn to Hawaii and Hawaiian musical culture. I wonder if there's a way to draw connections between the musical traditions of Hawaii to the musical traditions of Ireland. Or perhaps make parallels between their efforts of transmission of their respective cultures.
Both are island nations. Obviously, Hawaii is tapped into the much larger community of, well, the enormous weight of the United States of America, but all in all, Hawaii is still very much its own place, quite separate and isolated from mainland America. Just as Ireland is connected strongly with Europe, it too is rather independent due to isolation. Both cultures have also been oppressed, mainly by outsiders who forced their own ways of life onto the respective native populations. There is a wealth of possibility here in somehow connecting these two places that are physically quite distant from each other. My question now is, which musical thread do I wish to use to tie these places together? How can I make this an Ethnomusicology project and not merely an Anthropological one? I already know I'd like to take the same themes from my MA research and apply them to my PhD work. Since I am a singer myself, maybe sticking with the sean-nos tradition on the Ireland side and looking into Hawaiian vocal tradition would be the way to go for me. Which leads me to my next question: where to go? In Cork, all I need to do is write a proposal and extensive working bibliography to show my intention of research and then go through the rest of the application process. There isn't really a threat of 'not getting in' to the program. University of Hawaii at Manoa, on the other hand, has an extremely thorough program that is rather exam heavy. And I would need to get into the program. Both programs would stretch me, but Manoa would be significantly more time consuming.
But do I really want to study Hawaiian music for my PhD? Isn't the point of getting a PhD to be an expert in something in your chosen field? And Ireland has always been my passion. Why not continue in that vein? I can always do a post-doc in Hawaii after the PhD is done. And I can always study anything I want in the future. I can research and write papers on any music that strikes my fancy. The main thing is getting the PhD, right?
Oh, curse you, conflicted mind!
~Keely
