Er… that is: PhD defence is Go!

Doesn’t have quite the same ring to it, does it?

But I’m excited.

So: on December 15th of this very year 2009, Michael Franke and I will defend our PhD dissertations in a battle to the death ritualised question/answer session, before a committee of fogies in dresses professors in full academic regalia. It’s quite a show, and it’s open to the public.1

Usually a defence goes along with a workshop: the committee members join the newly-doctorated (that’s me and Micha) in presenting whatever they’re working on (this is a chance to turn the tables: now it’s us who can ask the nasty questions about philosophical foundations or methodological problems). But in this case the Amsterdam Colloquium starts the day after, so that’s not going to work. Instead, I invite you to think of the AC as a satellite event to our defences (an interpretation the organisers would surely endorse, if they weren’t hedged in by all that annoying bureaucracy).

Oh, and there will be a party. Stay tuned.

Notes:

  1. We won’t be literally standing back-to-back with swords drawn; the sessions are back-to-back though, at 10.00 for Micha and 12.00 for me. [↪]