Yesterday, it was time for me to share my thoughts and experience about methodology in my PhD research with mostly junior international PhD students from different departments. Here are the notes of my presentation:
The starting point of my presentation was a quote from Karl Marx's Preface to the French Edition of Capital Volume One (1872) which captures what I believe to be an essential reminder for a purpose-driven PhD research process in the social sciences:
There is no royal road to science, and only those who do not dread the fatiguing climb of its steep paths have a chance of gaining its luminous summits.
At the end of the seminar when participants (lecturers, students, and visitors) had to recite poems or sing songs, I chose to share with them — especially for the new PhD students — a prayer, mantra, and affirmation which I remember from one inspirational book given to me by a friend:
May your heart be filled with loving-kindness
May you be well
May you be peaceful and at ease
May you be happy
I believe that PhD students need a lot of affirmations like this at the duration of the PhD study experience — an experience that can be lonely, solitary, and alienating. Hence, I shared the foregoing affirmation for unity of mind, heart, soul, and body as they venture into the 'fatiguing climb' of uncovering social phenomena and understanding social realities. Godspeed.
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