Intro

Hello. This is my new blog. It is about my PhD, which I have started last fall. It seems that, doing a PhD, all you encounter is difficulties. Methodological difficulties, theoretical difficulties, all sorts of practical difficulties, financial difficulties, and, not least of all, emotional difficulties because all you do is talk about your PhD and annoy other people by doing so. That's what people tell you, anyway, I'm not sure I agree. So I thought, why not share this with people out there who are doing the same thing.
Oh, and I almost forgot: specifically, I am working on a PhD about the so-called Middle East. Hence the name of the blog. This adds another dimension of difficulty: Orientalist difficulties. Because obviously, I am not from the Middle East myself, but am one of the many people who have become interested in that region and its people, spent some time living there, attempted (with even more difficulty!) to learn the local language and then found myself unable to turn around and forget about it. So I decided to spend more time studying what goes on over there, and ended up with my PhD project. And by implication, have become one of the many people 'framing' the region with my own particular point of view, and relating this point of view to those people who read what I write. Whether or not this is a good thing, it's what I do.
But most of the time, really, it's fun. In case all of this is sounding a bit negative. It's definitely never boring and gives cause for much debate over here. And hopefully, on this blog, too.
One more thing I have to add: I started 'studying' the Middle East BEFORE September 11! I swear!!!