An Academic Self-Revelation

"Retrospect I" by Johnathan Bauman.

A couple of days ago there was a workshop for students busy with their graduate / post-graduate research at the university where I'm registered for my PhD. Since I couldn't attend, for obvious reasons (me being in a foreign country), I sent them an "informal report" of my research journey over the last year.

The report was read by another attendee and was apparently very well received. A friend informed me that it was "sommer baie mooi!" [very beautiful]. This is a strange, but well received, compliment. The idea that my report on my research (or lack of research) over the last year could be "mooi" [beautiful] is, for lack of a better description, interesting. According to my friend a couple of professors and attendees asked that the report be forwarded to them.

I'm curious as to what would make such a report "mooi". I suspect it is the candidness, the honesty about failure, about finding oneself back at the drawing board after a year, about finding oneself.

Read the report at my, somewhat stagnent, academic blog: Intermedial Notes.