GTU or bust

I am so frustrated. Where do I apply to for PhD programs?? I want a place that allows me the freedom -and advising and encouragement!- to do feminist Mariology, but I also want a place with an strong academic underpinning. I also don't want to have to apply to Harvard, nor do I want to move to Claremont or NYC. My choices = slim to none. I found a "new" fruity school in San Francisco, the California Institute for Integral Studies, that offers a PhD in womens' spirituality, which would provide the advising, enthusiasm, and freedom to do what I want to do. However, after talking with Rosemary Radford Ruether after class today (she is referenced in EVERY SINGLE book I am reading right now) she hinted that I look to schools with stronger historical methodologies. I'm either going to have to move somewhere I don't want to live, go to a school with a less than recognized reputation, or swim alone or upstream (again). Why can't I have a deisre to study the works of Jane Austen or to program computers or to teach third grade?

Now I have to go work on my French translation. Bleh.

I needed encouragment and the universe provided

There is an Irish sister (old word for that: nun) here and we talked about Mary some. She suggested that I ask Her what She wants me to reveal about Her. Huh. I wish I had thought of that earlier. There's a part of me that's afraid that I'll ask and get the kind of answer that requires an entirely different set of research and assumptions and I'll be stuck starting over. Oh that She will be kind.

I also received some encouragement from a feminist Muslim student here. She thinks my work is important and exciting. Yay! Sometimes I feel like what I'm so interested in is nothing more than ivory tower pointlessness, that it will have no bearing on anything or anyone. But, there are some people out there who encourage me and I realize that if nothing else this course of study has deep meaning to me. And that there are at least two people out in the world who will buy my book in 10 years!

And now to clean the apartment and myself for Feast Bay tonight.

PS- I'm tired of keeping this friends only. Screw that.