Just keep blogging, just keep blogging...

Unfortunately, there hasn't been a groundbreaking event recently. In fact, there has been very little going on in terms of my dissertation, and that's kind of a bummer. I get motivated, and then something happens that is political, or personal, or just not really related to anything scholarly, and it kills any enthusiasm I have for the project.

There are a couple of pieces of good news. I've been reading more and more about performance theory.  I have a much more solid understanding of performativity, and I made a connection between my project and hidden transcripts. What I need most though is to solidly define my research question. Am I conducting a critical discourse analysis of the curriculum Cymreig so that I may understand how the CC defines and promotes Welshness? I would so "no," but that's not a bad idea. I could focus on the "developing the curriculum Cymreig" document as the subject of my analysis, and use the data interview as a type of secondary data set to support any claims that I may make. Another question might be, "How do student and teacher representations/performance of Welshness relate to the curriculum Cymreig?" This questions fits better with the data I have collected, but not necessarily to my method of analysis? How can CDA be used in analyzing student and teacher talk about Welshness - particularly their discussion of how they perform it?

What I find intriguing are the performatives used in describing the performance of Welshness. So, how do I use CDA in writing about these elements of Welsh discourse? How do I discuss "power relations" - a term I use often in my proposal - and the performance of Welshness? These are things I have to come to terms with soon. I've put some feelers out with my committee and other experts, so hopefully something will come together soon.