On Finishing My MA Thesis

I submitted my MA Thesis on 10 May. The title came to me a few hours before I submitted it, (and the one above is actually the penultimate draft.) The final title was, “‘If You Do Not Have an ID in Kenya, You Do Not Exist’: Or Stateless Kenyan Nubians as Biopolitical Subjects.” The Thesis itself addresses sovereignty and biopolitics in the colonial and postcolonial state.

Since I submitted it, I’ve been dealing with a sort of ‘let down.’ This is 8 months of work (almost like gestation!) that culminated in a 58-page document with 18.389 words, produced through 11,807 minutes of ‘editing time’ (the equivalent of about 196.8 hours or 8.2 days). Broken down, this means that I spent about an hour a day writing my Thesis over 8 months (to say nothing of the research process, which included reading and producing annotated bibliographies.)

I will never deny how much effort academic output requires. Academic work is work. It’s just not the work I want to do. Political Theory is like a delicious meal that I can partake in, but few people are able to enjoy it with me. The cost of entry into the debate is too high.

But this feeling of ‘let down’? I suspect that it is burnout. The process of Thesis-writing gave me momentum, and I’m no longer hurtling forward. I’ve crossed the finish line and my blood is pumping and the exhaustion has set in. Now I must assure myself that I ran the race well and move on.