As someone who so recently battled her way through a Master’s Degree program, I am attuned to those in the same boat. Our good buddy watishisto Peter (he of the awesomely designed t-shirts) is currently in the process of getting a Master’s and it’s dissertation time! That means he’s gotta interview some folks and guess what? His topic is “Social Capital in Online Football Fandom Communities” and who better to help out than us? I’ll let Peter explain it in more scholarly and less swear-y terms than I tend to use in an average post.
Hi Guys!
You may know me from my T-shirts which have been featured here a few times or perhaps from the comments. Today I’m putting on my “Master’s Student Hat” and wondering if you could help me out with my dissertation! I’m currently working on a Sport Management course at Birkbeck College in London, and I’m writing about Social Capital in Online Football Fandom Communities, and the good people at HB & HB have been super awesome and have decided to help me out.
I’m looking for people who are willing to be interviewed (Skype, email, in-person, anything) about their experiences as a member of this community and their relationship with other members of the community and how Real Madrid has been a catalyst for this community and your participation within it! If you would like to see my proposal for the project you can take a look here.
Importantly, all your information and answers will remain entirely confidential and won’t be used for anything other than this project, there will be documentation to that effect as well.
And for those of you who don’t want to participate in an interview you can still help me out by filling out an online survey. It’s not too long so don’t worry! It’s totally anonymous as well.
Here’s the link for the survey:
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/XKNLY7Y
I really hope some of you can participate, and I really appreciate anything you can do.
Thank you,
Peter
So I hope you guys can take a minute to help our boy out. He’s a total sweetheart and a massive Guti fan. He even loves The Ramos’ green jeans. HE’S ONE OF US, PEOPLE. 🙂 Contact Peter at: pjette01@mail.bbk.ac.uk
Can I tell you how chuffed I am that we’re the subject of someone’s dissertation? I haven’t seen the survey yet, but I hope he doesn’t ask how my foul mouth and our collective perversion has warped your delicate psyches because I’m not sure that I want to know!
– Lozil
Of Headbands and Heartbreak
watishistacorrespondents
Of Headbands and Heartbreak... 
Peter, you better don’t mention the slogan of Hb&HB 😀
HAHA! I wonder if that will ruin the legitimacy of the work? I can only imagine poor Peter trying to defend his thesis and say “Real Madrid: Embrace the pervert in you” with a straight face. 🙂
take some academic license and jazz it up by adding “a longitudinal study of the evolution of cerebral and lymphatic systems in response to long term exposure to biological agents attributed to the Spanish athletic environment’.
HA! Or in short: How Sergio Ramos Addled My Brain 😉
To Kaka or not to Kaka?
Oh, that’s for when Shigs does her dissertation.
I think that’s a one page, 48 font answer…..YES!
Actually, that would be “NO” in her case. Decidedly no. The last thing she wants around is Kaka.
call me confused….I have always been perplexed by the KAKa references and Shigs’ fear of them…is she not a fan, or does this go deeper and NSFW?
She’s terrified of him. She thinks he’s a secret serial killer. She doesn’t trust anyone who smiles that much.
Great topic! I finished my Master’s two years ago and well know the pain, the agony, and (eventually) the ecstasy of the endeavor. Happy to help out someone else fulfill their academic dream.
Survey done. 🙂
I’m a year into my Master’s and I’m already dreading my final year research! I’m definitely up for helping, good luck Peter!
I thought the survey was cut and dried… And it didn’t take too long.
Just did it, best of luck Peter!! 🙂
Just took the survey. I finished my Master’s three years ago, and sometimes I still find myself thinking there’s a paper I should be writing, hehe… Good luck, Peter!
Doing the survey got me out of laundry duty. Thanks, Peter!
I wish my master’s dissertation topic was this cool! Glad to help since I am procrastinating from completing grad school applications.
I just did the survey:)
I submitted my master’s dissertation just seconds ago. So in a spirit of solidarity, of course the first thing I did was fill out your survey. 😉
Congratulations! That’s a fantastic accomplishment. When mine was over, I heaved a massive sigh of relief.
Yeah, and then I got stinking drunk!
I actually watched cartoons on the first Saturday morning I had post doctorate……and I kept jumping up thinking I had another paper to write, or research to do….
Ha! Watishista P just handed in her doctoral dissertation and is awaiting comments. Once that thing is finally put to bed, we’re going to have a huge party. My uni asked me to join the doctoral program last year but Shigs put her foot down. She didn’t think she could survive me being in school again (I’m a totally neurotic straight A student and she has to deal with me, poor woman) but they’re still after me and I may yet cave in this coming year.
I finished at like 10:30 at night, so I promptly fell asleep. Probably the first time I got more than 3-4 hours a night for two years straight. I got drunk the next day! 🙂
Same! I finished at ridiculous o’clock and then slept till, like, noon. It was fantastic.
I had to work the next day, so I got to sleep in till like 7 AM, but it was still worth it. I worked full time, went to grad school full time and we launched HB & HB while both of us were still doing university. It was NUTS.
That rocks, though. I was already teaching full-time when I got mine, so I took one class each fall and spring, and crammed in the credits in the summers. So that’s why I could sleep till noon when it was over; I finished about two weeks-ish before I had to show up to school for in-service. My students and their parents were super supportive the entire time, which was great.
Argh – teaching is exhausting – it’s amazing you were able to fit that in. I was lucky to have a great support system, professionally and personally. I wouldn’t have made it through if I did.
Done. Good luck to your friend!
bravo to all you wonderfully educated women! It’s lovely to interact with intelligent ladies who can still be silly and funny…..
Reading the number of you that have a masters degree makes me feel lazy…
*gets off her gypsy ass and finds her GI Bill paperwork*
Thank you, Peter. You do realize that after you finish your defense, people will give you strange side-eye looks. Hope you get flying colors.
I would love to see his final research!
Me too! I’m sure he’ll share it with us. Right, Peter?
Pretty please, Peter, with some alliteration on top?
done and done. happy research and writing!
y’all are all making me want to pursue the masters degree of my dreams. but i just paid off my bachelors. *sigh*
Ugh, I’ll be paying off both for the rest of my life.
It pays you back in ways you cannot imagine…..
and from the other side, it’s a sliding scale: BS = Bull^&*, MS = More S^&T, Ph.D. = piled higher and deeper….. 🙂
I have been saying that for many years!
Sorry it took me a while to get to it, but survey done…
Hey guys, I just wanted to thank all of you for your truly amazing response to this post so far! I’ve heard back from lots of you and the feedback has been really interesting and super helpful. You are guys are the best!