MKB

After seven years in grad school as a History Ph.D. student, I accepted a job in a field unrelated to my dissertation. That was in March 2006. Aside from some existing obligations (a professional conference here, a research trip there), I haven't worked on the dissertation at all since last fall.

I recently moved from Minneapolis to Seattle, and am taking some time off to finish my dissertation.  I'm not planning to pursue an academic career, but I've invested enough time in my degree that I want to finish it.
 
I'll be defending in May 2008, just before my advisor retires. My research is mostly finished - although there is a lot of library work still to be done, and maybe one short research trip to tie up some loose ends. I've had a few conference papers based on my dissertation research, so there's some writing that's been finished. Mostly, I need to write, write, write.

I'm also getting to know a new city, something I haven't done since I left home to go to college as a teenager.