So, the presentation went off quite well. I was nervous before it, but was fine as soon as I started. The feedback was positive but wasn't particularly useful. For me, the presentation was more of a confidence-building exercise as I wanted to present before an audience of quant-oriented economists. I was the only one presenting today who wasn't doing anything quantitative and I felt a pang of inferiority immediately afterwards. As though, what I was doing wasn't substantive because there were no numbers involved. But, two people told me later that they really enjoyed my presentation, which pleased me.
Hopefully, my generation will tear down the Chinese walls between the various social sciences and make interdisciplinary inquiry a cornerstone of our approach. And I've made up my mind that I won't pander to expectations in my PhD. I have been through too much to compromise on my research interests. If I can't do what I want to do, I might as well drop out of the PhD programme. I also feel that these expectations are mostly in my mind. While people might themselves not take the path less trodden for a variety of reasons, they are supportive of those that do. That said, the going is tough and lonely for interdisciplinary researchers. One has to build a certain amount of resilience.
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