The conversation usually goes as follows:
“I study skateboarding and drag queens.”
“Ha, but really… what are you studying?”
I’m not offended, nor tired of having this conversation. I get it. Postgrad is not supposed to be fun. Unfortunately, advanced learning is associated with convention and misery. But I love skateboarding, am obsessed with drag queens, avidly listen to punk and hip hop, and appreciate a wonderfully offensive piece of art. So naturally I channeled these interests into a Doctoral program in the school of Physical Education, Sport and Exercise Science. You’re supposed to do something you love, but this can, apparently, be taken to the next level. For research, while I too must pour over scholarly articles and books to keep up with the latest theories and research approaches, much of my time is spent doing what any of us would on any given weekend. I watch my favorite shows and movies, like RuPaul’s Drag Race and The Rocky Horror Picture Show. I play Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater videogames on my old-school PS2. I listen to the Sex Pistols and Salt-N-Pepa. I read the old ‘zine articles about pussy, weed, and the adult diapers that lead to the creation of Jackass. And it all counts as ‘work’.
This is for real. These “primary sources” inform my “discourse analysis” regarding the way race, gender, sexuality, and other such concepts are presented through countercultures and the way this changes as they join the mainstream. But it’s not all fun and games; I will eventually need to force myself to sit down for a miserable viewing of all three seasons of The Life of Ryan and innumerable repeats of Avril Lavigne’s unfortunate “Sk8erboi” video. The point is, I suppose, that it’s possible to make postgrad work for you. Don’t be turned off by the image of stuffy old men in tweed sportscoats with leather elbow patches or beady eyes tweaked out on coffee staring into a microscope waiting for something, anything, to happen, academia’s not actually all that bad. It’s changing. Now you can get a scholarship to study the stuff in pop culture you’d be obsessed with anyway. Sure, I had to move to New Zealand to study the skate and drag cultures back home in the US, but I’m also getting paid to live in New Zealand and come out the other side with a PhD. A PhD of skateboarding and drag.