Marianne de Pierres
Marianne de Pierres is an author and academic
So today I pressed send on my Fulbright submission to write the book about Colonel Thorn. It’s been almost a year since I began to put it together. Whatever happens, I’ve learned a lot. It definitely took a village to get over the line and there are many people I’d like to acknowledge.
Firstly, thank you to my referees Dr Kim Wilkins, Dr Bronwyn Lea, and Dr Ros Petelin. Writing references for these kind of applications is time consuming and usually lands on your desk when you least have the time to do it. They were all gracious and encouraging, and Ros even found a colleague to give me feedback on the project statement.
Dr Jess White was simply amazing. She gave me ideas on how to track down host invitations, performed several edits on the project statement, and just made me feel like I could do it. Without Jess there would have been no application. She is the bomb! She and Dr Amber Gwynne (who thankfully found my dangling modifiers and stamped on them!) also suggested talking to Dr Murray Pomerance, a visiting Canadian scholar, who opened his address book and connected me all his New York colleagues. It was a collegial and generous act.
Colleagues of his, contacted colleagues of theirs, and the email tree grew until I was finally introduced to Professors at NYU and Pace universities who liked my project and were happy to support it. To say I felt elated was an understatement.
I want to thank my son Marcus and my sister, Nicci, who have been with me from the start: reading, encouraging, and suggesting. Marcus also went through the online form and double checked it and saved me from submitting something that was incomplete (I’m a shocker at reading forms properly).
And lastly, thanks to all who have patiently listened while I have rattled on about my Colonel Thorn story and the Fulbright for so long. It has been an obsession for a few years, and one way or the other I WILL write the book.
So now… lets finish this damn PhD!
Over and out.
