Asssssss_h

[Mushtaq Bilal, PhD @MushtaqBilalPhD]

The worst and most useless advice given to PhD students: find a gap in literature.

Here's why:

The problem with "finding a gap in literature" is that it's an analogy.

It assumes that an academic field is like a wall. Every researcher brings a brick or two and that's how we this wall gets built.

Sometimes researchers are unable to solve a problem, which results in a "gap" in the wall.

The analogy of finding a gap in literature, like any other analogy, distorts the actual process of how academic research gets done.

As a result, graduate students try to find a topic that no one has written about before. This is counterproductive at best and utter madness at worst.

Let's say I start researching a topic like "The Effect of Reading Hans Christian Andersen's Stories on the Production of Milk Among Danish Cows."

No one has written about this topic and I can argue that there is a gap in literature.

The problem is even if I were to write a whole 400-page monograph on this topic, it will not move the field forward. No one in the field of Andersen studies is interested this topic.

If you follow the advice of finding a gap in literature, you may end up doing research that no one is interested in.

So what should you do?

Here's a suggestion: try to find a problem you feel passionately about.

This may be a bit tricky if you are starting out. So, read about it, think about it, and write what make of it.

Most importantly, know that there is a place in the world for whatever you have to say on a given topic.

Example:

I had a problem that I had spent years thinking about before my PhD. And the problem was how a South Asian Muslim identity got constructed in and through Urdu literature.

I read about Urdu literature and identity formation in colonial India and figured two writers whose works I wanted to enagage with. Nazir Ahmad, a 19th century Urdu novelist, and Benedict Anderson, the famous Anglo-Irish political scientist.

There is a lot of scholarship on Nazir Ahmad's novels and Benedict Anderson's book "Imagined Communities" is a considered a classic in the humanities and social sciences. A lot of folks had written about Nazir Ahmad and Anderson's work. So, not many gaps in the literature.

But no one had looked at how Nazir Ahmad's novels created an "imagined community" of Muslims in colonial India. So, I did this in my dissertation.

I didn't try to find a gap in literature. I solved a problem that I felt passionately about.

[Asssssss_h @asssssss_h]

#WarCrimesOfJunta

[Ro Nay San Lwin @nslwin]

According to PKPF, at least 30 women and children were abducted by SAC Terrorists last night in Moso, Hpruso Tsp, Karenni (Kayah) State.

They all were burnt alive and killed by SAC Terrorists. See original photos here: https://t.co/pafdi6NHkw

#WhatsHappeningInMyanmar #Dec25Coup

[Civil Disobedience Movement @cvdom2021]

We are willing to deal with the junta by ourselves. But if the international community keeps selling arms to them, how is it fair to us?

No concrete help to the people of Myanmar yet keep supporting the SAC. We demand #GlobalArmsEmbargo now!

Pic @JusticeMyanmar

[Shafiur Rahman @shafiur]

#Oct4Coup Shwe Ku Village, Khin Oo Township, Sagaing

3 VILLAGERS EXECUTED BY SAC

Displaced villagers Aung Phyo, Aung Myint Soe & Sein Po had fled but returned to feed their cows. Ordered to lie down and then shot in the head. from Khit Thit

#WhatsHappeningInMyanmar

[NetBlocks @netblocks]

ℹ️ Note: Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram and Messenger are currently experiencing outages in multiple countries; incident not related to country-level internet disruptions or filtering #FacebookDown #WhatsAppDown

[Benjamin Strick @BenDoBrown]

Grim footage uploaded by Chinland Post shows the extent of damage in Thantlang in Myanmar's Chin State. Local media claimed the fire damage was caused by heavy shelling. Geolocation: https://t.co/USqjelD6ZI Source: https://t.co/17s4KmofPq. #WhatsHappeningInMyanmar

[Genevieve Gluck @WomenReadWomen]

Over 90% of Myanmar's garment workers are underpaid and overworked women; union leaders were the first to march against the military coup; garments accounted for 31% of all national exports in 2018, worth $4.59 billion.

Women arrested by the junta report sexual abuse. @ZARA

[Asssssss_h @asssssss_h]

#WhatsHappeningInMyanmar #freetheinnocent

[HaruLyn 春🫧 @Haruonchill]

Dr. Kyaw Kyaw Thet, who lost his friend due to atrocities of SAC, was violently BEATEN & ABDUCTED by SAC Terrorists in #Manadalay on July13. He is also the one providing knowledges to public, treating Covid patients online & preparing to treat on ground.
#WhatsHappeningInMyanmar

[Asssssss_h @asssssss_h]

#WhatsHappeningInMyanmar #July20Coup

[Phyo Zaw Ag @phyozawaung1994]

Dr. Kyaw Kyaw Thet,who is well known to be the God of Medicine among his colleagues bcoz he won distinctions & credits in all subjects during his medical student’s life,has been arbitrarily abducted by Military Terrorists a couple of days ago.
#WhatsHappeningInMyanmar #July20Coup

[Asssssss_h @asssssss_h]

#WhatsHappeningInMyanmar

[soe zeya tun @soezeya]

People line up for oxygen in Yangon at Saturday night. #WhatsHappeningInMyanmar

[Asssssss_h @asssssss_h]

Yesterday afternoon, SAC have been storming Kinma Village in Pauk. Villagers are fleeing,and the elderly who could not run were left in the village. The elderly were reportedly engulfing flames as SAC set fire to homes. #WhatsHappeningInMyanmar #June15Coup

[The Hundreds @thehundreds]

The Straw Hat Pirates are looking to team up!

The Hundreds X One Piece is coming soon!

[Asssssss_h @asssssss_h]

“Members of Tatmadaw have been perpetrating sexual violence for years and those responsible are yet to be brought to justice.”

#EndSexualViolence #WeSupportMOWYCA #StopRapistArmy #CrimeAgainstWomen #HumanRights

[Asssssss_h @asssssss_h]

#WhatsHappeningInMyanmar

[AAPP (Burma) @aapp_burma]

22 have been tortured to death by this junta since the coup!

Click on the links for AAPP's verified lists and statement.

List - https://t.co/wocbR0nlDG

Statement - https://t.co/kXh4pGvLZm

#WhatsHappeningInMyanmar

[Asssssss_h @asssssss_h]

Stop violence immediately
#WhatsHappeningInMyanmar
#June10Coup
#SaveLives_HelpNGOs https://t.co/37EoCaOERB

[Save Myanmar @SaveMM99]

Tw//death
A youth had been hit with artillery shells&Killed by Terrorists(SAC) as they continously fired artillery shells,gun shots last night in #Loikaw.According to residents, Artillery shells hit this boy house,one died&one injured,other houses had been destroyed.
#June10Coup

[Asssssss_h @asssssss_h]

PRESS FREEDOM
#JournalismIsNotACrime #WhatsHappeningInMyanmar #June8Coup https://t.co/FfeUfO8RKK

[Kenneth Roth @KenRoth]

Under the brutal Myanmar junta, "journalism has been outlawed in all but name since the coup, with reporters and editors fleeing the country or leading double lives to survive." They need our support -- with intensified financial pressure on the junta. https://t.co/oJemcRa2Pi

[Asssssss_h @asssssss_h]

#ReleaseTheDetainees
#June8Coup
#WhatsHappeningInMyanmar https://t.co/Hycb6J9fFR

[Milk Tea Alliance Myanmar 🇲🇲 @MilkTeaMM_MTAM]

At around 5 am on June 8, Junta terrorists shot and abducted three people, including Ko Man Zar Myay Mon, the leader of the anti-military strike in Chaung-U Township, #Sagaing Region.
#June8Coup
#WhatsHappeningInMyanmar
#MilkTeaAlliance

[Asssssss_h @asssssss_h]

Since the morning of June 6, Terrorists burned public homes and steal public property at Mobye, on the border bet Shan and Kayah State. They set fire to homes and opened fire with heavy artillery for the second time on #June7Coup #WhatsHappeningInMyanmar

[Asssssss_h @asssssss_h]

Dawn Strike by people of Thayet Nha Khwa village, Thayet Chaung Tsp in defiance of military dictatorship. #June8Coup #WhatsHappeningInMyanmar

[Asssssss_h @asssssss_h]

SalaiPhunSangZathang and SalaiPhunSang, 2 young men, were brutally killed in a bomb blast by military terrorists in Hakha Myothit today. #LessTalkMoreActionsASEAN #June5Coup #WhatsHappeningInMyanmar