Less than a week till my Soci of Power and Social Memory term papers are due.

Gerri is in pretty deep shit.

Politics has really never been my kinda thing (and at the same time, I think I know more Political Science majors than Soci majors; my boyfriend and godbrother even number amongst them), and while the course is pretty interesting and thought-provoking, I'm still at pretty much of a loss as to how to research for it.

As for Social Memory.. I think that paper's in even more trouble.

In what seems like a repeat of my level 4 module last sem, I just *couldn't* think of any possible topic to write on, until last week's session, when we got started on a bit of discussion on working class memory and whether any such thing existed in Singapore.

Then it occurred to me: why not write a paper on it?

And then on Saturday, I asked my prof, Prof. Waterson, for some advice on it, and when I mentioned my proposed paper topic, the first thing she said was, "Wow, that's more for a thesis than a term paper, isn't it?"

And um.. well, I didn't really understand what she meant by that, but I went on ahead and asked if she could point me in the direction of any topic of interest which I could develop or expand upon. And I also mentioned that I'd checked the library and found very little literature in the way of a Singaporean working class. And she suggested interviewing people.

Argh. *SO* do not have time for that now.

And then, on Tuesday, during my Soci of Power tutorial, Prof. Hadiz mentioned something in the course of the class discussion which just made me silently curse and go: "Oh shit, way to go, Gerri."

What he said was this: "Well, one of the things which really hasn't been researched very much in Singapore is the working class."

Which just totally EXPLAINS why there is practically NO literature on it.

ARGH. How to write a term paper for a topic which has NO prior research??! In one week..!!?!

Well, all right, don't completely panic. I have an outline for the essay. Prof. Hadiz gave me someone to contact for an interview, but eh... I had to email Dr. Leong for it, and he hasn't replied. Damn.

If I look on the bright side though, it seems I've found a topic for my Independent Study Module, if I choose to do it next academic year. And it seems I have a pretty good idea of who I should pick for supervisor too.

To my 4th-year/graduated seniors who read this blog: anyone have any idea how you go about asking someone to be your supervisor for ISM and how early you can ask them?