<p>I am (or rather plan to be) a returning grad student this winter after an absence of 17 years working in a field totally unrelated to my prior education. (sound familiar?) My eventual goal is to pursue doctoral work in ‘comparative epistemology’ : looking at the epistemology of revelation (religious epistemology) and the epistemology of the sciences (natural, life, and social) as well as the skeptical challenge of science to truth and knowledge claims of theology with a focus on ‘consciousness studies’ (i.e. soul, natural origins of human consciousness, personality, and the seat of personality) as a flash-point in the creation-evolution, mind-body/mind-brain, faith-reason, science-theology oppositions.</p>
<p>I know, grandiose, long and drawn out introduction.</p>
<p>My educational background includes a B.A. in History (and membership in Phi Alpha Theta) from a 4-year private liberal arts college in Georgia (Berry College) and a M.S. in Library Studies from FSU. </p>
<p>I plan to begin with two distance learning/online degrees from American Public University, a M.A. Humanities, and a M.A. History (Ancient and Classical), to reacquaint myself with the rigors of academic life before reverting to a B.S in Biology and/or Psychology (on campus at local state university), then to proceed to a M.S. in a related field (possibly cell biology, neurobiology, neuro-psychology, neurophilosophy). I also plan to work on a distance learning M.A. in Philosophy, and a M.A. Theology from a separate (private, Catholic college -all the above programs requiring completion of a Masters’ thesis. This program (or these programs) of study allow me to combine my many intellectual, academic and research interests that have stayed with me over the years.</p>
<p>I plan to cash-flow these programs, and rely on distance-learning online programs because of the constraints of my work schedule, so I’m fully cognizant of the length of time it will take me. (Yes, I realize at some point I’ll need to re-take the GRE) </p>
<p>In my spare time…<em>wait, I’ll actually have spare time with all this studying?</em>… I like reading across disciplines and fields (sciencedaily is a great website from which I draw countless research ideas and writing inspiration), enjoy anime and the anime culture that comes with it (as well as the overarching Japanese culture it is embedded into and it’s transplantation to the US and abroad), and science fiction and fantasy, to boot.</p>