Impressions: thesis writing done!

The writing of my thesis about Qatar sport history is finished. Putting the full stop after a long process of writing it was not that simple. Perhaps any PhD candidate face the same challenge:

"When is ok to leave behind new content or findings that might add an extra layer of understanding in your study?"

I was (am) not fully convinced on my decision, however is time to put an end on this life chapter.

More than the closing statements about the subject under analysis, the questions which emerged from the thesis it can be considered my real contribution for a (now) field of study. Unfortunately, I cannot share it here until the public defense (December) and further publications, but once I understood the amount of possibilities which I was not able to roll up, it made myself more confident that my work was done.

The two main goals of the study were slightly amended (read more: bit.ly/qatsport). These goals resulted in two main chapters:

1. Qatar Modernity and Sport Arrival: From Leisure for Oil Workers to Government Appropriation for National Recognition;
2. Qatar Independency and Sport for Nation-Building: International Recognition and Raise of an Olympic Nation.

Hundreds of primary documents were uncovered in different archives in Europe and Qatar as well as another hundred oral sources created (a legacy left for the future Qatar Olympic and Sport Museum); plus, a variety of secondary sources re-interpreted. Although, the study context required me go beyond the defined period, the analytical corpus was confined from the very first "sport club" which emerged in Qatar - the Itihad Al-Arab in 1948 - to the country's first Olympic participation in Los Angeles 1984. Therefore, in less than 40-years, this Arab-Muslim country situated in the Persian Gulf embraced modern-sports and it used as a tool for nation-building.

I want to take this opportunity to thank (besides my supervisor) all the people that supported me from the very first insights of this journey. I know it is still not complete over, but always, and at any stage, I need to acknowledge these incredible people for their friendship and goodwill - without you, I could not be even close to make it.

Now is time for face the formatting process before hand over the printed copies. It sounds like music after all. I am not quite sure what will be the unfolding of this study, but if you have something in mind, feel free to share with me.