In September 2025, I began my PhD at the University of Edinburgh with a project exploring the role of gender in venerating Scotland’s medieval saints. While most people today have some awareness of (or opinion about) gender history, the phenomenon of medieval saintly cults is less familiar. But saints were ubiquitous in pre-Reformation Christendom and … Continue reading Saints and Swifties: A Match Made in Breakable Heaven?
A Snapshot of the Image-Driven World: The Déjà-Vu of Meiji Japan in British Visual Culture, c.1887-1910 Reproduction, from photomechanical printing to digitisation, can make literally countless copies of any one image. Researching pictures of Meiji-period Japan (1868-1912) by British artists in reproducible mediums, one question that I keep finding myself returning to is how to … Continue reading Haven’t I Seen This Before? The Déjà-Vu of Meiji Japan in an Image-Driven World
Photo: Kristin Hardwick, via Wikimedia Commons (CC0) Say the words "writing retreat" to a PhD researcher and watch their eyes light up around one thing: the word count. A few days away from supervision meetings, teaching admin, and emails arriving in the background. Just you, a laptop, and a target you have been promising yourself … Continue reading What Writing Retreats Actually Teach You
Introduction by Olivia Shaw-Lovell | Guest reflection by Kpanie Addy, SJ A few weeks ago, I wrote about why PhD students need to show up where the conversations are happening. As a first-year PhD student, I am still learning how much of doctoral formation happens beyond the desk: in seminars, conferences, workshops, and the conversations … Continue reading Beyond the Desk: A Guest Reflection on Yale-Edinburgh 2026
At a time when higher education budgets are tightening and funding opportunities can feel increasingly uncertain, many people are questioning whether pursuing a PhD is still financially possible. For international students especially, the cost of tuition, visas, relocation and everyday living can make doctoral study feel like something reserved for people who already have access … Continue reading The PhD Journey Begins Before Enrollment: The Journey to Finding Your PhD Funding
One of the things I learned very quickly during my first year as a PhD student is that summer break does not necessarily mean a break from the PhD. While the university becomes quieter and everyone around you seems to be slowing down, your reading list is still waiting, your writing still needs attention and your research has not received the message that it is supposed to pause for summer.
What Barro Colorado Island Leaves in the Shadows What happens when one place becomes so celebrated for scientific discovery that the histories surrounding it begin to disappear? This question was at the heart of The Shadows of Barro Colorado, an exhibition I co-created with Panamanian artist Ana Sofía Camarga for the SGSAH Research Showcase 2026, … Continue reading A Researcher Showcase: What the World’s Most Studied Tropical Forest Leaves Out
There is something deeply hopeful about watching someone else reach the end while you are still standing near the beginning. Their graduation does not promise that your own journey will be easy or predictable, but it reminds you that the end is possible. Someone else once stood where you are standing now, unsure of how they would make it through, and somehow, they kept going.
There is something oddly comforting about finding yourself in a room full of other postgraduate students and realising that the academic world is much larger than your own desk, your own department, and your own very dramatic reading list.
I am thankful to be here. I know what this opportunity means. But knowing the weight of the opportunity does not remove the ache of the sacrifice. People often see the achievement, but they do not always see what it costs.
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