Hello! As I mentioned in my introductory post, I am going to end every month on the blog with a roundup of links to other blogs, blogposts, videos, websites, tweets and other online content that is relevant to arts & humanities PhD students in Scotland. Think of this as place to find inspiration, updates, information, support, advice or just nice stuff to look at. I would love to include as many student blogs as possible in this monthly post, so please send me a link to your own blog or blogs that you follow. I can either add them to this post, or save them for the March roundup.

For me, February has been a completely crazy month. Not only did I start this job and have a chapter due, it was also the month of the conference I co-organised: War Through Other Stuff. I went to a wedding in Wigan, swapped my very old car (18) for a slightly less old car (14), did lots of writing group sessions and attended a brilliant careers advice session that made me feel much more positive about my life post PhD. In fact I have asked the Glasgow careers advisor to write a blog post carrying through some of the themes of her talk, it is scheduled for April and will hopefully be very useful to some of you. Perhaps all this has been a bit much, as I am now stuck on the sofa with a cold (the dog has kept me company by throwing up everywhere, oh the glamour) – but it was absolutely worth it for the amazing experience we had at the conference last week!

Enough from me, see below my roundup of links for this month.

We’ll start with some blog posts on the PhD experience. A few posts from the always brilliant Pubs & Publications blog that I enjoyed this month include:

• An insightful post on networking, something dreaded by many PhD students, but crucial nonetheless.
• Some useful pointers for anyone thinking about running a speaker series at their university.
• And a personal favourite, this wonderful post is more about an imaginary PhD experience than the real deal, but all Harry Potter fans will find a lot to enjoy here!

If you don’t already know The Thesis Whisperer, then you should! This amazingly helpful blog is dedicated to the topic of doing a thesis and is edited by Dr Inger Mewburn, Director of research training at the Australian National University.

• Probably my favourite PhD blog post of all time, I printed out quotes from ‘The Valley of the Shit’ last year and stuck them above my desk. It honestly helped.
• More recent posts have tackled such topics as how to deal with the advice (helpful or more usually otherwise) often offered to PhD students, and using diagrams to aid your research process. 

I’m planning to create a more thorough list of blogs written or contributed by PhD students in Scotland, but here are a randomly selected few to get your started. Please send me yours and I’ll add you to the list!

• Diljeet Bhachu 
• Rosenne Watt
• Fiona Houston
• Andrea Blendl
• Catherine Weir 
• Debbie White
• And as you are probably all missing hearing from her: Marianne MacRae! 

The Scottish History Network have just launched their blog – the first post comes from Dr Annie Tindley at the University of Dundee.

Off the back of our conference last week we are also going to be sharing some posts about War Through Other Stuff, stay tuned for those!

A few interesting Call For Papers that caught my eye:

• Fears & Angers: Historical and Contemporary Perspectives (closing March 17th)
• Rethinking the Institution in the Long Nineteenth Century (closing March 3rd)
• News Reporting and Emotions (closing April 30th)
• Revisiting the Gaze: Feminism, Fashion and the Female Body (closing March 17th)

And finally, a few non-PhD related things that have interested me lately:

• I’d recommend everyone check out the wonderful and moving Joan Eardley exhibition at the Modern Two in Edinburgh.
• I saw the trailer for this film last week and can’t stop thinking about it. Looking forward to seeing it and then discussing with my fellow War Through Other Stuff organisers. I also can’t wait to see Hidden Figures!
• I always love this thoughtful Podcast from Josie Long, but I think this episode is something everyone needs to hear at the moment. Shortcuts: Hope Dies Last.

 

I really can’t recommend that last podcast enough, it will help you through to the weekend, I promise.

We’ll be back next week with some brilliant guest posts. I’m planning to re-visit the subject of impostor syndrome and would love to hear some of your experiences too, contact me: lucie.whitmore@sgsah.ac.uk. Don’t forget to check out our submission guidelines if you’d like to contribute something to this blog!