The challenges, experiences and everyday stuff of PhD life
Being a postgraduate tutor has been one of the best things I’ve ever done, hands down. I was so nervous when I was offered my first classes, teaching medieval literature (from Old English riddles to Chaucer and Henryson) to second year undergraduates. As is typical for me, I ended up spending a lot of time … Continue reading 4 things you should know about being a postgraduate tutor
This guest post comes from Dr Clare Edwards, who has recently completed her AHRC Collaborative Doctoral Award PhD with Glasgow Life at the University of Glasgow. Clare's PhD investigated the emergence of cultural policy in Glasgow in the decades leading to European City of Culture in 1990, based on archival research and oral history interviews with key decision-makers. … Continue reading How to complete your PhD when you’ve got more difficult things to deal with – and how your PhD can help
With so much demand on PhD researchers to produce more and more academic achievements that they can list on their CV – conference papers, journal articles, public engagement, awards, creation of impact, funding attracted, classes taught, the list goes on and on – it’s easy for the other achievements to be pushed to one side, … Continue reading The personal skills you gain from a PhD
My entire life so far has been spent in education. In my last year of school, I applied to university, and went straight from school to my undergraduate degree in English Literature at the University of Manchester. In my final year of my Bachelor’s, I applied for a Master’s program in Mediaeval English at the … Continue reading The pros and cons of going straight through to PhD
This guest post comes from Grant Barclay, who is in the second year of a PhD in the field of criminal law at the University of Glasgow. His research examines the criminal law defences of necessity and coercion from a broader philosophical understanding of the guiding forces and their impact on persons forced to commit … Continue reading Down and Out in Toronto: the Importance of Recalibration
Every year of the PhD is hard. Year 2 is host to the dreaded ‘second year slump’, when you still have a long way to go, but the novelty and newness of doing your PhD is wearing off. Year 3 is full of the pressure of writing and editing, picking examiners and choosing when you … Continue reading Top 4 tips for surviving the first year of your PhD
Shortly after I started my PhD, I was diagnosed with dyspraxia, or Developmental Co-ordination Disorder. It’s something I had wondered if I had for a while – I’d always been clumsy, and my handwriting so terrible that I was told by a teacher at school that I would fail my GCSEs if it didn’t improve. … Continue reading Learning difficulties and PhD life
I recently read a comment about the stress of a PhD, which personally hit me to the core: “If you’re emotionally unstable or vulnerable, it’s not a good idea.” This was me, 3 years ago. Or in fact, 5, 8, or 10 years ago. I’ve lived with depression, anxiety, and OCD for a decade of … Continue reading Starting a PhD with existing mental health problems
Organisation is one of my favourite things. It’s sad but true. I love the feeling of creating order out of chaos, straightening out my world, and getting everything out of my head and onto a list on paper. But when you start a PhD, you have to up your organisation game. A lot. It’s so easy … Continue reading Staying organised during your PhD
When you’re hyper-focussed on working on your PhD, especially when you get towards deadlines and you’re furiously writing or editing, it’s easy for things to fall through the cracks, and for other areas of your life to start going awry. This always reminds me of Bridget Jones saying, ‘it's a truth universally acknowledged that the … Continue reading Having a life outside the PhD
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