The challenges, experiences and everyday stuff of PhD life
Personally, I’m great at procrastinating, but I’m terrible at taking a real break from work. I never feel like I’ve done enough to deserve it. There always seems to be one more task to accomplish before I feel like I’ve really earned a break. Which means normally my ‘breaks’ only come when my body forces … Continue reading Being Human: the value of a sabbatical
This guest post is by Kim Walker, who is pursuing a PhD in Composition at the University of Aberdeen, working with sound, video, installation and new media. She is a Scottish artist whose work explores pathos within playfulness, humour and the everyday. Kim creates settings in which the mundane and the playful, ordinary gesture can … Continue reading Developing a Working Method
I’m personally and professionally a wee bit of a juxtaposition. Personally, I’m somewhere between work boots and a tweed jacket; just as comfortable building a house as an academic argument. Well, that’s not entirely true, I’m a PhD candidate, which means I regularly question my own ability to do most things. Professionally, I think the … Continue reading Introductions and Ideas
It’s hard to believe that I’ve been blogging with SGSAH for almost six months. Next week I’ll compose the monthly round-up and after that I’m handing over to a new blogger who is sure to offer a very different perspective on the experience of being an Arts & Humanities PhD student in Scotland. I’ve loved … Continue reading My final SGSAH blog post!
Researching for a PhD in heritage tourism has forever altered my perspective on travelling. I’ve written about this before in relation to my annual family holiday to the island of Harris in the Outer Hebrides. This month, I had the chance to be a heritage tourist in a more distant location: India. I travelled to … Continue reading Being a heritage tourist in India
This guest article is by Chloe Bray, whose research interrogates the concept of liminal landscape in fifth-century BC Greek tragedy, focussing on mountains, the sea, and meadows, as common tragic settings. While these literary spaces have often been identified as wild and isolated in opposition to the ancient Greek city and its values, Chloe's approach … Continue reading Cultivating Perspectives on Landscape
It’s hard to believe it’s already 2018. Around a year ago I started a new hobby: climbing. This was quite an obvious pastime to take up after moving to Lochaber for my PhD: Fort William has been labelled ‘The Outdoor Capital of the UK’ after all. Having moved back to the area after many years … Continue reading The PhD Climb
Today’s guest post comes from Lisa Nais, who is a PhD student at the University of Aberdeen. She holds an MA in English and Linguistics from the same university. Her doctoral research focuses on American writers in Venice in the late nineteenth century and the intersection of publishing practices with the creative process. Part of … Continue reading Archives & Pseudonyms
Research in the Highlands & Islands What do you think of when (if?) you hear about PhD research in the Highlands & Islands? Perhaps you think of the University of the Highlands & Islands (UHI), with its 13 campuses across the region. It’s possible that images of desolate, unpeopled and beautiful landscapes spring to mind: … Continue reading Rethinking Remote: PhD communities in the Highlands & Islands
This guest blog comes from Poppy Mankowitz, who is a fourth year PhD student in Philosophy at the University of St Andrews. Poppy’s research centres on the meanings of words used to talk about quantities (e.g. ‘the’, ‘a’, ‘some’, ‘three’, ‘every’, etc.), and the effect of contextual factors on the interpretation of these words. For … Continue reading Learning the Russian Tongue
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