The challenges, experiences and everyday stuff of PhD life
In this first post for August's theme of Women in Research, Amy McTurk-Starkie introduces herself, her role as Gender Equality Doctoral Intern at University of St. Andrews, and the Athena Swan charter. She explains her current work on the initiative, and suggests ways in which you (and your HEI) can get involved. Photo by ThisIsEngineering … Continue reading Gender Equality and the Postgraduate Community
This month, Amy McTurk will be joining me in co-running the blog. She is a PhD researcher in French Studies at University of St. Andrews, and is also the Athena SWAN Doctoral Intern. During August, we'd like to open up the blog to the theme of Women in Research. We'll post up info on Athena … Continue reading August theme – Women in Research
Recently I made a post about the cost of living crisis, offering some suggestions about how you might be able to ease the burden during your research while costs increase. In that article, I pointed out that, outside of any external economic crises, the stipend is less than minimum wage. However, it has been pointed … Continue reading Update to Cost of Living Crisis Post
This week, resident blogger Garry McLaughlin discusses motivation in research, offering some suggestions for how to reignite that fire if you’re finding things tough. Photo by LED Supermarket on Pexels.com PhD research involves years of study (anything from 3 and a half to 7 years) and during that time, you’re required to self-direct that study. … Continue reading How to stay motivated during your PhD research
This year, I was lucky enough to be one of the recipients of a grant from SGSAH to present my research so far in the form of a showcase that took place during the 2022 Summer School. This was an incredible event and I wanted to get my experiences down on record, to highlight the … Continue reading SGSAH Research Showcase 2022 – Field Notes
Britain is currently in the grip of a three-fold cost of living crisis. The covid-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine have driven prices up, with the real effects of our recent departure from the EU being somewhat masked behind these other global socioeconomic and political flashpoints. Inflation is spiralling with the cost of everyday … Continue reading Cost of Living Crisis: Managing your finances during study
In this post, SGSAH blogger Garry Mac discusses a controversial topic - reference management software! While everyone has their own thoughts on this, if you're drowning in a sea of sources, this article might just convince you to get a little software help. PhD research requires a lot of reading and citation of sources – … Continue reading Why you should consider using a reference manager
Like so many of us, I didn’t see a global pandemic coming when I started my PhD in 2019. I was going to use oral history and creative methods to document refugees and asylum seekers’ experiences of everyday life in Scotland. I planned convivial zine-making sessions, walks across the landscape of Glasgow deep in conversation, … Continue reading The poetry of everyday life
In this final blog post for Mental Health Awareness Month, Alix Gallagher writes about compartmentalisation of the many, varied roles we often find ourselves engaged in while we're conducting PhD research. She looks at some practical ways in which she has been able to divide those roles and prioritise, especially during a part-time PhD. Photo … Continue reading Navigating Hyphenation and Mental Health
In this post for Mental Health Awareness Month, current blogger Garry Mac talks about social anxiety, a condition that can be debilitating and which can have all kinds of effects on your PhD research. He'll discuss his own experiences with the condition, dig into why ‘networking’ events can be crisis-inducing for those with social anxiety, … Continue reading My Life in Research: Coping with Social Anxiety
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