Connecting with fellow SGSAH scholars aboard the Waverley, with Arran in the background. One of the things I have genuinely appreciated about being a Scottish Graduate School for Arts & Humanities (SGSAH) funded student is that my PhD experience has taken me beyond my laptop and university walls. As an international student, I have been … Continue reading Sometimes the PhD Needs You to Leave the Desk: My Year Two SGSAH Residential in Millport
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
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.
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.
From Advocacy to Mobilisation to Organising What mechanisms are there for doctoral students to advocate, challenge, collectivise, and take agency both within and beyond the structures of higher education? How might we better take agency, use our advocacy, and form networks of solidarity and support? On 12 May 2026, we gathered at the University of … Continue reading Building Community Through the SGSAH Doctoral Researcher Committee
This week, Resident Blogger Emma unpacks the ongoing 'financial crisis' at the University of Edinburgh. Featured image courtesy of BBC News.
Building a Cross-disciplinary PGR Network – and Why You Might Want To!
SGSAH Blog 