What does it take to prepare for your first academic conference as a first-year PhD researcher? After spending 10 days and 10 hours preparing a 15-minute presentation, I reflect on the experience of presenting *Blood Money* at the University of York’s Intersectionality and Social Justice Symposium, what I learnt about academic writing and public speaking, what I would do differently, and the researcher I am becoming along the way.
What good is a degree if all it produces is a greater degree of disconnect? Following a Stuart Hall Foundation gathering, I reflect on intellectual life, the power of academic knowledge and what happens when education triggers us to question the world, but not necessarily to change it.
What if completing a PhD meant more than producing a polished thesis? In this guest contribution, Wilson Chak, a doctoral researcher in Systematic Theology at the University of Edinburgh, reflects on academic writing, the pursuit of knowledge and what it might mean to rethink the very idea of completion. A couple of weeks ago, whilst … Continue reading Feeling Like Tearing Your PhD?
There is something special about the beginning of a new academic year. Campuses come alive again, inboxes fill with invitations, induction sessions introduce us to people whose names we will inevitably forget and new PhD researchers arrive carrying a mixture of excitement, ambition and, if we are being truthful, a little uncertainty about what they … Continue reading You Made It. Now What? Finding Your Place When the Excitement of Starting a PhD Settles.
Guest Blog: We’re pleased to welcome Simran Kaur, SGSAH’s Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) Associate Director, to the blog. Simran joined SGSAH in May 2026 and also works within the EDI team at the University of Strathclyde as Senior Race and Equalities Officer. In this guest contribution, she shares some reflections from her first few … Continue reading Joining SGSAH: Reflections on EDI, Access and Belonging
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
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.
Dr Sarah Mackay and Dr Emily Munro, returning guest bloggers, share their forthcoming exhibition at the National Library of Scotland, researching the nation's relationship with wet weather.
Guest bloggers Cicely Farrer and Alison Scott reflect on their event, Creative Citizenship in the Archives, co-organised with the SGSAH KE Hub Citizenship, Culture & Ethics (CCE).
Guest blogger Ludovic Brunot extends academic research into irredentism in Italy, a 19th-century nationalist movement geared towards 'redeeming' Italian-speaking regions from foreign domination, through his review of the 2025 film, Fiume o morte!
