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 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?
What happens when the excitement of postgraduate study begins to wear off? With humour, creativity and a little cinematic imagination, EK invites us to rediscover the magic in our research journeys, find joy in the everyday and remember why we started.
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
Doing a PhD is not just about locking yourself away with books, notes, deadlines, and a document that refuses to behave. Some of the real learning happens when you leave the desk, enter the room, listen to other people’s work, and realise that your research is part of a much bigger conversation. This blog is a reminder to show up, sign up, pay attention, and make the most of the spaces that help shape you into the researcher you are becoming.
This week, guest blogger Laura Leuzzi dives into post-PhD life and her journey toward a postdoctoral fellowship...
This week, international PhD Researchers David Ogoru (USA) and Zahra Tootonsab (Canada) wrap up a three-part series reflecting on the 2025 EARTH Scholarship Programme. Through their respective research practices, David and Zahra unpack the side effects of merging disciplines, which can often result in ethics and care falling by the wayside...
This week, PhD Researcher Isobel Harvey continues a three-part series reflecting on the 2025 EARTH Scholarship Programme. In this post, she reflects on the benefits of engaging with different disciplines throughout the programme and how this has fed directly back into her own multidisciplinary research...
