Your PhD journey might be exactly what you envisioned, might take you to places you never imagined, or might be a bit of both. This is my story and I am thankful for it as it has led me to becoming the new editor for the PhD Life blog. What’s yours?…
Hola mate,
My name is Sofia and I am the new editor of the PhD Life blog.
Before I tell you a little bit more about me, I want to take some time to thank the editors that came before me: Tomi and Ana. You both did an amazing job supporting our PhD community, both contributors and readers, and I look forward to trying to fill your shoes. Thank you!
I have an assorted background: I am currently working on my Joint PhD through the Monash Warwick Alliance within the Film, Media & Communications HDR Program at Monash University in Australia and the Department of Film and Television Studies at the University of Warwick in England. It’s been quite a journey getting here! And also a lot of paperwork, so I will tell you all about my key admin tips at some point soon. Do you have any administrative tips of your own?
I am originally from Mexico City, but moved to Fort Worth in Texas to complete my undergraduate studies at TCU where I double-majored in Sociology and Radio-TV-Film. Have you moved abroad to complete your studies? At TCU, I worked for the Office of Residential Services where I developed a passion to support university students in all aspects of their lives. This combined extremely well with my academic interest around young adults! You’ll see what I mean if you keep reading.
I moved to Melbourne in Australia to complete my Master of Film and Television Studies at Monash. My thesis focused on the teen series Dawson’s Creek. I promise to write a post about my experience turning my thesis into an article, as well as how it felt to go through the peer review process. Do you remember what publishing for the first time was like for you? Do you have any specific queries about this process if you have yet to submit your research for publication?
My PhD thesis is once more focused on teen television, but this time I am looking at Mexican teen telenovelas. But I didn’t go from Master’s to PhD straight away, I decided to take some time off from my research in between. Have you taken time off between studies or have you continued straight through? During my official research hiatus, I managed to not only become an Australian citizen, but also to continue working for universities in my new home-country: as a Student Development Administrator at UNSW in Sydney, a Postgraduate Residential Services Consultant at La Trobe University, a Spanish Teaching Associate at Monash, and most recently as an International Student Support and Junior Research Fellow at Ormond College at the University of Melbourne. My favourite part of all of these jobs has been getting to make students’ lives a bit easier, but also making students realise that they need to share their own knowledge with others as they too can help make someone’s path a little bit less wobbly.
This is why I am delighted to be the newest editor of PhD Life! While I moved to England only four months ago, I now have the opportunity to share with you some of the PhD-related topics I have learned along the way, and very likely some of the new PhD revelations I will have during my year in the United Kingdom. More importantly, I get to become the lucky vessel for other bloggers to tell you what they know or wish they had known about their own PhD experience. What’s even better, I could be the person that helps you get your story out there for the PhD Life community to read! So, if you have something to say about your PhD path – whether about writing, reading, organising, supervisors, conferences, publishing, life balance, peer support, wellbeing, teaching, career prospects – please get in touch with me now via pgcommunity@warwick.ac.uk, @ResearchEx or the comments section on this site. We would all really like to read what you have to say and what you have learned along the way!
Cheers,
Sofia (@mextexausuk)
Image: Author’s own, taken by Alexa Scarlata.
PhDLife Blog 