Last June, Chengcheng Kang participated in the Three Minute Thesis (3MT) competition during her first year of the PhD. It felt like beginner’s luck to have been shortlisted, and even luckier still with all that she learned…
While I had prepared thoroughly for outreach and public engagement sessions during the Enchanted Community project, I didn’t anticipate just how much I would also learn from the sessions. I discovered that ‘outreach’ – despite the name – is about much more than reaching out from the University, instead it was just as much about…
In a previous post Dr Alice Eden outlined some benefits of public engagement including enhancing an academic CV. In this post she considers further potential benefits for employability. While centred on personal experience of organising the Enchanted Community project, the post speaks to important employability issues experienced widely post-PhD and Dr Eden describes key learning…
The idea of public engagement is daunting for any researcher. However, organising a public engagement project can be hugely beneficial to PhD students and ECRs. Dr Alice Eden shares her experiences with her project ‘Enchanted Community’ and the benefits this has had for her research. You will have probably heard the word ‘impact’ since starting…
Many of us are unaware of the finer distinctions between Engagement and Impact, but Ed Vollans believes that understanding the two could help us think about how our work fits into a wider landscape…
Looking back, Deb Anderson can see that amid gloomy prospects for ongoing academic employment, PhD students are conditioned early to become keenly competitive when it comes to grants. Maybe we become focused on that far too soon…
Many PhD students have the opportunity to listen to the thoughts and ideas of influential thinkers and researchers. At the PhD Life blog, we welcome reflections from seminars, conferences, symposiums and plenaries. This time, Felipe Cicaroni Fernandes shares with us the advice from Sir J. Fraser Stoddart…
Academic research should not be the only pursuit during your PhD experience. Tyler Cochran reflects on the value of bringing some creativity into your postgraduate life…
What happens when art and academia meet? Beautiful, creative things. Read Emma’s impressions on Fargo Artists and Academics Exhibition she organised. (And have a look at the gallery of art pieces, in case you have missed the event.) To celebrate Coventry’s bid for the City of Culture (2021), Dr Emma Parfitt, IAS ECF Fellow, University of…
The #seriousacademic storm on social media raised some interesting questions about professional and personal practices academics engage in online. We too have seriously thought about this. (Admittedly, after seeing it on Twitter). In case you have spent last week at a wifi-less (free?) writing retreat or on a screen-free holiday (even better!), Guardian’s Academic Anonymous…
It all started with a tweet (this post that is) calling for women in academia to share their stories. From a content-management perspective, I thought it was well planned: the month of march, when the UN promotes the International Women’s Day and some countries in the world like Romania even celebrate mother’s day. Then it made…
Blogging allows PhD and Early Career researchers engage a wider research community. Motivation | Why blog? Blogging lets you communicate ideas in an informal setting. Think of a blog as a notepad where you accumulate thoughts. It encourages collaboration, and builds your research presence online. You won’t want to reveal all of your research findings online…
As a newly qualified Early Career Researcher, looking ahead to your first year post-PhD, you may be wondering what next. In this case study Georgina Collins, who has a PhD in Translation Studies, talks about her first year as an early career researcher. Georgina Collins I studied for a PhD in Translation Studies in the…
When you’ve organized a conference, how can you capitalize on your experience? Here Georgina Collins provides a guide to maximising the effects of an event organiser’s hard work through publications, continued promotion and networking. Immediate promotion Conferences and seminars provide crucial opportunities for networking and career development, and, for an organiser, these benefits can carry…
How can you avoid the common pitfalls of running a conference or seminar, and make your event a success? Here Georgina Collins tells you how an organiser can prepare for an event, and deal with any challenges or problems…
Exploring the emotional processes involved in both being and becoming academic
Musings of a nutty professor in the making
Molding Research in the mainstream
Because there's always room for improvement
The evolving tale of my PhD as it happens
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