PhD Life: a blog about the PhD student experience

#FamousCollaborators by Blog Editor

Writing about web page http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/services/library/researchexchange/famouscollaborators

At The Wolfson Research Exchange and The PG Hub we believe that collaboration lies at the heart of human achievement. You need only look around you at the buildings and cities we build to live in or the vehicles we move around in; at the great works of fiction in translation and the epic collaboration that goes into masterpieces of film and theatre; at rocket science, brain surgery, the London Underground, CERN and Warwick University; all the products of massive collaboration.

But we’re looking for inspiration on a more personal level and so we’re asking you to name three of your favourite collaborators that can be linked in some way. Whether you’re a fan of Paul Erdös or Kevin Bacon, Marie and Pierre Curie or Alfred Hitchcock and Alma Reville, Wings or Cream, we want you to find a link between your favourite collaborators and let us know about them.

For example, you could choose:

· Marcel Duchamp, George Perec and poet mathematician Jacques Roubaud who were all members of the OuLiPo.

· Theodore Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson and Barack Obama are not only all American Presidents but they’re also Nobel Peace Prize laureates (Jimmy Carter is also in this group).

· Carl Gustav Jung, William S Burroughs and Albert Einstein are all on the cover of The Beatles Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band album.

To enter simply use the hashtag #FamousCollaborators, message us on Facebook or comment on this blog post! Be creative with your choices and you could be in with a chance of winning one of our £20 theatre vouchers suitable for use in Warwick Arts Centre (for more details and to see entry conditions visit: http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/services/library/researchexchange/famouscollaborators).

So get thinking and let us know your 3 #FamousCollaborators!

Mine are Alvin, Simon and Theodore Chipmunk, obviously.

James Horrocks

PG Hub and Wolfson Research Exchange Assistant

COLLABORATIVE SANDPIT - THE "RIGHT" CAREER PATH by Temilola Oladepo

The journey to establishing a career on any path (academia and otherwise) is usually laced with numerous opportunities. Although there may be seeming setbacks along the way, the ability to identify and tap on the right door, then go the extra mile to walk through it, makes a great difference between progression and regression or stagnancy. Many big breaks in life have come through someone literally being at the right place at the right time, doing the right thing - this could be enrolling on the rightworkshop, networking with the rightpeople, or participating in the rightventure.

When I first heard of the Collaborative Sandpit at the University of Warwick Research Exchange, the first thought that came to my head was, "THIS IS RIGHT!"

Let me tell you all about it.

The Collaborative Sandpit is a 2-day intensive and interactive workshop, where "interdisciplinary research teams" work together to achieve two goals:

1. Define research problems on a given theme (*community),

2. Outline a grant proposal

Successful project teams would receive funding to work with an academic mentor in bringing their research plan to fruition.

Doctoral researchers and early career researchers at University of Warwick are eligible to participate in this initiative.

I reckon you are tuning into WII FM at the moment. Don't get confused, WII FM is simply the acronym for WHAT'S IN IT FOR ME?

I'll tell you what:

Build team-working skills:You get to collaborate the wider academic community at University of Warwick. On any job interview, it's a given that your ability to work in a team is going to be put to the test. Being a part of CS offers you a credible pool to draw a demonstration of that skill from.

Research to Reality: You are also afforded a chance to apply your research to contemporary real-life challenges. Speaking as a fellow researcher, I have a good feeling that I would find this aspect of research more gratifying than anything else.

Boost your research profile:Every hour, every minute, every second you spend on your individual research projects is an investment - an investment everyone else around you is making. The best way to stand out of the pack is to do something OUTSTANDING. I am convinced that the Collaborative Sandpit offers just the right shade of differentto add some colour to my research profile.

Skills Support Pre & Post Sandpit: I never hesitate to point out to my friends in Warwick that if we had to pay £££ per workshop we attended at Warwick University, we wouldn't be able to afford 3-sqaure meals in a matter of weeks. There is so much support available to which the only cost to you is your time - fair bargain if you ask me. CS offers many skills support workshop to ensure you are as successful as you can be on the program. More so, these skills are transferable, hence if you wish to work within or outside academia, you would still be getting your time's worth.

Transforming Ideas into Funded Projects:Funding is a key part of work life. In the commercial sector, you have attract enough funds to cover your salary and beyond to keep your job; and in academia, the scramble for funding is…I need not say much. My argument is that while on CS you will gain the experience of converting ideas to viable projects - how does one think through such ideas, what factors are to be considered? etc. CS is just the rightfallow ground to train and hone that skill.

Expression of interest forms are available online

Visit the website here.

For more information or queries, please email researchexchange@warwick.ac.uk

REx Fest - A Festival of Exchanges by Thomas Bray

If you closed your eyes, it was like Elton John truly was in the room, belting out his classics. Open your eyes, though, and yep, you were definitely in the Terrace Bar, where Elton ain’t been seen in years, listening to an otherwise-diminutive PhD student from Economics belting out ‘Bennie and the Jets’. After he lifted his fingers from the final chord, there was a second before the applause, a second of silence as everyone looked at everyone else, and mouthed one word: Wow.

There’s nothing to bring postgraduate students together quite like one of their own getting up and doing what they non-academically do best. Watching someone who by day builds robots shooting off down the wing on a football pitch, or eating the freshly-baked cookies of people who spend their days elbow-deep in algae: these are pleasures which I and countless others have enjoyed. REx Fest was no different. For a few hours that night, it didn’t matter which department you were from, what you were researching, or whether you had a list of publications longer than the piano: what mattered was whether you could make the audience sing along. And sing along they did, a sea of arms all swaying in time to the closing euphorics of ‘Hey Jude’.

Step away from the front-line of the audience, where the tone has now changed from an indie cover of ‘Call Me Maybe’ to some strain of Portuguese folk-rock, and you would find postgraduates dotted all around the Terrace Bar, and indeed, a swarm on the balcony, sharing lighters and stories of days, weeks, years, spent in the archives or the lab. People who lived together in their first year got a chance to catch up after five years and two degrees apart: one guy whom I knew when he was eighteen had to leave early to see the girl he was dating back then, and whom he is now marrying.

Back inside, stood around a table now littered with empty pint glasses, is a postgraduate football team, discussing their latest nail-biting match, occasionally forgetting themselves and repeating the kicks and jumps which sealed the last-minute winner. In another corner, people are exchanging stories of their first years of teaching, lamenting poor excuses and late-night marking, laughing over spilt chemicals and seminar faux-pas. Meanwhile, at the bar, there is a tussle to buy new companions drinks, often culminating in a bizarre comedy of errors, with everyone insisting that it’s their round. I spent many an hour in a Terrace Bar as an undergraduate at Warwick, and never did I know it as lively, as fun, as pleasant as at REx Fest.

Back in the union building, meanwhile, I spotted several heated games of table football, with people compulsively depleting small piles of fifty pence pieces in the pursuit of victory. The same went for the pool tables, where the atmosphere was a little quieter but no less heated. Much like an excellent musical performance, there is nothing to bring postgraduates together quite like a shared ineptitude at a game. I learnt that night that doing a PhD in Physics is not necessarily an advantage when it comes to playing pool. I guess you might need a calculator.

Needless to say, the whole event worked a treat, and I must admit that despite my own initial scepticism at the whole thing, it was quite the night. I couldn’t believe that amongst the small circles of postgraduates there exists quite so much musical talent. At the end, I found myself giving a guy whom I had only met in the last three minutes a lift back to Kenilworth. In the car he talked candidly about his recent break-up. It really was that kind of evening.

One of the issues with the postgraduate lifestyle, certainly an issue which often gets mentioned on this blog, is how easy it is to find yourself isolated, cut off from the real world. It is essential for your sanity (and for your research) that you get the opportunity to put your studies to one side, even if just for an evening, and enjoy some music, some sport, some chatter. Sure, talk may well eventually turn back to your work, but that’s part and parcel of the whole shebang. If you imagine the world of research as a quiet one, full of plain green fields and the occasional hill, then REx Fest is like a dinosaur of fun and sociality, a tyrannosaurus REx, if you will.

Sorry. Sorry I wrote a whole blog post just to make one awful pun. You’ll thank me one day.

PG TalkFest is back! by Sarah Cosgriff

Would you like to meet postgrads? Do you having nothing planned for Tuesday evening? Then come along to PG TalkFest!

PG TalkFest is back after a successful start in March. It is a great meeting place for postgrads and a way to listen to interesting and lively talks. The aim is to keep the style informal and to engage with the audience.

For this version of PG TalkFest, there will be a Masters student and two PhDs who will be presenting talks about Batman, video games, and evolution.

It is being held on Tuesday 21^st March from 6pm-8pm in the PG Hub. Talks don’t start until 6:30pm so you have some time to socialise before the event begins. There is also an interval. Light snacks and drinks are provided from 6pm.

The speakers of the night are:

Sebastian Averill (History)

Joanna Cuttell (Sociology)

Steve Norton (MOAC)

For any queries, please contact Sarah on S.A.Cosgriff@warwick.ac.uk.

In the middle of the journey of life... by Bernadette Divall

"In the middle of the journey of our life, I came to myself, in a dark wood, where the direct way was lost. It is a hard thing to speak of, how wild, harsh and impenetrable that wood was, so that thinking of it recreates the fear. It is scarcely less bitter than death; but, in order to tell of the good that I found there, I must tell of the other things I saw there". So begins Dante's Inferno, and so begins the tale of where I have been for the past seven months, since I last wrote a blog entry.

My story left off at a difficult point in my PhD life: I had begun a postdoctoral fellowship without finishing the doctoral thesis. I was hugely disappointed by this, as I had always considered that three years would be ample time in which to complete a PhD. But I had reckoned without the vagaries of my ongoing cardiac symptoms, which had made me take some time off in the late Spring of last year. In October, I wrote that I was stressed. I could almost laugh now, given what has happened since...

A couple of weeks after my last blog, my dad suffered a catastrophic brain haemorrhage. He had surgery, but never recovered and was in a coma for twenty days. Twenty days of driving to Sheffield. Twenty days of sitting, watching, waiting for signs I knew would never come. At the end of twenty days, he died. I was with him, which was a strange and beautiful thing - just him and me in a room, and the most peaceful thing he had ever done.

On December 1st, I returned to the fellowship research. My brain was full to exploding, but I felt my manager had given me too much time off in November to take any time to think about what had happened. In December of course, everyone in the world was ill. Except me. My children had the flu, my husband had the flu, then my children had the vomiting bug. Then it was Christmas, which of course was difficult.

Then in January, I was ill. My turn at last! But I had a report to write for my boss, and I carried on. The relief I felt when that report was done was immense. I remember saying to a friend of mine that I could now take a few days to sit and think about my dad and begin the grieving process. As if it would ever be possible to grieve neatly, in a compartment marked 'time to think'.

The very next day, I discovered a mass low in my abdomen. I thought it would be nothing, although my midwife hands were slightly surprised at the size of it - my GP and I laughed at the idea that it felt like a 20-week pregnancy. But the scan I had that same day agreed: a mass of some kind, 10cm big. 10cm? How had I not noticed that earlier?! There followed urgent appointments in gynaecology oncology (the NHS moves fast when it feels the need...), an MRI scan, and lots of serious faces, my friends (midwives) included.

So I had a hysterectomy at the end of February, and because of the uncertainty of the tumour's malignancy or non-malignancy, I also had my ovaries removed. Instant menopause! Then a long time sitting still - the longest I've ever spent sitting still, by some considerable margin. And now, a damaged ligament and more sitting still.

Meanwhile, my fellowship contract ended, and I now find myself technically unemployed, although still registered as a student - that was an easy extension to get permission for, thankfully! I'll be extending again next month, which will take me through to September. And then, I say determinedly, the thesis will be submitted.

So a dreadful time. The worst time of my life. But as ever, there are bright moments to be found: my husband, beside me and caring for me; my children, who seem to be enjoying the whole sitting down thing; and my friends, who have brought me such joy over the years, and who have shouldered such a lot of my burden over the past few months.

What a strange post this is. It's taken me a very long time to write. I hope to begin blogging normally again from now, as I return to the process of writing up the thesis. Because for all of these seven months, the PhD has been sitting in a tiny corner of my over-crowded mind, and now, finally, it's getting some attention.

Thinking of Academic blogging? by Temilola Oladepo

I just found this write-up on Inside HigherEd, So You Want to Blog (Academic Edition) by Liana Silva. I will summarise the points the author made in bullet-points, and include my personal reflections on the topic:

Academic blogging develops your writing because it helps you connect more with your audience/readers

In Patrick Dunleavy's book Authoring a PhD, a recurrent phrase is "meeting reader expectation". I agree with Liana that blogging really does help you develop a voice of your own that connects with people. The interactive feature of blogs helps you understand what you need to improve on and what you need to do more of in your writing, especially if you take the reflective approach to feedback from your readers.

Academic blogging does not require an airtight argument, simply exploring questions is not a taboo.

I still grapple with this bit in my venture into proper academic blogging. I can't help but always feel like I have to make a stand, so thanks Liana for this reassurance.

Language can be casual even if it's an academic topic

Hallelujah!

I have a Wordpress blog (Diary of a Media Junkie)that I have been reluctant to let go of simply because I started a Research Blog. My wordpress blog bioreads "my mission statement upon founding this blog was to break down (academic) media issues (print, broadcast, online) in such a manner non-media professionals would still find interesting and educative enough to engage…".

I still had this conversation with one of the career advisers at uni (who is fast becoming a good friend of mine) where I shared my worries about my Media Junkie blog being playful and not necessarily branding me as the serious academic I know I am. Then again, I realised that I was losing sight of my mantra - which is to WRITE ACCESSIBLY. Hence, if humour and wit (which I have in abundance) help me convey my ideas across, and people enjoy reading (because I get hits), then that's my style and I am sticking to it.

To me, my blog is a getaway spot from Academic Writing, which I love, but would like to take a break from, from time to time.

It's scary to be different from others, but it's bold; and the rule of thumb is that it pays to stand out.

POWER to casual language in academic blogging.

Think about length (word count)

In blogging, I apply this rule: if my reader has to scroll 3 times to complete reading my post, they would most likely not read it all. I try to keep the "needed scrolls" to one and at most two. Liana suggests 750-1500 words. Personally, I wouldn't go anywhere near a thousand.

I have found that with blogging, pictures work like magic - and luckily, they tell a thousand words according to a Chinese proverb. How about we swap all that grey matter for a powerful picture that conveys your message precisely!

Other tips from Liana are:

Share your research interests
Ask for feedback (this takes a lot of boldness, but it endears you to your reader)
Keep in mind the style of the genre (let your headers be shareable - hence keep it short and punchy)

I really recommend reading the entire article whether you are blogging or not, or simply thinking about it. If you need me to give you a bit of a shove on why you REALLY should be BLOGGING as an academic, just say the word in commentsand AMMA BE ON YA CASE lol.

Have a brilliant week ahead.

Work, life, study balance by Helen Palmer by Helen Palmer

There are a number of questions that I'm regularly asked about doing a PhD part-time whilst working full-time - how is your PhD going and how do you manage to balance work and study (never mind a social life!)? Well the answer to those questions is always the same - to the first question - slowly, and to the second - if I ever find the balance I'll let you know!

Clocking the hours

A colleague of mine who had completed a PhD whilst working full-time advised me to allocate a minimum of 15 hours per week to dedicated study, recognising that this will build over time, particularly in the last year. In my first term I took advantage of some of the free training sessions available to post grads to help with developing my approach to study and picked up a lot of useful tips, particularly with reference to note-taking, setting out the parameters of my research and planning my approach to study. I had a four year gap between completing my MA and starting my PhD so felt a little rusty to say the least. Of course what I discovered was that I needed to allocate dedicated time in the week to study, so at Christmas I took the decision to ringfence a day in my working week to focus exclusively on my PhD. My business partner (also my brother!) has been great in respecting that day and all was going well until a couple of months ago.

Impacts of success in work

As a marketing consultant working in the arts, no two days are ever the same and work naturally ebbs and flows with no recognisable pattern. Just to get political for a moment, the arts sector has suffered greatly due to national and local government funding cuts and my business has felt the impact of such measures with a difficult start to the year. But it's like buses, you wait for one to come along and then three turn up! My brother and I are actually directors of two consultancy businesses plus Joint Head of Marketing for a biennial festival taking place this autumn, and in the last couple of months we've been successful in winning new clients too - great for our businesses and our bottom line but not so great for my PhD studies. My precious one day a week has all but disappeared in the last two weeks due to the pressure of work and having to travel around the country to work with clients.

Getting back on track with time management

I always thought that I'd have much more flexibility as a consultant, hence fitting in a PhD in the way that I'd managed to complete a Masters whilst working full-time. But a PhD is a different beast and requires a different approach and particularly a different writing style. So to claw back some time I took a week off work at Easter to dedicate to research and writing as well as recharging my batteries. I anticipate that most bank holidays, like today, will be spent as PhD days, so no enjoying the glorious sunshine for me...

I'd like to think that I could spend one or two evenings a week working on my PhD but I'm either out a work related event, travelling home late or frankly just too tired. So I try to allocate one day at the weekend for PhD study, as well as the day in the week, as there are no work phone calls and I can ignore work emails too.

I'm the only part-time PhD researcher in my department (film and tv) so I've learned not to compare my progress with anyone else. I'm glad that I chose an area of study that I already know well as it's related to my Masters dissertation, that certainly makes a difference. I fear that if I'd chosen a completely new topic I'd have had thoughts of throwing in the towel by now!

It's good to talk

I've had to make a difficult decision in the last two weeks and that is to defer my planned summer archive visits to Los Angeles and New York to January 2014. I'm thankful to my tutor, department and the Graduate School for being so understanding and supportive. My professional workload is such that I simply can't fit in the trip and the pre-trip required research. I'm lined up for a busy summer and autumn so I'm aiming to keep plugging away at the PhD in the snatched time slots I've allocated so as to not slip too far behind.

I've found that it's helpful to flag up concerns early to my tutor so that we can discuss my priorities and arrange appropriate deadlines to fit around my busy work life. So today I'm finishing rewriting my first chapter and my aim for this academic year is to complete that first chapter to a standard that my tutor and I are happy with, and to have agreed the thesis chapter structure. The literature review will probably have to wait until autumn when I'll be in my second year but technically I'll still be a first year!

Top tips for time management

I wish I had a great list but my main advice is to not sweat the little stuff! Every PhD is different and everyone has to deal with unexpected turns in their lives. Whilst we all may have an ideal way that we'd like to complete our PhD, the reality is very different and that's all part of the experience. I'm a completer finisher by nature so I'm determined that I will go the distance and submit a thesis even if it takes me the full 5 years - I completed my Masters over 5 years due to work interruptions. Having to earn a living, run my own home, deal with family commitments and maintain some sort of social life helps me to put things in perspective when I'm feeling stressed about my lack of available time for my PhD.

The parable of the talents by Thomas Bray

Everywhere I turn, I find talent. Singers, athletes, intellectuals: all reside at this university, and can, with time and a nose for excellence, be sniffed out. Lo and behold, some people even have more than one talent: meet the lucky sods who are blessed with easy charm, a forehand which cannot be returned by Roger Federer himself, and a world-class brain working on problems for the betterment of all humanity. Good for them.

Of course, when you are at a place like Warwick, each year brings another crop of new geniuses, and you inevitably start to wonder where the university finds them (although I guess it is more the case that they find the university). All this brilliance floating around you: it can provoke some strong feelings. Some appreciate the challenge, and strive to make their work even better. Others react with calm indifference, reasoning that they are doing as well as they can, and that you can hardly bemoan people for their abilities. There are a number, however, who cannot help but feel the pangs of that green-eyed monster, that deadly sin, jealousy, whenever they encounter those who are blessed across the board. All I can say is that I envy the people in the first two groups.

This is a pretty sweet example of a green-eyed monster

This was brought home for me a few weeks back, when I attended REXfest, an evening of music and chatter for postgraduates at the Terrace Bar, which was, I am compelled to add, wonderful. But standing in a bar, watching people who not only played the piano and sang with the soulful metre of Elton John, but whom were also casually doing a PhD in Economics on the side (if you were there, you will know exactly whom I mean), well, you cannot help but feel the creeping prickly heat and low-altitude sinking feeling so characteristic of jealousy.

Usually when I see someone performing music, or sport, or just living with serious aplomb, at levels of which I, a confused and disoriented young person, can only dream, I console myself with the knowledge that I am a PhD student, and that no matter how often I burn the pasta or fall over blades of grass, I am at least a postgraduate member of a fine seat of learning. But when I encounter people who not only have the ability to understand particle physics, but also know all the chords to ‘Call Me Maybe’, well, that changes things.

The same goes, of course, for sport. Last year, I flirted with the idea of playing football again. I spent many an hour manically running after a ball in my youth, and recapturing that heady enthusiasm was, I reasoned, a good idea. After dashing around for ten minutes, and subsequently coughing up that cigar I smoked when I was eighteen, I soon encountered a pretty serious problem: I was absolutely and undeniably awful, well below the standards of the others. I would make some glib comment about how I would have been more useful if I had just stood there and acted as a goal-post, but that would be unfair to goal-posts; at least they hit the ball back.

The final straw came when someone very kindly passed me the ball in front of an open goal, and I obliged by standing square on top of it, sending me, rather than the ball, into the top corner. In the process I somehow sprained my ankle, and when I was once again fit, it didn’t take me too long to decide that the next time I strode onto a football pitch, it would be to give some stranger with size nine feet my boots. Of course, I would normally take refuge in the fact that football is not my thing, that would be academia, but all those people who can run for more than ten minutes without losing a lung and who can kick a ball exactly where they are meant to are also revolutionising the fields of healthcare, engineering, and literature.

Ultimately, it comes down to the fact that some people are very good at what they choose to do in life, and have to take comfort in that, whilst others are exceptional at what they choose to do, and pretty darn brilliant at a few things on the side as well. Frustratingly, they are often also very pleasant, humble people: all the multi-talented geniuses I know are also bloody good company, absolute delights who make the whole PhD experience that bit livelier. Thankfully, these people will probably end up teaching the next generation of bright minds and leading the world of future, while I will be standing on street corners, where I am a threat to no-one, mouthing off about pigeons, who are a threat to everyone.

I guess if there is a lesson in all this, and I am reluctant to be so candid, it is that we must be grateful for what we do have, be it in our heads or in our hands. When push comes to shove, at the end of the day, when all is said and done, I must admit that even if the PhD does implode in an explosion of missed opportunities, I will always be a deft hand at washing up tea-spoons…and no-one can take that away from me.

Oh, except dishwashers.

I would generally say that postgraduate students are an honest and open bunch of people, willing to share expertise and experiences. There are, however, some aspects of PG life which are perhaps not discussed with enough candidness, and one of those is the ease with which one can feel jealous of your colleagues. I wonder whether it is easy enough at this stage to sit down with friends, family, and supervisors, and say, “This whole postgraduate thing…well, I seem to find it that little bit more taxing than everyone else.”

Maybe if we were that bit more open about the emotional difficulties of research, we might find that we are not alone, or that our colleagues admire us for qualities to which we have become blind. It is a curiosity of postgraduate life that, while it is at times a deeply solitary and egotistical pursuit, it can also be fundamentally collective, with inspiration and encouragement coming from many quarters. Maybe the final step would be a little more honest admiration, the ability to say to someone, hey, I think you’re a great teacher, or, did you know, you’re an exceptional editor.

So, in this summer term, that’s what I’ll be doing: turning my envy into uplift, converting the doubt inside my head into smiles and handshakes. As a PhD student, I am surrounded by deeply multi-talented people, and I wouldn’t blame anyone for feeling a little envious of me for it.

#PhDOrBust� or Not: Is a PhD For Me? by Temilola Oladepo

GUEST POST

Arrianna Marie (@ArriannaMarie) is a graduate student at the University of Chicago, U.S., in the MA Program of the Social Sciences. Her research interests are the post-colonial state in Africa, statelessness, refugees and internally-displaced persons. On a personal level, she is a tea-lover who loves to cook and eat.

I’ve been hesitant to write this post because it feels like I am possibly foreclosing options by doing so. After some deliberation, I decided to go for it.

PhD Or Bust! … or Not

The litany of “Don’t Do It, Girl!” articles about PhD programs hasn’t been that convincing to me. Too often, they are written by tenured professors who write from a privileged position of relative security amid shifts in the Academy. On the other hand, I’ve read a good number of these articles from current or former PhD students, many of whom are facing high debt loads coupled with diminishing job security and clout in the workplace. Either way, their stake in this matter is not mine. More to the point, most of them do not resemble me remotely in terms of their social position. I am a Black woman with a “disability” who hails from a working-middle-class background (with more social than economic class). I do not have the same considerations as many of these writers do.

I’m in graduate school now, finishing up my MA in Social Sciences (Political Science) at the University of Chicago. I am right in the middle of the Academy. I am the frog who knows that the water is hot. I have lived the lean life of a graduate student, and it is not unlike the life of an un(der)employed recent graduate amid a recession in some respects. On the upshot, there are books, academic journals, and fascinating graduate seminars (my intellect frolics!).

As I finish my MA Thesis, I ask myself, “Do I really want or need a PhD?” After a moment, I break it down- “What do I want to do? How will a PhD help me accomplish this? Or will a PhD program mean years of foregone opportunities for practical work in the field in which I already work?”

What do I want to do? I want to do what I am already doing- research, writing, creating and designing training materials for non-profit organizations and NGOs serving “populations on the move” (thus far: homeless communities, refugees, asylees, trafficked persons, migrant workers). Do I have the skills that I need to do this? Yes. Am I gaining the experience I need? Yes. But do I need a PhD to do this work? The current answer is “No.”

In short, my interests have never been simply academic or intellectual. Yes, intellectual analysis informs my practice, but the former is not sufficient. In my experience, theorizing in an enclosed space and place is an exercise in futility. Good theory is dynamic and its validity is tested through practice.

I resist using a “Return on Investment” (ROI) analysis to assess whether a PhD is worthwhile for me, because economic analysis often fail to capture the “softer” benefits of education and other pursuits that do not immediately yield economic gains. On the other hand, as a product of home-schooling, I’ve always rejected the notion of education being legitimate only in institutionalized contexts, and it makes sense to consider the economic costs of a PhD program.

In 5-7 years, will practical work experience matter more than a PhD and its concomitant specialized skill sets (so often attuned to the academy)? If so, why get a PhD?
How much student loan debt do you have? Post-PhD, will your income be sufficient for repayment? What does the job market for PhD-holders in your field look like? What are the beginning salaries of successful job-searchers?
What does your funding package look like? Do you have a scholarship, fellowship, stipend or a TA-ship?
Furthermore, will you have to take out student loans to cover unanticipated costs during the PhD program (these costs include housing, health issues, and so on)? Will you need to work in addition to a full course load in order to make ends meet?

These questions differ from the questions I asked myself as an un(der)employed college graduate without much professional work experience. Now that I have years of professional experience and clearly-demonstrated skills, I have different considerations.

What Should Prospective Applicants to Graduate Programs Know?

To be honest, there was a lot that I did not know the first time I applied to graduate programs. I did not know that as I advanced in my graduate studies, I’d be asked to narrow my focus more and more. I did not know that the “life of the mind” is not without its fraught interpersonal politics (e.g. “Don’t cite Prof. X in Prof. Y’s class. They had a beef back in grad school.”)

And I most certainly did not know how hard and fast the lines between “traditional” disciplines in the Social Sciences are in spite of claims to “interdisciplinarity.” My undergraduate degree from U.C. Berkeley was in History, but my Thesis employed both Historical methods and interpretive methods employed by Political Theorists. Here at UChicago, my Thesis is based on ethnographic data and historical primary documents, while the methodology is squarely in the realm of Political Theory.

In a nutshell, everything I wished I knew before I applied to graduate school can be found on my colleague’s blog, where he has articles on every step of the process, including:

MA or PhD?
Your Timeline - A timeline for applicants applying to graduate programs in the U.S.
Organization During Application Season
The GRE and the GRE Fee Reduction
Your CV– Tips on how to write and format your CV
Letters of Recommendation- Considerations for choosing a recommendation-writer
Organizing Your Information- Organizing your information for a potential recommendation letter-writer
Picking a Program– More geared toward the Humanities, but applicable to the Social Sciences
Multiple Offers: The Power to Say No- How to negotiate when you have multiple admissions offers
Notes on Mentors– On the importance of mentors

This seems like a long list, but I assure you, this blog is an excellent resource for prospective applicants to graduate programs (particularly in the U.S.).

In Conclusion…

After a talk with my mentor, a former Professor, I soberly reached the conclusion that a PhD is not a necessity for me, and would probably come at a great cost to me and my goals. To be frank, it was freeing. My perspective has shifted such that I can consider a PhD program as a possible future option, even as I continue to do the work that I love to do. I will still turn in my best possible Thesis, and I will still maintain communications with faculty members who taught and supported me through graduate school.

What are your considerations when you think of applying to graduate programs? How will you weigh the decision to go… or not?

Methodology Giant Must Come Down by Temilola Oladepo

When I was swimming in literature, theories and counter-thepries, I longed for the day I would get my head above board and into much calmer waters like the methodology chapter. I was mistaken. Every phase (not necessarily in a chronological order) is ridden with its own bucket of challenges - make that a truckload.

I underestimated writing the methodology chapter... I am still working on it.

My first step was to look through published theses, and scrutinise how they wrote theirs. That was really helpful to me.

Also, I dug into the cache of numerous blogging academics who were willing to share nuggets on how to tackle this aspect of the research.

Here are what I found:

13 Reasons Researchers Get Asked to Write Their Methods Chapter Again- by Pat Thompson

Both Pat Thompson and the Thesis Whisperer are very dear to my research-heart - you have no idea how much. They have this uncanny way of blogging about the exact issues I am facing, as though they were in my head.

In this piece, Pat explains the Achilles heel of most theses, when it comes to writing the methodology chapter.

Top on the list is, not knowing the difference between methodology and methods. Did you know there was a difference? Well, she certainly had to explain it in a separate post.

Another weakness in methodology chapter writing is, where the methods don't fit with the theoretical framework. This is one reason why my research objectives are ever before me. No matter has grand a method seems, if it doesn't tackle your research question(s) in a manner that helps you meet your objectives, it is not likely to be a great method for your thesis.

There are eleven more common faults that Pat pinpoints about the methodology chapter. I do suggest you click that link and familiarise yourself with them. Let's spare one another the pain of re-writing.

This is a bit general, but you may find How Not to Write a PhD Thesis a useful read also...it tackles many failures of a thesis beyond the methodology chapter.

There are some brilliant (26) slidesright hereon writing a methodology chapter. According to this author, methods are the "means by which information and data are gathered", while "methodology combines methods with the philosophy underlying the methods. It has to do with the epistemological/ideological basis of the study...". Does that make sense? It kind of does to me... kind of.

I dug into the archive of this PhD Life blog to find other posts other PhD-ers have written on methodology, here are some I enjoyed reading:

PhD TimeLine Fun - by Bernie (March 2012)...She is a great contributor on the PhD Life blog.

I am glad Bernie also refers to methodology as "issues" in this February 2012 post.

You would almost always need to justify and defend your chosen methodology - It is in our favour to build strong rationale backed up with evidence from other (published) research (this is what I am learning). Bernie mentions this briefly in her post on Completion Reviews & a Happy Conclusion (December 2011).

This other post is literally two-sentences, but it contains Ana's frustration with writing the methodology (err i'm not mad after all) - A new Gadget... (June 2011).

Lastly, there is a brave story by Will on Running Away to Join the Circus (July 2011), that is, letting the PhD go. This is the bit that caught my eye,

My dissertation had been through about three separate reboots, a grant of extension and a change in methodology yet, still, I wasn't really knuckling down to the work. I simply wasn't enjoying the reading and I was barely giving myself the opportunity to write]

Writing the methodology chapter is no mean fit, as I still battle with it. IF you've written yours or you're writing yours at the moment - please drop a comment, let's learn from and support one another.

How are you with the methodology? Please share.

Photo Credit: Myself. Don't laugh at my sketch depicting exaperation :) - just laugh a little.