Hello dear reader! It’s been a busy winter and I am suffering a bit of post-election exhaustion. Last month, For the first time in 12 years, I did not get around to doing a Thesis Whisperer post. While I felt bad about breaking such a long streak of self-imposed discipline, I consoled myself that the previous […] … learn more→

I do love the book that comes from the PhD. The book seems like a fitting reward for all the hard work done during the doctorate. Indeed, in some countries, the post defence thesis is published as a book. That’s the book of the PhD, not from it. There’s nothing quite like getting the first copies of your first […] … learn more→

The person taking notes during our meeting, we later learn, is averaging a high distinction in their studies for a bachelor degree. If this level of performance is maintained this student is heading for a university medal – an award recognising exceptional academic achievement. Clearly this is a highly motivated student. Our PhD candidate was […] … learn more→

Are you just starting a PhD? Worried? Excited? Nervous? Fear not.:There’s lots of support and help available to you. Your institution is likely to provide an induction programme where you’ll find out about all the internal procedures and timelines you have to follow. But there’ll also be more. You’ll also get details of what training […] … learn more→

What is your experience being a woman of color with a doctoral degree? I am not only a woman who holds a Ph.D. in a male-dominated field, but a woman of mixed heritage (Irish and Native American). There was never a time during my Ph.D. studies that I was not made aware that I was […] … learn more→

  Writing, and its alter ego, reading, are the backbone of academic work. The practices that make scholarship what it is. In the PhD there are multiple places and purposes for writing. We often focus on the final text, the thesis, the writing that communicates what we claim to know, that explains the research we […] … learn more→

If you are starting out on a PhD you are probably expecting it to be hard work. That’s not wrong. A doctorate isn’t easy – it’s an extended piece of work over a long period of time. It takes energy and effort to stay focused and working on working on.  Stamina. But you can’t expect to […] … learn more→

Doctoral students show high levels of stress in comparison to other students, and ongoing uncertainty in terms of graduate career outcomes can make matters worse. Before the pandemic, one in five research students were expected to disengage from their PhD. Disengagement includes taking extended leave, suspending their studies or dropping out entirely. COVID-19 has made those statistics far worse. […] … learn more→

Defending your doctoral thesis should never be an overly comfortable affair for candidates. After all, those seeking academia’s highest award should expect their research to be thoroughly tested by experts in their discipline. But too often, UK PhD vivas are recalled as frightening and upsetting encounters that many spend their careers trying to forget. I […] … learn more→

There’s a looming economic crisis in higher education. Perhaps you have lost work already and you’re wondering how you will support yourself (I’m really sorry). It’s hard to know if you’ll get more or less teaching next semester and what form it will take. Will it be online? Or face to face? Maybe your courses […] … learn more→