Advice and tips from our current postgraduate researchers. If you would like to contribute advice, of it there’s a topic you would like us to cover, please contact us on gscommunications@mmu.ac.uk.
Bringing my PhD project to a close at the ICA 2022 Paris Conference
Exactly one year ago, my fieldwork for my practice-led PhD project concluded with a new curatorial collaboration. A combination of performance, photography and poetry, ASEAN Manifesto launched on 8 August 2021 via www.aseanvisionproject.com. The same day marked the 54th…
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The leafcutters
Leafcutter ants are an iconic image of the rainforest, with their large leaf trails making the forest floor come alive. They mimic a busy highway, moving to the sound of nature. But why all the leaves? Leaf fragments are cut…
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From monkeys to modelling – adapting from fieldwork to deskwork during a pandemic
I started my PhD in Conservation Ecology at Manchester Met in October 2019 and planned to go to conduct fieldwork in Peru soon after, but COVID… Like many others, I have had to drastically change my trajectory, postponing my fieldwork by many months. When I began my…
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Adjusting Research Methods and Other Lessons From the Pandemic
As a lifelong fan of horror film, with many queer friends and communities who are as well, I had a hypothesis that many members of the LGBTQ+ community have a distinctive (distinctively queer) relationship with the horror genre. Therefore, I set…
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You are not alone in this
For something that almost every student will experience whilst at university, especially during your PhD, loneliness is not a thing that students talk about on a daily basis. Doing a PhD during a pandemic is hard enough without the added stress of loneliness and anxiety. Recently I had an…
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The research assemblage: re-imagining the PhD ‘mess’
I’m currently in my final year of a PhD exploring transition to adulthood for young people with learning disabilities. It is a PhD which has taken far longer than anticipated thanks to a pause for maternity leave and a…
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Blog Entry: Don’t just survive, thrive…
I must admit, if you were to ask me 8 months ago when I started my journey as a postgraduate researcher, what they actually did, I probably would have given you some sort of wise crack about just getting…
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‘I’m just wired differently’ (or, what’s it like being dyslexic in the academic world!).
I moved to the UK when I was 17 to do my A-levels and then progress to university. I had previously struggled with some academic subjects both in Russia and in the UK, but when I started my A-levels, I clearly had some problems with my…
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Virtual conferences- the new frontier?
I recently attended my first virtual conference, in the era of the ‘new normal’. This experience had both pros and cons. As a PhD researcher I am going to reflect on this experience, in the hope that going forward…
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Autism, Acceptance and Abstinence in Research
Jake Sheppard shares his experience and advice on studying for a PhD with autism, and why development activities and events can be great for building your confidence as an academic.
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