The Thesis Whisperer is a blog newspaper dedicated to the topic of doing a thesis and is edited by Dr Inger Mewburn, Director of research training at the Australian National University.
Would you like to write for the Whisperer? Here’s what we aim to do:
We want to be concise. PhD students have to do a lot of reading so no posts will be longer than 1000 words
We want to learn from people’s stories about doing a research degree – but we don’t need to hear about your topic. There’s enough journals out there for that.
We are not a ‘how to’ guide to doing a thesis, but we are happy to dish out practical tips and techniques that work for us.
We don’t want to just talk about writing – successfully finishing a thesis or disseration is about more than that. But we don’t want to be sued, so we are going to always keep it nice.
We want to stimulate conversations so our posts will always be opinionated, hopefully without being obnoxious.
We want to hear your voice. Doing a thesis can take the fun out of anyone’s writing. This is a place you can relax because there is no examiner watching.
We can’t pay you. But we promise to never rip off your work and present it as our own. If you want to write for us it is because you have an urge to share your experience and help others so it may travel further than you think (note the licensing arrangements below).
Interested? Email inger.mewburn@anu.edu.au, preferably with a sample piece of less than 1000 words. If you want to suggest a post or ask a question – visit our feedback page.
Want to use our material? You are free to reproduce any posts from the Whisperer through the Creative Commons “Attribution-non commercial-sharealike” license. Most of the photos on this site are copyright free and sourced from Morguefile.
Who is Inger?
Photo by @catspajamasnz
I am a researcher, specialising in research education since 2oo6. Prior to this I lectured in architecture and worked in architecture offices for around a decade.
I am currently the Director of Research Training at The Australian National University where I am responsible for co-ordinating, communicating and measuring all the centrally run research training activities and doing research on student experience to inform practice.
Aside from editing and contributing to the Thesis Whisperer, I write scholarly papers, books and book chapters about research student experiences. I am a regular guest speaker at other universities and do occassional media interviews. Some details of these other activites are below. For further information, view my Linkedin Profile, contact me by email on inger@mewburn.net or visit my Google Scholar page.
Keynote lectures:
Charles Sturt University faculty of education research week, NSW, 2011
Sydney University nursing school research week, Sydney, 2011
SPIRES conference on Social Issues in Research Spaces, Edinburgh, April 2012
Manchester University GRAD school, Manchester, 2012
Personal Learning Environment conference, Melbourne, 2012
CRIG forum on Open publishing models, Melbourne University, 14/09/2012
Creative Industries Conference, QUT, Tuesday the 30th of October
Swinburne Students conference, Friday the 9th of November
Macquarie University Student conference, Tuesday the 13th of November
Selected scholarly journal articles
“These are the things that shouldn’t be written in black and white”: Progress reporting and audit cultures, Forthcoming, HERDSA journal 2013.
Troubling talk: assembling the PhD candidate, Studies in Continuing Education, Available online: 08 Sep 2011
Do we really understand what is happening when we hear research students complaining about their work? In this paper, I explore some examples of troubles talk in action and argue that it is a surprisingly effective way for PhD students to negotiate and manage the precarious process of ‘becoming academic’ within the contemporary academy.
“Lost in translation: a critique of reflective practice”, Arts and Humanities in Higher Education Vol 10 (2).
Over the last 500 years or so, formal architectural design education has steadily become institutionalized. Prospective architects no longer learn on the job, either in building sites or in offices, they sit at tables in University rooms working on speculative design projects in classes we call ‘design studios’. In this paper I offer an alternative account of how design learning occurs which attempts to build on Donald Schon’s seminal work on reflective practice while troubling some of its base assumptions.
“Learning networks and the journey of becoming doctor”, Studies in Higher Education”, v.35 (June), no. 4. (with Robyn Barnacle)
Completing a PhD does not just involve becoming an expert in a particular topic area, but comprises a transformation of identity: that of becoming a scholar or researcher. \In this article we address other sites in which scholarly identity is performed within doctoral candidature through exploring the role of material things, what Latour (1988) calls ‘the missing masses’, in the process of ‘becoming doctor’. Our aim is to explore the implications of this for doctoral learning and the journey of becoming a researcher or scholar.
Journalism
“Academics behaving badly: Universities and online reputations”, The Conversation, 27/09/2012
“What’s up with Universities? Wackademia or just grumpy old academics”, The Conversation, 14/06/2012
“On the right side of the digital divide”, New Scientist Big Wide World Blog, 11/06/2012
“Build it and they wont come: what is wrong with architect’s websites?”, Architectural Review Asia Pacific #126: Architecture and Infrastructure.
“Why do academics complain all the time?”, RMIT Blog Central, 18/03/2011
(Interview about the Thesis Whisperer Blog) “Lonely PhD student? Just log in”, The Age, 9/08/2011
Radio / Podcasts
Talking about the Literature Review with Ben from Lit Review HQ blogGuest ABC 720 Perth – regular segment: You Study What? Drive – 14/09/2012
Guest ABC Radio National Drive “Twitterati” segment, 08/06/2012
Guest RRR “The Architects”: Gesture in the Design Studio. 12/070/2010
Guest RRR “The Architects”: The architecture of the rococo, 08/08/2006
Book chapters
“Doing creative doctoral work”, in Doctorates Down under” 2nd edition, ACER Press, 2011
Download it here: Creative Doctoral Work – Dr Inger Mewburn
Instead of thinking about ourselves as being creative (or not) It is more useful to start to think about what creative practices we already have, or could adopt. A practice is a way of doing something which is likely to produce a certain kind of result or outcome. There are many creative practices which might be useful for PhD study, but I am going to put forward only four for you to consider: creating an ideas ‘import/export’ business; being ‘deliberately wrong’; ‘cooking ideas’ and ‘mode switching’. Some of these might resemble ways you already work, but you may not have consciously recognised them as ‘creative practices’.
‘Razzle Dazzle: making a thesis text in creative practice based research’, in Joy Higgs et al (eds) Researching Practice: a discourse on methodologies. Rotterdam, Holland: Sense Publishers (2010). (with Robyn Barnacle)
Theses
Constructing bodies: gesture, speech and representation at work in architectural design studios. Winner of the John Grice award for best PhD thesis, Faculty of Architecture Building and Planning, The University of Melbourne 2009.
Previous studies of the design studio have tended to treat learning to design as a matter of
learning to think in the right way, despite the recognition that material artifacts and the ability to make and manipulate them in architectural ways is important to the design process. Through the use of empirical data gathered from watching design teachers and students in action, this thesis works to discover how material things and bodies are important to the fabrication of architectural meaning and architectural subjectivity within design studios. In particular the role of gesture is highlighted as doing important work in design studio knowledge practices.
The approach taken in this thesis is to treat design activity in design studios in a ‘post-human’
way. An analytical eye is turned to how things and people perform together and are organised in various ways, using Actor network theory (ANT) as a way to orientate the investigation. The assumption drawn from ANT is that that architectural meaning, knowledge and identity can positioned as network effects, enacted into being as the design studio is ‘done’ by the various actors — including material things, such as architectural representations, and human behaviours, such as gesture.
Digital Architecture and the presence of the Virtual, Thesis (M. Arch.) — RMIT University, Victoria, 2005.
Conference Papers
“Shut up and Write!” (With Lindy Osborne and Glenda Caldwell), Quality in Postgraduate Research, Adelaide, 2012
Shut Up and Write! temporarily transforms writing from a solitary practice to a social one, which takes place in a public space that is not strictly ‘educational’ – like a cafe or lounge space, either on or off campus. Because it has no formal structure beyond what is implied in the name – that participants agree to be silent for a period of time and do their work – the experience of Shut Up and Write! is different each time it is enacted. This is a performative pedagogy: time, place, people all matter to how the sessions are conducted and what learnings emerge. This paper reports on the experience of running such sessions at two different Australian institutions and the unexpected benefits which emerged from this practice.
Conference papers
“Supervision without borders” (with Dr Geof Hill), Quality in Postgraduate Research, Adelaide, 2012
Getting Wiki With it’, Quality in Postgraduate Research 2008, Adelaide.
Andrew Maher and Inger Mewburn (April 2008) ‘An economy of Knowledge: research, architectural practice and knowledge (in) translation’, Ethnographic Praxis in Industry Conference Proceedings, October 2007, Vol. 2007, No.1, pp. 258-269.
How does new knowledge ‘flow’ within an organisation? In this paper we report upon a case study in which ethnography is employed to render visible the ‘knowledge transfer’ (strategically redefined as ‘knowledge translation’) occurring between a PhD researcher and the members of the organisation in which he is ‘embedded’.
Hi, it’s great to see that you do research on research education. I am doing my PhD on employability of doctoral researchers in social sciences:)
We should talk! Sounds like your research would be very interesting.
I am lucky enough to be an academic in a primarily administrative unit (School of Graduate Research). My teaching load is light so I can concentrate on doing research aimed at improving the experience of PhD and masters students. So far I have not met anyone else, other than my colleague Dr Barnacle, who has a full time role like this.
That’s a great job to have! I hope my research topic will be useful, and will help to shape policy and practice in the UK doctoral education (let’s be ambitious:). I have found several PhDs doing research on researchers. Maybe we should organise a doctoral sonsortium on this:)
Hi,
Thanks for tweeting about my new blog (http://explorationsofstyle.wordpress.com/). The mention led me back here. I hadn’t seen your site before, and it seems fabulous. Thesis writing is one of my interests, and I look forward to learning more from you in future posts. Thanks again!
Why thank you
I’m loving your work too – there’s now a link on my side bar under services and support
Hi!
I’ve just found your blog, love it & wish I’d known about it earlier. I’m working on a PhD about my favourite topic: Pain! I also blog regularly at http://healthskills.wordpress.com – on the topic: Pain! Actually, self management of chronic pain, and I write for health professionals working with people who have chronic pain. My research uses grounded theory to explain how people with chronic pain who live well in the community manage to do so without needing to see people like me.
cheers
Bronnie
So good to make contact with you Inger, and to discover the rich resource that is The Thesis Whisperer. I look forward to many future interactions.
Liz Tynan, JCU Graduate Research School, Townsville
Thank you so much for this site. I am currently writing my PhD thesis and have spent the weekend reading previous posts and wishing I’d found you sooner.
You’re welcome!
I’m so glad to have found you near the start of my PhD! Even though we seem to be in vastly different fields (I’m researching the social behaviour and personality of captive cheetahs), I have found your posts both useful and interesting and I’m sure they will come in very handy when I’m writing my thesis and other papers. I also have a blog at http://virtual-doc.salford.ac.uk/cheetahphd.
Looking forward to future posts!
What an excellent topic, Carly! #Respect
Grouse blog… I’m about to link to the blog to all our Fac Ed PhD students via my fortnightly Graduate Studies Bulletin – so expect more traffic. Great to meet you last week – look forward to more of your awesomeness.
Dear Inger,
hello! I just found your site through Twitter, and it’s really great.
I am a former tenured prof and department head, based in the U.S., and I have launched a new site and blog, “The Professor Is In.,” to provide what I call “BS-free advising for grad school, the job market, and tenure.”
It’s at: http://www.theprofessorisin.com.
I am wondering if you’d be kind enough to visit my site and consider listing it among the illustrious company of excellent blogs on your blogroll? I’d like to be in touch about contributing as well! Thanks for your excellent work!
Karen Kelsky, Ph.D.
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Hi Inger,
I found your blog yesterday during my web ramblings. What a wonderful site. As someone said in a comment earlier, I wish I had found this blog a few months ago when I was stuck with my thesis. But even having now completed it, it is rewarding reading this blog. I already mentioned it in a post on my blog, but I will also personally recommend it to friends. I could probably give a modest contribution too at some point. Carry on this awesome work. All the best, Hilra
Thanks so much – glad to hear you found us and love to publish something soon if you’d like to write for us.
Yes, I’d love to
Dear Inger!
Many thanks for your website!
Would your The Thesis Whisperer’s community be interested in using our note-taking software at: http://www.idearover.com/
Thanks and very best wishes!
Igor
Reticent Software
support@idearover.com
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This is a great idea. I am a ‘mature’ PhD candidate (over 50) who has a great deal of expertise in my field. I have only started the literature review and it is already making me crazy…. I only know some theory but know it extremely well. I am finding errors or misunderstandings in papers, excessive jargon and cliches in many papers, and a big gap between what I read and current practice. Am I alone in finding this?
As such, I look forward to reading this blog in the future.
I think it’s a sign that you have highly developed solid critical capacities when you can see the gaps and holes with more ease. Thanks for coming by
My sister who has just commenced her PhD studies was alerted to this blog. I, who have been studying for my PhD for 2 and a half years, had never heard of it! Great to find it, and perhaps add my voice to the sidebar: Jessplainsong’s Research Blog http://jessplainsong.wordpress.com. Always a great read, adding to my procrastination moments!
Thanks Jess! We have added you to the side bar under student blogs
I am a docoral student working on my dissertation and often blog about my topics (disordered eating, risky sexual activity and substance use, and adoelscent developmnet) on my site! I am adding this helpful site to my blogroll, and hope you might consider posting mine!
I have only just discovered this recently on Google Search. This has been an interesting read, that I come back to from time to time. I’m at the end of my 2nd year of my PhD, and do write from time to time at: http://www.jasminezheng.com . Would be good to be added to the community of PhD students from everywhere.
HI I’m just beginning my Doctorate of Education. Im planning on working on it part time over 6 years -which makes things a bit tricky! I’d love to join and interact with the community here as I’m finding it hard to know where to start! Any advice or posts that might be useful to me would be gratefully accepted !
PS I’m a Melbournite too :0)
Hi and welcome
I am on holiday at the moment; the blog normally comes out twice a week and most interaction happens on the current post. There are a list of popular posts under that heading on the top menu bar. Since you are in melbourne you are most welcome to attend the ‘shut up and write’ sessions we have each week at RMIT: http://thethesiswhisperer.wordpress.com/2011/06/14/shut-up-and-write/
A quick comment to say thanks for being a great read in 2011! I sometimes write about the PhD life on my blog and so it’s always useful to find similarily-themed blogs for inspiration and interesting thoughts. I’ve just updated my links page as a “thank you” to all the blogs that have inspired me this year – one of the best things about blogging i find lots of other fun blogs – and I included your site. Looking forwards to more interesting posts in 2012. Happy New Year!
http://www.sowhataboutseaweed.wordpress.com
hello dr. mewburn,
Thank you so much for your website. I met it through your twitter. I am from Turkey and doing Phd in the UK. After I met your website, I looked for blogs and websites on PhD, just like yours, in Turkish, for those who are not good at reading and understanding in English very well. I found yours very helpful, but I couldn’t find any website like yours in Turkish. So, I decided to write a blog on which I share my experiences and ideas on Phd. Well, I haven’t finished my PhD yet, so I can only talk about the PhD process and some helpful tips. Thank you for the inspiration! My blog is http://tezenzi.wordpress.com/
Hello, my blog is http://www.adunokupe.blogspot.com
I’ll love to write too, you can have a view of my blog to see my style – although I write on a wide variety of topics.
My phd is on Leadership within the Tourism Industry.
Came across your blog via twitter’s #phd chat field and it’s very useful!
Thank you for being encouraging.
Hi Inger,
I attended your seminar at ANU this morning and was reassured and inspired. Thanks! I’m in my first year of PhD across visual arts and Indonesian studies, whilst also looking after my 3 kids under 6. Preschool hours and after bedtime are my workings hours and, in between paraysing bouts of self doubt, I’ve been telling myself this would be enough so long as I am efficient. Now I am armed with your practical tool box, your own example, and encouraging stats about productivity of PhD students, I feel bolstered again. I can do this!
Oh, and I also have a blog (this was a strategy do keep writing!) http://www.ellydotkent.blogspot.com
Thank you!
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I have just nominated you for the Versatile Blogger Award see here http://dcdoolan.wordpress.com/2012/04/30/versatile-blogger-award/ enjoy.
I am glad to have found this blog. I am currently entering the fifth year of a History PhD at a Canadian university. Your blog is very informative and encouraging– I will definitely continue to check it out as I work towards that final dissertation ‘push.’
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cool blog…… that is so important for all peoples
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What a fantastic blog. I will send many a student your way!
Thanks so much!
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Hello Inger!
I’d like to add my vote of thanks to those expressed above, and wonder if you could add my blog (which is still in its infancy so treat it gently, please!) to the list. My thesis has morphed into an attempt to show how respect and self-respect, two sides of the same coin, are human survival tools: we need to develop them! My blog’s at http://www.gamanrad.wordpress.com – thanks again. Best, Lucy
This is me reminding you (kindly!) to add my blog to your list. Thanks for this amazing site and for your work!
queerurbanecologies.wordpress.com
I have nominated your blog for the Versatile Blogger Award.
The rules of this award are here: http://alltheinbetweenblog.wordpress.com/the-versatile-blogger-award/
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