Category: Miscellany

Imagine my constant surprise, seven years later, at how much still remains unsaid about doing a thesis – even about the basics, such as how to get into a PhD program. Consider this letter which, eerily, happened to land in my inbox just as I was preparing my pitch for prospective students for ANU Open …continue reading.

This post is by Dr Anna McFarlane. Anna is a postdoctoral researcher on the Wellcome Trust-funded Science Fiction and the Medical Humanities project at the University of Glasgow. She is the co-editor of Vector: The Critical Journal of the British Science Fiction Association and Adam Roberts: Critical Essays (Gylphi, 2016). In this post Anna tackles …continue reading.

This post is by Nele Pollatschek (@NRPollatschek), a DPhil (=PhD) candidate at Oxford. A life-long sceptic, Nele’s working on evil and the problem of God’s justice in Victorian literature. In this post, she sounds like a yogi; but in her heart Nele’s a rebel rousing rockstar. Check out her blog, the oxforddphile. Four years ago, while I was writing a paper for my Master’s degree at Oxford, I came …continue reading.

Like many millions of people, I have watched the Syrian refugee crisis unfold and felt helpless to act. But until my friend Eva Alisic contacted me, I had never thought specifically about how we might be able to use our skills as researchers and academics to help. Eva Alisic is Co-Chair of the Global Young …continue reading.

This post is by DrJanene Carey, a freelance writer and editor based in Armidale NSW. She occasionally teaches academic writing at the University of New England and often edits academic theses, articles and reports. Her website is http://www.janenecarey.com Arguably, this question is a classic time waster and the student who poses it should be told …continue reading.

This post is by Anastasija Ropa, who did her doctoral research at the School of English, Bangor University, UK. Her doctoral research was in the Arthurian and Grail quest studies, involving the study of such issues as death, female authority as well as family and global history in medieval and modern versions of the Grail …continue reading.

Jonathan Downie is currently in the final stages of his PhD on client expectations of interpreters from Heriot-Watt University. Jonathan is a long time contributor to the Whisperer – his most popular piece was on parenting a toddler. This time Jonathan has some good words of advice for the PhD journey. You can read more …continue reading.

We’ve written about parenting through a PhD quite a lot on the Whisperer. Last time we heard from Jonathan Downie he was parenting a toddler. This time Jonathan reflects on being a PhD Dad. You can read more about Jonathan and his work on his blog Rock Your Talk. It’s 4.30pm and the new student …continue reading.

Doctoral researchers are often urged to blog. Some do and some don’t. While individual doctoral bloggers talk about blogging as a practice, there is very little research on doctoral student blogging.   When we did our small preliminary study of why academics blog, we found many interesting student blogs, but we had to leave them …continue reading.

This post is by James Donald, a PhD student in Organisational Behaviour at the ANU. His research explores the impacts of mindfulness on stress and resilience in the workplace. James is an experienced facilitator and mindfulness trainer, and regularly leads mindfulness and well-being workshops in the community, public and private sectors. His training company is Mindfulness Works. Last time we heard from …continue reading.