I have a new book out! Actually, that's not entirely accurate... My book 'How to be an Academic' has been re-published in the US by Johns Hopkins University press as 'Becoming an Academic: How to get through Grad School and Beyond', which means it is now easily available in Europe and the UK as well … Continue reading New book! Becoming an academic
A PhD in 2 years… or less?
This post is by Dr Carmen Blyth, who completed her PhD in 2015 on ethics in international schools at the University of Cape Town and was a postdoctoral fellow with the Decolonizing Early Childhood Discourses research project at the same university. She has worked with international schools and universities in Asia, Africa, and the Middle East … Continue reading A PhD in 2 years… or less?
How to harness the power of semantic gravity in your writing
A month or two ago, I wrote a post called 'The Uneven U' which outlined ideas about paragraph structure from Eric Hayot's book “The elements of academic style: writing for the humanities”. Briefly, Hayot claims that there are five levels of abstraction in sentence structure: Level five: Abstract; general, oriented toward a solution or conclusion … Continue reading How to harness the power of semantic gravity in your writing
In praise of professional naggers
This post is by Dr Vanessa Corcoran, who earned her Ph.D. in medieval history in 2017 at The Catholic University of America. Her research interests include the medieval cult of the Virgin Mary, the intersection of gender and popular religious practices, and the textual representations of medieval women’s voices. Currently, Vanessa is an Academic Counselor … Continue reading In praise of professional naggers
More advice on advice
I've been blogging on the Thesis Whisperer since June 2010 - nearly nine years as I write this post. I started the blog, in part, because I wanted an online resource I could send to students. I'd been working as a research educator for about four years at that time and noticed PhD students asked … Continue reading More advice on advice
Beware the couch! Reflections on academic reading
Reading - you already know how to do it well... or do you? This post is by Dr Robyn Mayes, Associate Professor at the Queensland University of Technology in Australia. She has a long-standing interest in critical reading and thinking practice, and is a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. In addition to creating … Continue reading Beware the couch! Reflections on academic reading
A big list of academic job interview questions (and how to answer them)
Academic life has seasons, as Les Back so eloquently pointed out in his lovely book The Academic Diary. At the moment it seems to be the season of job interviews, at least for some recent graduates in my immediate circle. I've been doing some challenging emotional work assisting with preparation of job applications and interviews, … Continue reading A big list of academic job interview questions (and how to answer them)
Who needs an editor? You.
Karin Hosking is a Canberra-based editor and proofreader. She specialises in thesis editing and particularly enjoys working with students and academics from non-English speaking backgrounds. Her LinkedIn profile is here and she can be contacted via email at chezkaz@gmail.com. In this post Karin explains the basic work of an editor and what you can expect them to … Continue reading Who needs an editor? You.
Should you leave your PhD off your CV?
A couple of weeks ago I shared some of the research I have been doing with my colleagues Associate Professor Hanna Suominen and Dr Will Grant about recruiter's attitudes to PhD graduates. I recommend you read the previous post on anti-PhD attitudes before this one, but briefly: our research concerns recruiters, who are important gate … Continue reading Should you leave your PhD off your CV?
Lessons learned from an African PhD journey
In Australia it is enrolment peak, with most PhD candidates starting before the end of March. I like to feature advice from students for other students. You are the ones most close to the experience, so advice from peers can be both relevant and useful. However, all the content on the Thesis Whisperer has been … Continue reading Lessons learned from an African PhD journey
