PhD Journey: Week 12

Working whilst it’s quiet

On campus this week it was a bit of a ghost town. Normally I’d like that, but it was so quiet it was actually quite eerie. I’m struggling at the moment to balance the momentum and enthusiasm that seeing peers and colleagues gives me about my topic, with the peace and solitude that I need to actually get anything written down.

Overall I think I’m getting to grips with the topic pretty well, but I’m starting to become very aware that there’s not enough down on paper. For me there’s only one way to solve that — book time in, lock myself away, and crack on with no distractions.

It won’t be on Campus out of term though, far too creepy!

Understanding the journal process

The most exciting part of this week was taking part in a pre-submission workshop for a special issue of a journal I’d like to submit to. It was really interesting to see how this process works, and a few things really stood out.

• There are lots of different approaches to research and they all seem equally acceptable and valid
• Academics aren’t always great at making their ideas or research interesting (there were 12 presentations, and 50% were dull as hell)
• It seems acceptable to leave a workshop after your presentation is finished, rather than hearing everyone else’s. I was second-last and only 8 of 20+ people were still in the room. I wasn’t bothered, because the people I wanted to hear from were still there…but wow, academics are self-centred!
• Working through a research topic in public is a great way to test the strength of the idea