With teaching about to start, alongside the final year of my PhD studentship, I am acutely aware of the need to be organised. Here’s a quick rundown of my top five favourite things that are keeping me (relatively!) stress free and on track. [Read more…] about PhD Life – Top Five Favourite Things
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Memes, Memes Everywhere
I’ve been slack, busy with a million and one things, and blogging hasn’t been at the top of my to do list – sorry not sorry?
So my memes study is done and put to bed, and I thought I wouldn’t have to look at another meme in university for a while (yes, to the untrained eye I may look like I’m dicking about on the Internet, but it’s research, I swear…) – oh how wrong I was. Student elections were running a few weeks back, and look what greeted me in the hallways… [Read more…] about Memes, Memes Everywhere
Retrospective: Confirmation of Registration
It’s over two months since I last wrote here. It’s over half way through the semester. I have just submitted the third draft of my memes chapter, and the ethics for my second study. I had my annual progression meeting a couple of weeks ago (all went well, phew!) and I was out on the picket lines for Halloween’s strike action… Perhaps these things are related somehow? TL:DR – I’ve been super busy, and there’s no sign of this letting up any time soon (hello, extra marking! how I have missed you…) Ugh. I’ll try harder. I promise.
In the interest of continuity in these retrospective posts, I’d like to take you back in time by about a year, to talk about my Confirmation of Registration. The COR is kind of the first official step on the PhD journey I guess, and I had mine in December 2012. After enrolling in October and being thrown in the deep end with teaching, I spent about two months doing a lot of reading and reworking of my initial application proposal. This involved a fair bit of back and forth with my supervisors, making sure we had tightened up some bits of the proposal and anticipated any questions linked with the methods and rationale – especially around linking the two studies (memes and the experiences of women in IT). [Read more…] about Retrospective: Confirmation of Registration
Retrospective: PhD Interview
September already? Really? Before I know it I’ll be back to teaching… I suppose it’s about time for a little more self-indulgent, reflexive babbling in that case. Following on quite neatly from my entry about the PhD application, I’m going to talk about my PhD interview. [Read more…] about Retrospective: PhD Interview
Retrospective: PhD Application
If I’d been more on the ball, I should have started this blog back in October when I started my PhD. I should have been blogging about all the little hurdles and formalities (PhD application, interview, confirmation, etc.), writing without a hazy, retrospective slant on things. However that didn’t happen, so now I’m left with a choice. Do I only blog about what’s going on right now, and not have a record of my first year? Or do I write a few catch up posts covering some of the stand out experiences so far? I think I’m going to go with the second option, and try my hardest not to bore any readers to tears. That said, blogs are allowed to be a little bit self indulgent… right? Maybe I should view this as a reflexive exercise. I enjoy things being in order, so we’ll start at the very beginning for this post. [Read more…] about Retrospective: PhD Application
New PhD Blog – An Introduction
Hello! My name is Jess, and I’m a first-year PhD student in psychology at Leeds Metropolitan University. Broadly speaking, my research concerns discourse, feminism and work. Less broadly speaking I’m studying humour (in the form of Internet memes) and how this may affect the role of women in the IT industry. It’s okay, you don’t need to consider how these things link together, that’s my job. I’m sure it’ll be explained in the course of my thesis and this blog, so do keep popping back if you’re even slightly interested.
I started my research journey in October 2012, and when you consider that it’s now July 2013, I guess I’m a little late starting this blog! Better late than never I guess? Hopefully this blog will become a space for me to share my experiences as full time PhD student (who also teaches) and talk about my research. At the same time it will give me something that’s actually related to work to procrastinate with, which I’m sure can only be a positive thing. Better that I’m developing my ideas and writing here than looking at pictures of cats with funny captions, right? Oh wait no, that kind of is my research… for my first study anyway. Did I mention that I love my work?
Fingers crossed this blog will grow to be a useful outlet for me and my research, and a helpful resource for anyone who reads it. Feel free to follow my updates on Twitter, or subscribe to my posts via RSS. Wish me luck!