I’m _hoping _to spend today doing a lot of writing, so I thought I’d make thing a bit easier for myself by doing a more picture-based than text-based blog. This is ‘My History Book’, not an actual history this time, more of an annual format/advertisement for myself really. I’m guessing I was six when I wrote this one as well.
Well, I’m back to work and blogging after the Christmas break (okay, I may have done some work in purgatory between Christmas and New Year, not because I’m a ridiculous PhD student who never takes breaks but because I get REALLY BORED with unstructured time at home). Let’s see how far I’ve got since I blogged about having a full draft but needing to massively do-over my literature review and first chapter, and struggling to rewrite said literature review.
For some people, getting a PhD is absolute hell. They get unlucky with their supervisors, they can’t find enough data, or have massive problems with the data they have, they have to take time off for unforeseen circumstances like illness, bereavement, or caring responsibilities, they have financial problems which cause stress and mean the PhD has to fit around full-time work, they suffer from mental illnesses as a result of the pressure and/or impostor syndrome. They keep going because in spite of everything, they love their subject and really want that PhD. They are the true heroes, the ones who can say they ‘survived’ the PhD, and there needs to be more support for them.
Yesterday was my fifth supervisory board. I’ve become a lot more relaxed about them since the fourth one went so well, but nonetheless, this board totally exceeded my expectations. A load of other good things happened yesterday too.
Last Saturday, I was up ridiculously early to present and listen at the abovementioned symposium. It was a really interesting day and I learned a lot about a huge range of different subjects!
Well, I didn’t expect returning to my literature review to make changes, additions and corrections to be quite this hard. I actually think totally re-writing my section/chapter/whatever it’s going to be on perceptions of only children will actually be easier as I’m starting again with a blank page, as opposed to trying to edit something that now feels as old as that book I posted last week.
Following on from the picture I posted last week from a book I wrote at the age of six titled ‘900 years ago’ (which would now be ‘920 years ago…), I thought I’d post the whole thing. Why? Because I enjoy reading other people’s more personal history-related blogs. Because I find it amusing that I seemed to like history at an early age (it was kind of a love-hate relationship actually). Because it’s my blog and I can’t think of anything else to talk about this week.
This week, I attended a lunchtime ‘Gender and Space’ roundtable held by my department. It was well-attended and there were lots of questions and discussion, which was great - we didn’t actually think it would fill the two-hour slot the room was booked for, but it did! There were three main speakers, including a visitor to the department I hadn’t met before, and myself and my fellow PhD student Nicolle Watkins (who chaired) also said a few words.
On Wednesday, I went on a course about psychoanalytic methodologies at my university, broadly aimed at people in the humanities and social sciences who might want to use such methodologies, but don’t know a huge amount about them. I decided to go in case I could pick up anything that would add ‘sparkle’ to my thesis - obviously as I’m in third year, it’s a bit late to give them a huge place in it. Plus, if I stay in academia (and that’s currently a very big IF), I might be able to use them in future projects.
