PhD Picnics: Food for Thought

PhD Picnics is an initiative which encourages exchange between postgraduate students and research staff to provide a supportive, stimulating postgraduate culture and adequate academic skills training and development.

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Neoliberalism, Mental Health, & Academia

One of the hardest things about hearing about a PhD student who was harassed by a lecturer, and who then committed suicide while the lecturer kept his job, was that I wasn’t surprised. It’s not that I didn’t think the story was horrendous – I did. It’s that like most graduate students I am reminded […]

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Trauma & the PhD

Vicki Adams is a PhD student in English Literature, and shares her insight into what it’s like to go through higher education as a sufferer of abuse and trauma.

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Academia & Mental Health: Call for Guest Posts

Mental health in academia can be a complex and sometimes contradictory issue. On the one hand, doing a PhD and being an academic in your chosen field means you have the opportunity and the privilege not only to pursue a very specific personal interest but also that you have the influence to shape the area […]

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Academia & Social Media: Practices, Politics, Problems

This post is both a continuation of my previous thoughts on social media in academia, and the product of several workshops and talks I’ve been asked to give on the topic this past year. Most notably, it is a response to and follow-up from a presentation and spirited discussion on social media at an impressive […]

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The Research Excellence Framework (REF)

Unless you’ve been asleep in the library for the past few years, you’ll almost certainly have heard about the REF (Research Excellence Framework); but you might be less aware of exactly what it is, how it affects you as a researcher, and what you need to do to prepare. In this post I’ll highlight the […]

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Writing Ph.D. Proposals

The second season of The New Academic returns us, after several requests, right to the beginning of every Ph.D. student’s journey – the Ph.D. proposal. This post is dedicated to tips and thoughts on what makes a good Ph.D. proposal that is likely to win over your potential supervisor and perhaps funders, though (not) securing […]

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