I remember being a young teenager and hesitatingly explaining from my school desk why – uncharacteristically – I hadn’t produced any homework. It was my favourite lesson on a subject that held such fascination for me that it would later become the focus of my academic work. All I could say was that my family had had […]
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From the day I launched The New Academic in 2012 to the moment I’m writing this post, my website has had 120,000+ visitors, and its number of monthly visitors has reached almost 7,000. It’s not much by some people’s standards, but it’s a whole lot more than I ever thought it would be. Its content […]
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An anonymous blogger shares their experiences of being discriminated against and bullied due to their mental health issues. Is mental illness nothing more than an inconvenient expense for university departments?
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An anonymous contributors reflects on their experiences of schizophrenia during their PhD and their nevertheless successful journey to a permanent academic job.
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In this post I reflect the ways in which we normalise and internalise potentially harmful levels of stress in academia, and how many of us are led to believe that if we’re not stressed we’re not doing our job right.
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An early-career academic writes about their struggles with depression and chronic anxiety.
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An anonymous academic recounts their encounters with stress and anxiety towards the end of their PhD.
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Bethan Jones writes about the relationship between her self harm and her doctoral research.
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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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An anonymous contributor shares the positives and negatives of working in academia with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder.
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An anonymous guest blogger shares their story of adjusting to their mental health issues during her PhD with the help of institutional support services.
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An anonymous guest blogger diversifies the perceptions of depression by reflecting on their experiences of being a high-functioning depressive.
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6 March 2014, The Guardian Higher Education Network. I was invited to comment on academia and mental health for this article.
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An anonymous blogger reflects on the relationship between anxiety and academia.
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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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I write this on one of the few mornings in my life when I haven’t been out to exercise first thing. Often academic colleagues who are less or not at all physically active look at me with a mix of shock, awe and disdain when they hear that I usually exercise at least six […]
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Here you can find a PDF copy of my CV which I update regularly. You can find more details about most of my publications, papers, teaching, and other activities on this website.
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