PhD blog: 10
Graham Foster is a PhD student at the English Research Institute of Manchester Metropolitan University. He is researching how 9/11 affected North American literature. Holiday? The university is on holiday hours. There is a serenity drifting over the buildings. No students running around. No mobile phones disrupting the silence. And when you are desperate for stationery while studying in the library, the shop in the student’s union is locked up tight. That’s right, we PhD students don’t really acknowledge the university holidays. The only structure to our time is that one big deadline inching ever closer. We still go into the office and the library, still study and write, still prepare for funding interviews…
I had a meeting with my Director of Studies just before the Easter holidays started. I was still groggy from the flu as he told me that I would have to fill in a form detailing what I had done towards my PhD this year. Christ, I thought. Here we go again. More boxes to tick, and more to prove to the faculty. This one is titled ‘Record of Education and Enrichment Activities’ and it’s a sort of retrospective timetable for the year. Don’t panic!As usual, my DoS told me not to worry, that I have probably done more than I think I have, and to remember I am only part-time so no-one expects me to be anywhere near completing my thesis. These words have calmed me down somewhat, and I have realised that I have spent this year gathering lots of secondary reading and research materials, so much so that my desk is smothered in stacks of paper and books, DVDs and CDs (which should all be catalogued carefully. In reality, they are constantly being knocked over and once, when I left my window open during the recent storms, they had been scattered all over the place – a kind of literary snowdrift). Now I need to get to the business of reading everything. My DoS agreed with this, and has set me a deadline to write a 5000-6000 word piece about the career and work of Douglas Coupland, the main author I am studying. I have lots of material to use, and it gives me a great excuse to re-read all of his fantastic novels. I started this yesterday, and I feel motivated and excited to be actually working on my thesis, rather than dealing with red-tape and nonsense. Interview nighI also have to prepare for my interview with the English Research Institute. This will decide whether I get the funding for the rest of my study. There’s much riding on it, as I have detailed in earlier posts but, with a month left, I am getting stuck in. I’m reading theory, refreshing my memory of all the novels I have read, and formulating intelligent responses to prospective questions. This all feels productive and has put me in a healthy mind-set. It’s easy to get disheartened by the many hurdles a PhD thrusts in front of you. And when you are ill, or have to earn money, it can make working on a PhD feel like the most impossible thing in the world. But having deadlines makes you forget all of that. They are reasons to get on with it and ignore everything else. While the Easter holidays are really non-existent for a PhD student, and the work carries on, it does feel like a break. It’s a break from marking (if you’re teaching) and it’s a break from the day-to-day life of the university. It feels as if you have the gift of time, even if it is just a few weeks. And that’s very important to recharge the passion you have for your thesis and to get on with it. Read Graham's previous blogs:
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