PhD blog: 14
Graham Foster is a PhD student at the English Research Institute of Manchester Metropolitan University. Pending… Well, I still haven’t had my annual review. The world of academia is not necessarily the environment where speed and organisation flourish, so I have to go on waiting until next week. In the meantime, there has not really been much else happening, just the constant tick-tock of work, study, reading, and earning money. But my time seems to have exploded since I have escaped the swirling void of marking. I handed in all my marks last Monday and have spent the last few days in the midst of some in-depth study. I even bought a new book. I’m sorry for being dull. It’s just that the action on a PhD happens in fits and starts, and there’s been nary neither a fit nor a start in the last couple of weeks. In the meantime, I shall write a list of things that I, being a postgraduate student, have discovered during my first year in research academia.
1. When meeting people for the first time, this conversation starts up: ‘Nice to meet you. So what do you do?’ ‘I’m a student.’ ‘You’re a little bit old to be a student, aren’t you?’ ‘Well, I’m doing a PhD.’ (At this point 50% of people will either change the subject, or see ‘someone they know’ across the room. If the conversation continues, it is usually shaped like this:) ‘And what are you doing your PhD in?’ ‘It’s in North American Literature.' (This is the soft, vague answer, the person doesn’t want to know more, but will keep asking questions). ‘What’s your focus?’ ‘It’s contemporary North American Literature.’ (Again, another soft answer. Most people who have got this far will continue:) ‘Yes, but what exactly are you studying?’ ‘Do you really want to know?’ (Give them a final chance to change the subject.) ‘Yes.’ ‘I’m studying how the protest literature of Generation X was affected by the terrorist attacks of 11 September 2001. It is my theory that this was a huge cultural shift and I will be primarily looking at the works of Douglas Coupland, while applying the theory of such people as Baudrillard, Fukuyama, Rushkoff and McLuhan.’ (There is silence. The person in question looks terminally bored and shifts nervously from foot to foot. They want to leave, but don’t want to appear rude. You feel like a complete cretin for answering their questions, and the whole situation has been soured. I have learnt that people genuinely don’t care about your studies, and really don’t want to hear about them. The subject should be branded top secret and left to the confines of your academic relationships). 2. The snotty comments are hard to get used to. They usually come from vaguely Baby Boomerish parents of friends, or neighbours. The comment: ‘You can’t be a student forever. When are you going to get a real job?’ may be said with a wink and a chortle, but these people are not joking. It’s hard not to let this sort of comment get to you, to annoy and upset. There does appear to be an attitude that if you attend an academic institution as a student, you must spend your days moping around your sad little shame-hole of a bedroom and spend your nights ‘bird-dogging chicks’ while boozing, drugging and puking. It’s a hard attitude to get used to. But get used to it you must, because it’s not going away. The attitude is also tied to: 3. People thinking you are welching off the state, using their tax dollars to hold orgies or (even worse) just slack off. This also sticks in the craw because I’m funding this myself. And I’m hardly slacking off (or holding any orgies, you’ll be disappointed to hear). I know a girl who is doing a PhD in femininity and the phenomenon of air guitar (it’s much more complicated than that, but return to point one if you really think you want a detailed explanation of the thesis). Anyway, she was interviewed on GMTV and was in several papers, and the overriding sense was that she was studying something ludicrous at the expense of the taxpayer. She’s not. She’s self-funded too from what I gather. And her project sounds infinitely more interesting than someone studying Austen or Dickens. Again. I suppose the point of this list is to illustrate how the outside world reacts to people who are studying a PhD. It’s often so narrow minded that you might as well be studying witchcraft in the Middle Ages. But it’s best not to crow about this, and just get on with what you are doing. After all, you’re only really doing it for yourself. And if you’re not doing it for that one reason, it may be time to rethink things. Read Graham's previous blogs:Graham's other blog (on BlogSpot)
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