PhD blog: 18
Graham Foster is a PhD student at the English Research Institute of Manchester Metropolitan University. Summer reading It’s another slow time for the PhD student. The summer holidays have arrived and the only differences to the research community are reduced office hours and lack of supervisory team (they have all gone away). This leads to quite a mellow existence. I’m working at home for much of the time, reading for hours, drinking too much tea, not leaving the house for days at a time – but always showering. That’s very important.
Anyway, all of this quiet contemplation and solitude does not give much to write about for the purposes of this record. That’s basically what it boils down to: the more work a PhD student does, the less interesting they become to anybody else. So in the interest of keeping this blog punchy and relevant, I will continue writing about the things people tend to say to PhD students. 1. The idea that, as you are currently a student, you will be deeply interested in other people’s academic experience, or the academic experience of their loved ones, or their dog…I have written before about other people’s reaction to you talking about your thesis – the bored shuffling, the vilifying of the PhD student as ‘pretentious’ (whatever that means). There is another situation that needs to be avoided. Often, after casually mentioning you are doing a PhD, the person you are talking to will feel it’s appropriate to tell you about their undergraduate degree in engineering, or their daughter’s degree in French. The other day I was talking to a lady who began talking about her ex-husbands’ (yes, plural) degrees in ‘some kind of science’. This was uncomfortable, not merely because the lady seemed to have about six ex-husbands who all studied at UMIST, but because it was a completely inappropriate conversation. It went on for a long time. I smiled, nodded and made interested noises. Talk about academic subjects does not thrive outside of the walls of the university… 2. People misunderstanding what you are actually doing and feeing they know better than you.A while ago, I was talking to someone who seemed quite interested in my PhD. The conversation led to the ‘what are you actually studying?’ question. ‘I’m studying how the protest literature of Generation X was affected by 9/11,’ I replied. ‘No,’ he barked at me. And then fell silent with a smug grin on his face. ‘What do you mean?’ I asked. ‘That’s wrong,’ he said, his voice still loud, his face still curved with smugness. ‘How can it be wrong?’ I was perplexed. ‘I only told you the title of my thesis.’ ‘Well, Generation X doesn’t exist, does it?’ ‘Erm…’ My discombobulation was mistaken for me being put in my place. ‘Yeah. Generation X doesn’t exist. It never has. It was just some term that Douglas Coupland invented to sell books.’ (I can’t begin to tell you how wrong this is). ‘Erm…’ It was all I could manage. ‘Yeah. And as for 9/11, it was an inside job. You should be writing about that. The American government have blood on their hands.’ ‘But I’m doing a literature research degree,’ I managed to say. But his chest was puffed out. He had just out-smarted a PhD student. This is something that happens, not often, but it does happen. People do think that they know better, and it’s usually people who are not currently studying, or have any part in academic life. God knows why they do it, but the best defence is to let them have their moment of glory, and get on with it. After all, getting involved in such an argument is petty. 3. It’s impossible to talk about books with anybody.This is unique to someone studying literature, and is not a snobby comment (I hope it won’t be viewed as that). It’s more that a PhD student is a specialist, and it’s hard to disengage that specialist knowledge. I suppose it could be compared to a quantum physicist trying to hold a conversation with Carol Vorderman, or having a conversation with Steven Spielberg on how to make the perfect blockbuster. The conversation is unbalanced. I wish it wasn’t the case, but it’s hard to unlearn all of the research. The talent lies in being able to disengage from your speciality, which is difficult when you are excited about the research and it occupies such a large part of your brain. Read Graham's previous blogs:Graham's other blog (on BlogSpot)
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