PhD diary
A journey as a doctoral student between 2017 and 2020. I keep these posts because, looking back from my early days, I can see how much my perspectives have shifted as a reminder of the learning journey.
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Week 82: A little bit of relaxation and bread making
On Tuesday, I had a face-to-face meeting with my supervisors, which was very productive. Through our discussion, I suddenly realised my misunderstanding of a topic I had tackled over the last month, which had actually given me trouble when writing about it. Sometimes, we students take weeks or months to figure out a matter that read more
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Week 81: Paper revision and Babka
Finally, I submitted my draft to my supervisors after a three-week struggle. I cannot remember how many times or how many people I asked about the right place to provide conceptual definitions and the correct structure of the discussions. The content of this section will also be part of my presentation at a conference in read more
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Week 80: A hard time writing
This week was difficult in terms of writing − specifically, structuring theories. Over the last few weeks, I’d read articles, mapped the theories and tried to structure them. But I was looking at too many details and losing connections between them in the whole picture. Anxieties became entangled in my mind, and I thought I read more
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Week 79: Good health habits
I have been reading key studies and working on a section to define a concept. Maybe I am struggling a bit with it, how to structure different definitions of one concept proposed by different authors, and eventually, how to logically link discussions to a conceptual framework. The most striking thing for me is how different read more
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Week 78: My first conference and healthy carrot cake
This is my fourth time in Birmingham in the past 4 years. Every time I visit, I feel that the redevelopment of Birmingham New Street station is stunning and that it’s increasing efficiency. Conference This was my first conference ever. The university campus was very nice and beautifully organised. On the first day, read more
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Week 77: Formal meeting and bread making
On Tuesday, I had a formal meeting with all three of my supervisors for the first time in six months. Before going to the office, I was extremely nervous, more so than in our previous meetings. That morning, I was woken up by a bad dream in which I was really late for the meeting read more
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Week 76: On to the next step
I wrote only about the progress of my fieldwork report for the past month, as if I had shut myself in my room all the time. Since I submitted my report last weekend, I have seen many people: Luca’s mum, to celebrate her birthday; his friends, to see their new baby girl; and my colleagues, read more
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Week 75: Report is done!
The fieldwork report was nearly done on Wednesday, and I spent Thursday reading through it again and making minor alterations. I cannot say that I have any feeling of satisfaction with my work yet; not until I have heard from my supervisors about it. In February, I created a report format and entered records into read more
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