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News from the PGR Studio
A Day in the Life: Hassan Hussain
Hi, my name is Hassan Hussain and I am second-year PhD student in the School of English at Birmingham City University. My research explores the de/construction of gay men and the representation of homosexuality in 21st century British Theatre. I am a Research...
Talking Heads: Media Training Event
Talking Heads: Media Training Event 28th July 2017 Angela English (School of Media, Birmingham City University) Selina Schmidt (School of English, Birmingham City University) Emily Bettison (School of Media, Birmingham City University) The Idea Talking Heads 2017 was...
Making Futures Conference 2017: John Grayson
The Mayflowers Steps, Plymouth, 8am - It’s raining. The ocean vista, sky and sea, appear a seamless painted wash of grey - no horizon. By the quay, people mustered together, pointlessly seeking protection from the inclement weather. The group, made up of potters,...
My mentoring journey: Chris Hill
Meeting my mentee for the first time was a bit like going on a blind date. I had no idea who I was going to meet or the nature of their interests. I was nervous in anticipation. In late autumn last year, a group of mentors and mentees all gathered in the bottom floor...
Midweek meditation and mindfulness: Sally Bailey and Sarah Walden
Midweek meditation and mindfulness workshop | 22nd June 2017 | organised by Sally Bailey and Sarah Walden, Birmingham School of Art On a cloudy afternoon in June, facing the final stages of the academic year, an intrepid troupe of frazzled PhD students set out across...
Beyond borders and conference boundaries by Emily Bettison and Hassan Hussain
As all good ideas usually start out, the idea for this year’s 2017 ADM PhD Conference developed through a conversation over burgers and chips. What did we want this conference to be? Or perhaps more importantly to ‘not be’? Working at Birmingham City University in the...
Viva 60-second interview: Dr Rachel-Ann Charles
Hi Rachel-Ann, congratulations on passing your viva! How does it feel?! Thank you, it feels dreamlike to be honest and I know that sounds so cliché... But the momentum of it all, the pace, the energy, the excitement and everything that came with the Viva… I feel like...
Beyond Borders 17 – Conveying research objectives through music by Niccolò Granieri
A few months ago, I was accepted at the Beyond Borders internal research conference, that was held at BCU on the 7th of July, and I was asked to present my research in an out-of-the-ordinary way. So after thinking about ways of conveying my research aim and outcomes...
Literature and Ritual – a trip to Berlin by Regina Seiwald
8th SKK (Studienkongress Komparatistik) | “Literatur und Ritual” | FU Berlin, 9-11 June 2017 Participating at the 8th SKK (Studienkongress Komparatistik), which is the largest conference for comparative literature in the German-speaking academic world and has...
Are you ‘up’ for it?
An anonymous blog post by a current PhD student ... Start a blog, they said at the beginning, you need to write every day. Not a problem. Writing, it seems, has become my life, from partial ideas jotted down in numerous hardback notebooks to the never-ending task of...
Exploring Keats in 1817: My First Conference Paper by Rosie Whitcombe
In 1817, Keats was on the move. Both physically – travelling from London to the Isle of Wight – and poetically – composing the four thousand lines that would make up Endymion – this was a year of journeying, evident in the fluid, experimental themes Keats practiced in...
Viva 60-second interview: Dr Simon Cummings
Hi Simon, congratulations on passing your viva! How does it feel?! A real mixture of emotions: happiness and elation of course, but also a strange mix of anti-climax, sadness and “what on earth do I do now?” What was your PhD title? Cloud Triptych: an...
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