The Start of Year Two.
Sliding in to year two….
And just like that…the start of year two was here. This blog is less about a specific historical story and more just a little reflection on the first year of being a PhD student.
In year one, I’ve primarily been working on three of my chapters:
Chapter One: Introduction/General Literature Review
Chapter Two: Methodology and Theoretical Framework
Chapter Three: Education
The first two are ones that I’ll be working on for the next 5/6 years, keeping them up to date, and amending them as my research changes and morphs into whatever it’s going to be at the very end. The third chapter, well….that guy has already morphed and changed despite writing precisely zero words for it so far! When I started, the plan was for the chapter to be about ‘what do the women learn about nature, where do they learn it, how do they learn it’…but after a few months it’s looking more like it’s going to focus more on ‘who was learning about nature’.
The big reason for the change was a finding of a school register with around 800 students. After a multi-month long project I’ve managed to transcribe them all, and start genealogical deep dives into the women….now comes the big task of trying to work out how to have as case studies in the chapter…
Away from the research side of the PhD the University of Greenwich requires all PhD students to undertake a series of mandatory L&D courses across a range of topics from teaching skills, to one that helps you understand the process of preparing for the MPhil to PhD transfer. Across the length of your course, you’re also expected to engage with training put on by the university on a range of different topics - this year I went to sessions looking at resilience, mastering high-stakes presentations, and generative AI; and to engage with your wider field undertaking subject specific training. For that, I’ve been to some cracking talks including one on Finding Billy Waters: Or, Black Sailors in the Regency Navy (which lead to me buying a whole stack of books that are still on the TBR pile, and one on Rosario Assunto’s philosophy of the garden - which has made it into the Lit Review chapter. In total, I attended 30 different sessions across the year.
I also started this site this year, and wrote 6 blog posts! I’m hoping I’ll have more content coming out during year two - the next two blogs are already prepped and ready to go which I hope people will enjoy. Away from all of this, I’ve also completed my BSL Level One, taken my first RHS Level 2 exam, played with hundreds of dogs, cheered on tons of football, sewn, embroidered, gardened, and watched far too many Hallmark films.
Looking back over year one, I’m largely just terrified of how quickly it’s all gone and filled with an overwhelming sense of ‘I’VE NOT DONE ENOUGH’. But I have to try and remember it’s a 6/7 year marathon, not a sprint…
Over the course of year two, the big plans are:
Write more blogs (obviously)
Complete my upgrade
Publish at least one article
Continue working on Chapters One and Two
Complete Chapter Three
Start (complete?) Chapter Four
How many of these will I manage? Who knows. You’ll have to check back this time next year for another start of the new year look back.
