PhD blog: 31
Graham Foster
- March 2009.
The story so far… Graham is well into the second year of his part-time PhD in which he set out to investigate American literature post 9/11.
Time worries
I join you in a brief moment I have allotted to write this blog. I’m surrounded by students’ work, some marked and some pending. I have yet another draft of my funding proposal half-finished and I have just found out about a conference at which I would dearly like to present a paper. The deadlines for funding applications are all on the horizon and I’m feeling the pressure like never before (not to mention the recovery period from my brother’s stag weekend, which is, I’m afraid, still ongoing as I type).
So the course of action: finish the marking a.s.a.p., which will leave me time to finish my funding applications for various institutions, which, in turn, will leave me time to actually get on with some PhD work, namely working on a paper to present at the upcoming David Foster Wallace conference in Liverpool.
Conferences are an important part of PhD study, yet they are not really mentioned in prospectuses or by current students and staff at a university. Most of the time, people have an idea of PhD study being a solitary, research-based affair (which it is, but not always). The conferences give you an opportunity to share your own work and essentially receive a kind of peer review, and they give you a chance to see what other people are writing about your chosen subject. I’ve been to conferences before, on a purely spectatorial footing, but I am yet to present a paper. This is something you are not expected to do until your second year, but it is expected. If looked at in a purely self-serving, mercenary way, it also shows that you are active in a wider academic community and therefore more employable/funding-worthy. It is also very good practice for lecturing, if that is what you want to do with your PhD.
Another expectation is that you will, at some point in your study, prepare articles for publication in selected critical journals. This is another great opportunity to show what you are made of in academic terms, and vital if (like me) you want to pursue a career as a published critic/writer after your PhD.
Universities will also be impressed by a student who is applying for these things, regardless of success. The intent is, in a way, as important as the success (although everybody wants success, right?), because it shows you to be an active player in the academic world. So if my application to present a paper at the David Foster Wallace conference is unsuccessful, at least I’ll have tried. That said, I desperately want success - even if it is just to placate my throbbing ego. I want to get out there. I’ve spent too long behind a computer screen and buried in a book. I’m eager to test my academic mettle!
But before all of this I have to mark - a frustrating experience when you have so much other stuff to do. And the red pen stains my fingers something awful. Never mind, back into the breach.
Read my previous PhD blogs
Graham's other blog (on BlogSpot)
Suggestions to editorial@prospects.ac.uk
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