North West Social Science Doctoral Training Partnership
Sustainable and Resilient Cities: Liverpool, a podcast series made by and with PhD Students
Abi O’Connor & Ronnie Hughes, Sociology, University of Liverpool, 2018 Cohort
Our podcast series, Sustainable and Resilient Cities: Liverpool, explores work being carried out by PhD researchers during the COVID19 pandemic, highlighting how many are carrying out research that will help respond. and inform and maybe even influence what the City Region is doing to mitigate the consequences of the pandemic.
This is a series of conversations about stuff that not only matters to us as researchers but might also be of interest to a wider audience. That is why we have chosen this method of getting postgraduate conversations out to a wider world.
“Take one day at a time and find ways to move forward”
Cath Hill, Social Work, University of Lancaster, ESRC Alumni
On the morning of the 23rd May 2017, a year and a half into my PhD studies at Lancaster University, I composed an email to my supervisors. It was quite matter of fact in tone, I simply informed them that my youngest son and I had been at the Ariana Grande concert in Manchester, when a suicide bomber detonated a bomb. I told them that I was OK, and I just thought I should let them know.
When I think back, I truly believed that at the time, I did think I was OK. As messages from friends and family came in, I started to think that I should feel more than just OK, after all, everyone was telling me how lucky we were. I recall standing with people as they hugged me and smiled and said how pleased they were to see me. I remember forcing a smile and thinking to myself, what is wrong with you? My son had just escaped death or serious injury and yet the last thing I was feeling was lucky.
Are certain characters – stereotypes – in Agatha Christie’s novels more or less likely to be murderers than others?
James Jackson, Social Statistics, Lancaster University, 2019 Cohort
This October marks the centenary of the publication of The Mysterious Affair at Styles, the debut novel of Dame Agatha Mary Clarissa Christie. Born in 1890, Agatha Christie was a prolific writer of detective stories. She wrote 66 full-length novels – and several other books under the pseudonym of Mary Westmacott – prior to her death in 1976. She is the best-selling fiction writer of all time.
Read MoreMy PhD has always been a bit unusual
Judit Fazekas, Postdoctoral Fellow, Psychology, University of Liverpool
As I’m (finally!) at the other side of my PhD, having defended my thesis this March, I thought I would tell you a bit about the life after. My PhD has always been a bit unusual – as soon as I arrived to Liverpool my primary supervisor took up a job at the amazing Max Planck Institute of Psycholinguistics (MPI). While this is the dream destination for all language researchers, it had a small downside from the point of view of my PhD: namely that it is in a completely different country! While working with an off-site supervisor might be the subject of a whole different blog post, this one is about what happened afterwards, when my dream also came true and I got to join Caroline in the MPI for a year after my PhD.
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North West Social Science Doctoral Training Partnership 