North West Social Science Doctoral Training Partnership
Reflections on Will Medd’s Summer Writing Retreat
Will Medd ran an online Write Here, Right Now Retreat on the 21st July for NWSSDTP-funded students. This day-long session offered a uniquely formatted writing retreat, bringing together the traditional space of such a writing retreat with the provocation of live coaching experiments, to enhance and sustain an effective writing experience. The retreat provided a powerful format to get writing done, harnessing the collective energy of the group, while the live coaching invited greater awareness of how to shape the writing experience. Several attendees have provided their feedback below on what they took away from this session with Will.
‘I was initially unsure about taking a whole day out to attend training on writing. I thought that perhaps I could use the time better if I simply put my mind to writing for the day! However, I can safely say that attending this writing retreat was very worthwhile. I’m coming to the end of my 2nd year of the PhD and am conscious that next year will involve a lot of writing. This course has given me some valuable tips and tools for writing effectively and it has helped me better understand what works best for me in terms of a writing schedule. Will was informative, kind and open to many questions. The day was filled will plenty of practice time and it was well-paced. By the end of the training I had written far more than I anticipated and had also learned a lot. I highly recommend this course.’
Victoria Hirst, Educational Research, University of Manchester, 2018 Cohort
The benefits of working from home and the advantages of online conferences
Evanthia Koukouli, Social Statistics, Lancaster University, 2018 Cohort
Many things have changed due to the pandemic, one of which is our working life. Even though I used to think that working from home wouldn’t be a problem for me, it ended up being far more challenging. For a long time, I alternated between working for more than 10 hours per day and not working at all due to lack of motivation and tiredness. In particular, during the first weeks, the change to my working environment made me super productive. After a while, though, things started to go in the opposite direction. My concentration became worse than ever and I felt that I was beginning to lose my motivation. Nevertheless, there were a lot of things that helped me stay calm, confident and positive.
“Of the very most deprived neighbourhoods…the Anfield area of Liverpool is one of the most deprived areas in England”
Lee Wainwright, Business & Management, University of Liverpool, 2019 Cohort
Growing up in Anfield within ‘the most deprived area’ in England, didn’t really mean anything as a young person. I didn’t feel ‘poor’. Only when I was old enough to think about university did I begin to notice a difference between what I saw on TV or heard on the radio regarding ‘UCAS points’ and ‘clearing’, and what me and my friends were doing – none of us were planning to apply to university, all were encouraged by parents to find a job as the next step, shrugging off poor A Level results (for some of us) as unnecessary formalities. No one had older brothers or sisters who were students.
My PhD Life in Lockdown
Hannah Sawyer, Psychology, University of Liverpool, 2018 Cohort
Due to COVID-19, we have all been working from home since March. This unprecedented situation is something that I, like many others, was not expecting or prepared for when I started my PhD only five months ago. My PhD routine prior to lockdown consisted of coming to the office every day and having face-to-face meetings with supervisors, as well as including a social aspect of receiving peer support through regular coffee breaks and in-person chats. This came to a halt 11 weeks ago and since then I have been working, alone, in a make-shift “office” in my living room.
North West Social Science Doctoral Training Partnership 