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Surviving a PhD – 10 Top Tips…
I was awarded my PhD in January this year following a successful viva in November 2011, so thought I would try and summarise my experiences over the last 3-4 years and see if I could come up with some...
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Project Management as if the World Matters…
I recently presented a paper at the 2012 Northumbria Research Conference titled ‘Project Management as if the World Matters’. In it I argue that most project managers are not yet integrating...
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My Completed PhD….Sustainability in Local Authority PFI Social Housing
I submitted my doctoral thesis in September 2011 and had my viva November. The thesis is titled ‘Greener Homes for the Future?: Sustainability in Local Authority PFI Social Housing’, (access is...
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16 Essential Academic iPad Apps
I have been using an iPad at work and home for about a year now and it has quickly become an indespensible tool for managing research and academic writing. Initially many colleagues were a little...
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10 PhD Viva Survival Tips
The PhD ‘viva voce‘ (Latin for ‘by live voice’) examination, or oral defence, is the final hurdle in the journey towards gaining the doctoral degree that you have worked for so long and hard over the...
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How to Manage a Research Library with Zotero
Keeping up to date with research and managing an increasing number of journal articles and other material is a vital skill of academics and graduate students… Here I set out my workflow developed over...
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Localism and Energy: Negotiating approaches to Embedding Resilience in Energy...
Energy Policy is a key research area of mine. Specifically I am interested in the development of decentralised, low carbon, community focussed energy systems as a counter to the inherent vulnerability...
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Graduation Day…
As you can see from the picture of my lovely family above, I finally got to pick up my PhD at graduation on Friday – 11 months after submission, 9 months after passing my viva, and 6 months since...
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Developing an Academic Publishing Strategy
Last week I tweeted the fact that I had received a rejection email from a high ranking Journal less than 24 hours after I had submitted. The email stated that “We now have many more submissions for our...
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Annual leave, Grant proposals and Postgraduate teaching qualifications…
It’s been over a month since my last post here. I thought that I owe it to my reader (hi mum!) to explain what has been keeping me from updating the blog and some reflections on the last few weeks…...
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Inductions, Admissions and Timetable Hell
Image courtesy of s.khai on Flickr Well, here it is – the start of another teaching semester. I thought I would take a little time to reflect on the administrative nightmare that unfortunately...
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Reflections on Academic Blogging
Today I noticed that my previous blog post on ‘How to manage a research library with Zotero’ had made it onto the LSE Impact of Social Sciences most popular blogs of the year list. I am of course...
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What has Nature ever done for Projects?
Following the release last week of Tony Juniper’s new book ‘What has nature ever done for us?’, I have been reflecting on this question from a project management perspective. Here I argue that project...
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What should an academic look like?
Since embarking on an academic career a few years ago, I have found myself constantly struggling with the issue of my appearance at work – trying to strike a balance between being myself, and...
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The Cloud Academic: Part 1
There has been a fundamental shift in the way in which we work as academics. No longer are we tied to our desks, hard wired internet/intranet connections or dusty collections of texts and papers. It is...
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The Cloud Academic: Part 2
In my last post I set myself the challenge of seeing whether I could survive in my job and undertake my daily duties using only online, free, cloud based software programmes. I asked whether this was...
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The Academic ‘Career’ is dead. Long live the Academic Career!
The academic career is dead. There, I’ve said it. Over the last few years I have been trying to build an academic career, in the process loosing sight of why I became an ‘academic’ in the first place....
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Manage research papers on the go with PaperShips
Regular readers will be aware that I am always seeking out new technology to assist with the day-to-day job of research and teaching. One of the most time-consuming tasks, at least for me, is the...
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Are MOOCs the new evening classes?
Source: Wikimedia Commons Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) are big news at the moment. It seems that nearly every week there is a news item or blog post variously describing them as the future of,...
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Grading Assessments on the iPad with Turnitin
Last week I finally completed marking and grading the assessments from the previous semester courses that I manage. In total I read more that 1.2 million words across a range of assignments from...
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