Town halls, Waves and Archiving Birds
Hear ye, hear ye!
Howdy folks!
This week we’ve been playing around with some parts of our network. We’ve remodelled our Discord server to look and feel more like a research town. We’ve switched up our categories from things like ‘general’ to ‘Town Square’ and ‘special interest’ to ‘Clubs and Societies’. We’re working on supplying a town map for current and new members to find their way around, fun!
Articles of the Week
While we’re on the subject of transforming our little online space into a virtual town, thinking about places and spaces is always interesting. What transforms a space to a place? Surfers can offer some insight, check out Anderson, 2012’s paper on the surfed wave as an assemblage.
We’ve had so much lovely feedback on the PGRH this week, so many people have said so many lovely things. Most of all, how the PGRH acts like a safe, meaningful place to learn with constant access to experts and scholars that ordinarily would be out of reach to most. We think this comes from the ‘learning together’ atmosphere our community has cultivated. Our community moderator Moria likened this atmosphere to that created by ‘Inklings’ - a literary group with members like C.S Lewis and J. R. R Tolkien, read more about Inklings here.
Finally, lots of chatter on discourse analysis across the network this week. Here’s something to chew on and sift through - Hjelm’s (2021) Discourse Analysis.
Community Spotlight
This week we shine our community spotlight on Caitlin Rowley (minim)!
(Photo by Paul Ashley, Kettle’s Yard, Cambridge)
Caitlin Rowley is a UK-based Australian experimental composer-performer and artist. Her practice-based research investigates ways of entangling private and public creative spaces - the studio and the stage - through interdisciplinary composition. She also works as a Research Administrator for a music technology project, sews and sometimes makes her own ink.
We wanted to throw our spotlight on Caitlin this week to show our appreciation for her valuable contributions across our Discord server. Caitlin has really lifted some of our smaller spaces since arriving at the PGRH, particularly the creative arts section. This is really important to us as some new members may find it difficult to ask for new channels or to be the first/only person posting in a space. We’re also really exited to be able to share some important insights from someone taking on their PhD part-time, which can be a completely different experience. Thank you minim!
Q.1 What part of your academic journey are you at?
I'm in the 7th year of my part-time PhD, so I'm writing up. I've sent off my Intent to Submit and am staring a first-draft deadline in the face at the moment. I also do some research for my part-time day-job as Research Administrator for the music technology project Cyborg Soloists, so I've got a wearable-tech piece using a nanocomputer and contact microphones, and a couple of joint-authored publications underway for that too.
Q.2 What made you join the PGRH and what do you get the most from the community?
I joined the PGRH when I was looking for a new writing group to join outside the times of the one I was already attending. It took me a little while to get involved, but now I'm finding that nipping into Discord to see what's going on really helps me stay connected to my own research in the face of multiple other commitments. It's a (lovely) reminder that I mustn't forget about my thesis! The community represents such a range of research fields, and the atmosphere has been really welcoming and fun. It's also lovely to be part of building a creative arts community here... and then there's the coworking...
Q.3 We often get to catch up with you in our coworking space, what is it about coworking that you find so beneficial?
As a part-time student, juggling multiple commitments with unstructured schedules, I struggle with turning up to write and with not getting distracted once I have turned up - so many directions my brain is trying to go in, all at once! I find that announcing I'm heading into the coworking channel helps me by being a declaration of my commitment to doing the work. Because the group is international, there's almost always someone else to work with there, regardless of what time of day it is, which is lovely. I'm trying to increase the number of hours I write per day and I'm finding the friendly atmosphere of quiet work and that gentle measure of accountability helps me spend more productive time with my writing.
Q.4 If you hadn’t pursued research, what do you think you’d be doing instead?
I'd probably still be a web developer. I spent over 15 years as a corporate web interface developer before chucking it to go back to composition and do my Masters degree. I still do some website development, and in the past couple of years I've been able to integrate some of those skills into my research, which has been very satisfying, but I don't miss it as a career!
Latest from our Community
Here are some brief updates from across the PGRH network 👩💻
Book Club (Bookies) 📚
Our next book club meeting is happening on 4th of October at 10am GMT. Our book club (Bookies) is open to everyone and if you’ve never attended before, fear not - we’ll get you up to speed.
We’re currently reading The Blade Itself by Joe Abercrombie. Happy reading, see you for the low-down on October 4th!
Coworking
Our two weekly coworking sessions will run as usual this week. Join us on Thursday (tomorrow) at 10 am GMT for people in timezone (A) or 3 pm GMT for people in timezone (B).
This week's session (B) at 3 pm GMT will take place on the Undergraduate Research Hub server. This is so we can encourage growth ad foster some engagement over there before the upcoming academic semester. It’ll also be a great way of letting the undergrads get to know the postgrads a little bit!
We usually work with cameras on (if appropriate), mics off and the chat box open for those who wish to say hello.
If you’re not a member of our Discord server, you can sign up here.
Off-Topic Tales
Our off-topic channel is often where the magic happens. The conversations that happen here may not be research focused but are often way too much fun to side-step. You never know where these will go.
Off-topic has been a *trip* this week (rhymes with scut), but we’ll stay safe and highlight the birdwatching and photography chat! What do you get when two hobbies collide?
Photo shared by Kayla in #off-topic
Did you know you can log the birds you see while out and about? Depending on where you’re located, have a search for your country’s ‘bird track’ repository - thanks to member Nomad for the heads-up!
Research Resource
I took a workshop a couple of years ago on turbocharging your writing as a postgrad and found it enormously helpful. The course was run by Hugh Kearns of iThinkWell and when I visited their website a few weeks later I was thrilled to find free planners and resources dotted throughout their website.
Bonus Bits
Nomadic Ambience: This YouTube channel holds a vast valley of HD videos perfect for reading/writing background noise. Some favourites include a rainy evening walk through Boston and sounds from an open window in New York City.
Virginia Woolf on Reading: How should one read a book? Who better to guide us than literary genius Virginia Woolf.
See You Next Week
If you like this newsletter, or you’ve gotten some value here - please consider sharing us with a friend or colleague. Drink water, see you next Wednesday!
