PhD: Facing in or out?
A workshop for PhD supervisors in Humanities & Social Sciences

It is a challenge intrinsic to undertaking a PhD to negotiate the balance between two opposing dimensions in research, facing inwards and outwards.  Inward pressures - relating to the development of sub-disciplines, pressure on completion rates, the solitariness of many research projects, and the very nature of the thesis as a form of writing - have tended to increase the degree of specialism.  That familiar narrow-and-deep quality, which has come to define a PhD in the mind of the layperson, carries with it the risk that the project may turn in on itself.  On the other hand there are the outward pressures - towards interdisciplinarity, collaboration, publication (even before the PhD is finished), using social media, knowledge exchange, engagement, outreach, and achieving impact beyond the academy.  How are these contradictory pressures to be managed?  How to weigh up the competing interests of timely completion and wider career development?  This session is designed to raise and confront the issues, share ideas and experience, and generate new ideas and approaches to bring to the supervisor’s role.


Reviews from workshop participants:

University of Sussex

‘Absolutely recommended.  An excellent introduction to some of the biggest issues facing PhD supervisors.  [Josie was] very engaging, open to ideas and discussion, and provided lots of excellent examples and anecdotes’

‘Excellent combination of practicalities and bigger picture.  Makes you think about what universities are for, and helps you to prepare your doctoral students in the process.’

'After the workshop I set out to test out some useful techniques I'd picked up at Josie's training session with an eye to encouraging my PG supervisees to keep their eye on the 'big questions'.  They took that and ran with it all the way down Cable Street.  I asked rounds of questions designed to follow the ripples of interaction and intervention that can move outwards from a thesis or individual research project.  These questions were either taken directly from or inspired by those used in Josie's workshop PhD: Facing in or out?  Afterwards one of my supervisees wrote "I don't think my research has ever felt more relevant than it does now.  Being encouraged to articulate my 'point' - my 'so what?' - in differing ways really made me see a fundamental part of my research.  Thinking about what our research was for, who would read it, and thinking 'what difference does it make' really chimed with my experience".'



University of Winchester

'Thought-provoking session directing one towards an overview and different perspective on what a PhD project is.'

‘Very useful to take a step back and look at the process.  A good way to reflect on the modern research environment as it relates to PhDs.'

'Raised provocative and interesting questions that will alter my practice.'

'Very engaging.   Good to discuss PhDs beyond the focus on completion dates.'