Life, work and sustainable research practice

Session Facilitator: Associate Professor Vanessa Corby 

The aim of this session is to equip PGRs and staff with a sustainable approach to their PhD and research projects. Historically, research has been billed as an isolating experience, legitimated by the romantic vision of the solitary (usually male) scholar immersed in dusty texts or pouring over pestilent petri-dishes. The completion of any research project is not only dependent on academic excellence, however, but also health and emotional well-being. This session unpicks the unhealthy relationship between academic identity, time and solitude and asks PGRs to think differently about what it means to work effectively as ‘an academic’.

Learning Outcomes:

This session promotes the need for structure in the working day and the benefits of working incrementally to accommodate exercise and the needs of friends and family. Rather than a guilty pleasure or impediment to ‘research’ the session foregrounds the positive impact of these non-academic activities for their thinking, thesis and well-being. As such the session will not only promote a mindset that will enable PGRs to survive the PhD and researchers to see projects through to completion but also manage their expectations about work/life balance in their academic lives.

This session will take place in HG/139 (Holgate building, first floor).

Book your place via Eventbrite: Life, work and sustainable research practice