PhD Talk

In today's episode, we talk about virtual conferences: 

• our experience with attending virtual conferences, 
• the different formats of virtual conferences and why understanding the format matters when it comes to getting most out of the conference,
• our best tips for attending virtual conferences (while the rest of the world keeps spinning around you), and
• our best tips for presenting at virtual conferences.

References to this episode:

• From the PhD Talk blog
• Tips for attending virtual conferences
• And another blog post with tips
• Article on Lufthansa's estimate that air travel will only be back to normal in 2023

In today's episode, we interview Professor Tanya Golash-Boza. Professor of Sociology at the University of California - Merced. As a writer, speaker, and teacher, she tells stories of people and of systems to help colleagues, students, readers, and listeners understand how racism and capitalism structure our lives and what we need to do to change this country and the world.

We talk about her career path, fieldwork abroad with a family in tow, her current research, and how blogging has influenced her (public) identity as a professor. Dr. Golash-Boza shares her best tips for setting boundaries, putting writing first, and about the writing retreats she leads where she teaches others the methods to find focus in their writing. We also get her best advice on bringing more racial and social justice to academia, and discuss our experiences as female professors and the sexism in academia. We also learn her best tip for PhD students, and how COVID-19 has influenced her work.

References mentioned in this episode:

• Blog: Get a Life, PhD.
• Homepage
• University website
• Book: Deported 
• Writing your journal article in 12 weeks: a guide to academic publishing success - Wendy Laura Belcher
• Tedx Talk link 
• Link to post on weekly template 

Today's episode is a Q&A episode. We received questions about how to select and narrow down a research topic, when to contact potential advisors, and what our major skills and struggles as researchers are. In addition, we discuss what we've learned from the last 4 months of podcasting, as well as our favorite books and albums of 2021 so far.

If you have questions for us for a future episode, feel free to send them in!

Here are the resources we mentioned in the recording with regard to defining a research topic and contacting possible advisors:

• Creative research methods by Helen Kara
• How to choose your research question, a guest post by Helen Kara on the PhD Talk blog
• When to contact possible advisors

Books mentioned in the podcast:

• Anne Brontë - The Tenant of Wildfell Hall 
• Lode Zielens - Moeder, waarom leven wij
• Bridges of Madison County - Robert James Waller 
• Song of Achilles - Madeline Miller

We both follow the Modern Mrs Darcy 2021 reading challenge. 

Albums and playlist mentioned in the podcast:

• Eva’s 2021 new albums playlist 
• Anneke van Giersbergen - The Darkest Skies are the Brightest
• Dark Side of the Moon - Pink Floyd 

In today's episode we interview Arjenne Louter, the Dutch PhD coach. 

Listen to today's episode to learn more about how Arjenne became a PhD coach, how a PhD coach can help PhD students, and what is often missing in doctoral education and supervision. 

We learned from Arjenne about the most common struggles of PhD students, challenges for international PhD students in the Netherlands, and what supervisors and universities can do better to support their PhD students. 

In addition, we learned about Arjenne's best advice for PhD students, how COVID-19 has changed her job, and what a day in the life looks like for her.

Additional references:

• Arjenne's website Louter Promoveren (in Dutch) and the Dutch PhD Coach (in English)
• More about the Pyramic principle
• Writing advice by Arjenne: go to the writing section on her website (in English and in Dutch)
• Julia Cameron's Morning Pages from her books The Artist's Way and The Artist's Way at Work

In today's episode, we discuss supervision issues - issues we have observed around us and issues we have experienced ourselves. We look at the different types of supervisions issues that are common, what you can do when you encounter an issue in the working relationship with your supervisor, and what you can do at the start of your working relationship with your supervisor to prevent issues in the future (within what is reasonable). We also look at the perspective of the supervisor, and the role of universities in providing their supervisors with training and support.

Additional resources:

• PhD Talk for AcademicTransfer: How to have efficient meetings with your supervisor 
• On dealing with an absent supervisor
• How to learn from your supervisor
• Newsletter signup for the template for preparing a meeting with your supervisor

In today's episode, we interview Dr. Jonathan Guillemot, a lecturer and researcher at the School of Medicine of Universidad San Francisco de Quito. We talk about doing a PhD part-time, Jonathan's  current responsibilities, his best advice for PhD students, the impact of COVID-19 on his work, and we take a deep dive into the topic of systematic reviews.

The resources mentioned in this episode are:

• Cochrane library
• Youtube video - Jonathan's workshop on systematic reviews

You can find Jonathan Guillemot online:

• Contact details of Jonathan [email protected] 
• Academia profile 
• Researchgate 

In today's episode, we discuss how we gather references when starting a literature review. We discuss where to find references, and some tips and tricks to find hard-to-find references.

Here are the websites we use for finding articles:

• Engineering Village
• Scopus
• Google Scholar
• ResearchGate

Here are some of the structural engineering particularities we mentioned:

• SSRP from UCSD
• Ritter 1899 reference
• IABSE SEI

Here are some extra links to explore some of the topics we mentioned further:

• Reference mining
• Search string syntaxis
• Interlibrary loans: check your university for the procedures, this example is from Delft University of Technology

In today's episode, we interview Kaelyn Apple, first year PhD candidate in African American history at Yale, YouTuber at The Redhead Academic, and business owner of Accepted. 

We discuss her path from UCLA (with an exchange at Cambridge), Oxford to Yale, the way she combines her studies with her online presence and her business, and her best tips for getting in the university of your dreams. 

Kaelyn also shares her insights on the role of academia in racial and social justice, and how she shares her research insights in her YouTube videos. We also look at a day in the life, the impact of COVID-19 on her daily tasks and work, and the joys of having a dog on your PhD journey.

Further reading on African American history, and its impact on today's world:

• The book that inspired Kaelyn: Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings: An american controversy - Annette Gordon-Reed 
• Not mentioned, but also recommended reading: Annette Gordon-Reed - Most blessed of the patriarchs 
• Jennifer Morgan 
• Daina Ramey Berry 
• Stephanie Jones-Rogers 
• David Blight 
• Joanne Freeman 
• Ibram X. Kendi (and his Goodreads author profile to check out his books) 

Find Kaelyn online here:

• Youtube channel 
• Instagram 
• Personal website 
• Accepted 
• Twitter 

In today's episode, we look at how we read research articles for the literature review of your PhD thesis as well as in the later career stages.  Listen to today's episode to learn more about how to read broadly and deeply, how often to read, how to take notes of what you read, and how to digitize the articles you read and your associated notes.

Software we mentioned:
Reference management tools:

• Endnote
• Mendeley
• Zotero

Note-keeping tools:

• Evernote

Check out this resource on how to find the citation to export into your reference management tool (Endnote specific, but you can find similar tutorials for the software of your choice)

Books we talked about:
Under the volcano by Malcolm Lowry
Kani on shear in reinforced concrete

Websites we mentioned:
SSRN

Episode we referenced:
Ep. 10 - Interview with Michelle Crowther

In today's episode, we interview Christina Shenvi, Assistant Professor of Emergency Medicine, the Associate Residency Program Director and Director of the UNC Office of Academic Excellence (OAE). We learned from Christina about going for an MD after her PhD in chemistry, how to create a life you love, how to manage time and expectations, and how to make audacious decisions. This episode is full of nuggets of wisdom for anyone in academia (from students to senior faculty), those thinking about going to med school, and beyond.

Check out Christina’s blog.
Books mentioned in the episode:

• Built to Last - Jim Collins  
• Viktor Frankl's book "Man's Search for Meaning 

Christina also mentioned the Mindful return program for those returning after parental leave.