WARNING: This episode contains moderate rage.

Things get spicy as we continue our deep dive into babyfication - aka infantilisation - in academia. This time, we’re joined by our fabulous friend Charlotte, who brings her unique insight as a local authority practice-based PhD researcher.

Together, we unpack what it means to be "babyfied" in academic spaces in the UK, from the way PhDs are conceptualised by universities and how we're dubbed by senior staff as "[financial] loss leaders".

Some of the keywords and abbreviations we used:

ESRC - Economic and Social Research Council who fund PhDs in these disciplines

GTA - Graduate teaching assistant

Local Authority - local government responsible for providing services in the area of the UK that you live in

PGR - Postgraduate researcher aka a PhD or research masters student

RTSG - Research and Training Support Grant

REF - Research Excellence Framework

Learn more about Doctoral Local Authority Fellowships here: https://www.nihr.ac.uk/nihr-doctoral-local-authority-fellowship-dlaf-guidance-notes-round-4

Have you ever felt like you're treated as "lesser than" in your PhD experience? Well have we got the episode for you! This month, our Damned Divas talk about our experiences with infantilisation (or babification) in academia.

With an ever so slight deviation on the saga that was Lakshmi Balakrishnan's masters degree, this is likely our longest rant!

Comment your experiences of infantilisation wherever you're hearing this podcast. :)

Chapters:

1. ​43 - Examples of how we're infantilised
2. ​04 - You're not supposed to be here
3. ​15 - F*** you, pay me!
4. ​51 - Doing the admin of academics for free
5. ​29 - Our control over when we submit our theses
6. ​01.52 - Lakshmi Balakrishnan
7. ​22.34 - Lack of adequate office space

Comment your red or green flags below!

What does a year of fieldwork do to a person? In this episode the damned divas explore just that through our favourite method of conversation; object elicitation! We reflect on the ups and downs of the past year while speculating about the future of our PhDs.

Ever wondered what it's like to do a PhD while have a neurological disability? This episode, the PhDamn ladies speak about our relationships with disability, from the way we define it to our experiences with our university's disability support services. Listen in!

Useful tools that we referred to in the episode that you can use (whether you're disabled or not):

Have you thought about the various ways in which you can disseminate your research? This week the damned divas explore the sexy etymology behind the word 'dissemination' and speak about the ways we would carry it out in our own PhD research.

So you spent the whole of your first year talking about the research you're going to do... but what happens when you actually have to do it? This week we have the first of many episodes about fieldwork. The ups, downs, smiles and frowns that come with practicing what you've preached.