The Roey Grads Podcast

This bonus episode features a longer cut of Will's conversation with Sripadma Ganapathi, a third-year Dance PhD student of Roehampton's School of Arts. A dancer, and teacher, of Bharatanatyam, an Indian classical dance form, Sripadma shares details of her  interdisciplinary research, which aims to create a dance-based warm-up routine for Bharatanatyam dancers to help reduce the form's high injury rates. 

Her multidisciplinary mixed-method approach involves ethnographic sourcing movements from an ancient Hindu text, the Nāṭya Shāstra, and validating their effectiveness using motion capture technology, in collaboration with the School of Life Sciences.  

We chat about the personal and academic journey to her doctorates, joys and pains, support and recommendations. 

Mentioned: 

• PhD Help on Instagram 

The Roey Grad Podcast is a presentation of the University of Roehampton’s Graduate School.  

Our theme music is by DiamondTunes 
 
Our hosts are two PhDs of Roehampton, Charles Miller and Will Berard, who also edits and mixes the podcast. It was produced by Aaliyah Hassan. 

Comments, questions, want to appear on the show? Get in touch at [email protected] 

In her PhD in Philosophy, Claire Hamlett explores the idea of animal homes. As a freelance journalist, Claire had been interested to read Wildlife as Property Owners (2020) by Karen Bradshaw, which discussed how animal habitats could be protected in law. Claire decided to take the subject further by embarking on a PhD to see how far those ideas could be extended by thinking of animals as living not simply on territories or building shelters but creating homes. Animals don’t need to be able to explain their reasons for what they are doing, Claire says, but they clearly have agency. In this show, Charles enjoys a wide-ranging discussion with Claire about animal rights, human responsibilities and the pair of jackdaws in her neighbour’s chimney.    

Chapters 

00.50 Claire’s work in journalism 

03.10 The difference between ‘where animals live’ and ‘animal homes’ 

05.43 What would be the effect of thinking of ‘homes’ for animals? 

07.56 Animal agency 

10.58 How to avoid anthropomorphising animals 

13.09 Should all animals be treated with equal respect?  

15.58 Implications for zoos 

18.02 Claire’s practical investigations of animal homes 

19.20 The jackdaws next door 

The Roey Grad Podcast is a presentation of the University of Roehampton’s Graduate School.  

Our theme music is by DiamondTunes 
 
Our hosts are two PhD students at Roehampton, Charles Miller and Will Berard, who also edits and mixes the podcast. It was produced by Aaliyah Hassan. 

Comments, questions, want to appear on the show? Get in touch at [email protected] 

A longer cut of Will’s interview with Jian Bakir, a third year Education PhD student. Jian’s thesis explores the experience of primary school teachers in active war zones – in this instance Aleppo, Syria. They discuss the very personal path to Jian’s research, the difficulties of collecting data from a war zone, her likes, dislikes and recommendations when it comes to doctoral life.  

Recommendations: 

AI for literature: 

- https://elicit.com 

- https://scite.ai 

The PhD Life Raft podcast 

The Grad Coach YouTube channel 

Chapters 

The Roey Grad Podcast is a presentation of the University of Roehampton’s Graduate School.  

Our theme music is by DiamondTunes 
 
Our hosts are two PhD students at Roehampton, Charles Miller and Will Berard, who also edits and mixes the podcast. It was produced by Aaliyah Hassan. 

Comments, questions, want to appear on the show? Get in touch at [email protected] 

Will interviews Sanjini Kedia, a Dance Therapy student in the School of Arts, who has submitted her thesis, for defence in 2026. 

• Sanjini’s research profile 

• Sanjini’s latest publication (out since the recording) 

• Zotero, a free, open-source, multi-platform software for bibilography management 

Chapters 

00:08 Introduction 

02:30 The core research question 

03:36 Following on from the Masters 

05:30 Post-qualitative methodology 

07:14 The embodied film 

09:13 Positionality, in the UK and India 

13:23 Epistemology and epistemic injustice 

16:30 After the PhD 

18:55 Managing information in doctoral research 

20:55 Wellness and mental health tips for PhD study 

The Roey Grad Podcast is a presentation of the University of Roehampton’s Graduate School.  

Our theme music is by DiamondTunes 
 
Our hosts are two PhD students at Roehampton, Charles Miller and Will Berard, who also edits and mixes the podcast. It was produced by Aaliyah Hassan. 

Comments, questions, want to appear on the show? Get in touch at [email protected] 

A longer version of Charles’ Interview with Catherine Archer-Richards, who is in the final months of her PhD in History. Catherine’s thesis, “Shakespeare as the ‘girl’s friend’” investigates the way girls in the Victorian era encountered the works of Shakespeare, at home and at school. She situates the influence of these early literary encounters on the evolving conceptions of girlhood, and the emancipation of women over the Victorian period.  

We also hear about Catherine’s path to a PhD, the practicalities of archive research, relationships with supervisor, and the crucial tip to always note down the page number of quotes!  
 

The Roey Grad Podcast is a presentation of the University of Roehampton’s Graduate School.  

https://www.roehampton.ac.uk/study/academic-areas/graduate-school 

Our theme music is by DiamondTunes.  
https://pixabay.com/users/diamond_tunes-25553362 
 
Our hosts are two PhDs of Roehampton, Charles Miller and Will Berard, who also edits and mixes the podcast. It was produced by Aaliyah Hassan. 

Comments, questions, want to appear on the show? Get in touch at [email protected] 

Himan Heidari’s PhD research was inspired by reading a nineteenth century account by a Westerner who visited his home town in Iran.

That led to his interest in women travel writers of that period and their reports of interactions with those they encountered, including the Kurds. In this show, Himan talks about what he’s learnt from the three writers his work is focussed on and how he reads their story through his own history.

- The National Association for the Teaching of English (NATE) Billy Waters Project - Selena Scott (Art) and Dr Ben Marsh (Words)’s Graphic Novel on Billy Waters

Chapters

2.00 Encounters between Kurds and Western women

3.15 Isabella Bird

8.25 Research processes

10.00 Women vs male travel writers

11.05 Letter-writing as the source of travel texts

14.22 Gertrude Bell’s prolific writing

15.00 Special access enjoyed by women travellers

16.23 Taking Mary Shannon’s Billy Waters book to schools

19.30 Graphic novels of women travel writers

20.38 Himan’s next steps after his PhD

The Roey Grad Podcast is a presentation of the University of Roehampton’s Graduate School. Our theme music is by DiamondTunes Our hosts are two PhD students at Roehampton, Charles Miller and Will Berard, who also edits and mixes the podcast. It was produced by Aaliyah Hassan.

Comments, questions, want to appear on the show? Get in touch at [email protected]

A longer version of Will’s interview with Natalie Cairns-Ratter, which aired earlier this year. Natalie is a musician, music teacher, and mother of an Autistic son, which all led her, first to a Master of Education at the Royal College of Music, then to her doctorate. 

Natalie’s research investigates experiences of flow  - full immersion and intense focus on a task – during music practice, with the view of reconceptualising ‘repetitive behaviours’ of Autistic children as flow experiences. 

Her work is part of a broader movement for Autistic-led research (a particular aspect of the “nothing about us without us” movement in disability studies) and Critical Autism Studies.  She is also full of useful recommendations for scholarship and wellbeing.  

• Natalie’s LinkedIn page. 

• Natalie’s research profile. 

Books mentioned: 

• The Routledge handbook of Critical Autism Studies (D Milton, S Ryan editors) 

• Ginny Russell’s The Rise of Autism 

• Prof. Ockelford’s Comparing Notes  

If you are a Roehampton student, these are all available at our excellent Library page! 

Podcasts: 

• BBC Radio 4’s The Autism Curve 

• The PhD LifeRaft 

Also, Connected Papers, a tool mapping the connections within the literature, and  Attention Restoration Theory (incl. ‘soft fascination’) on the benefits of Nature for attention and cognitive health. 

Links mentionned: 

Chapters 

The Roey Grad Podcast is a presentation of the University of Roehampton’s Graduate School.  

Our theme music is by DiamondTunes 
 
Our hosts are two PhD students at Roehampton, Charles Miller and Will Berard, who also edits and mixes the podcast. It was produced by Aaliyah Hassan. 

Comments, questions, want to appear on the show? Get in touch at [email protected] 

Today books for children are a lucrative part of the publishing business. Juliet Harrison is studying how they emerged in the first half of the nineteenth century through the work of a number of women writers, including the extraordinarily prolific Harriet Martineau. In the show, Juliet explains how she came to her thesis through related previous work and talks about how she hopes to build on the work she is studying with her own writing  

Chapters 

01.30 Books that were considered safe for children to read. 

03.32 Authorial responsibility for child readers. 

05.25 Examples of children’s writers.  

08.17 Strategies used to make children’s books educational.  

11.11 Moral and commercial pressures to make books educational.  

14.28 Women writers of children’s books. 

17.50 Market segmentation in publishing. 

19.30 Juliet’s PhD journey 

The Roey Grad Podcast is a presentation of the University of Roehampton’s Graduate School.  

Our theme music is by DiamondTunes 
 
Our hosts are two PhD students at Roehampton, Charles Miller and Will Berard, who also edits and mixes the podcast. It was produced by Aaliyah Hassan. 

Comments, questions, want to appear on the show? Get in touch at [email protected] 

An extended version of Will’s interview with Hana, whose episode aired earlier this year. Hana Iqtait, third year doctoral candidate at the University of Roehampton’s School of Business and Law, is its academic representative for graduate students. In their conversation, we learn about her very personal journey to a PhD topic, the challenges of isolation in the first year of one’s PhD and how Hana overcame it, with some bonus content on the enduring popularity of a certain cult 90s sitcom.  

About Hana: 

Hana is a PhD candidate at Roehampton University, working under the guidance of esteemed supervisors, Dr. Irma Malafronte, Dr. Mamata Parhi, and Dr. Rodrigo Souza, from 2022 to 2026. Her academic journey includes a Master's in Project Management from the University of Bedfrodshire, UK, and a Bachelor's in Contemporary Business Administration from Palestine Polytechnic University. With seven years of university teaching experience in project management and business models, along with a year as a project coordinator with NGOs, Hana combines academic rigor with practical expertise. Her current research focuses on infrastructure project resilience in Palestine, reflecting her passion for bridging theory and real-world application. 

• Hana’s LinkedIn page 

• Hana’s research profile 
   

The Roey Grad Podcast is a presentation of the University of Roehampton’s Graduate School.  

Our theme music is by DiamondTunes 
 
Our hosts are two PhD students at Roehampton, Charles Miller and Will Berard, who also edits and mixes the podcast. It was produced by Aaliyah Hassan. 

Comments, questions, want to appear on the show? Get in touch at [email protected] 

Like a lot of other English words, you can’t spell Christmas without A.I. Charles has crafted a surprise for the team, which we share with you. 

The Roey Grad Podcast is a presentation of the University of Roehampton’s Graduate School.  

Our theme music is by DiamondTunes 
 
Our hosts are two PhD students at Roehampton, Charles Miller and Will Berard, who also edits and mixes the podcast. It was produced by Aaliyah Hassan. 

Comments, questions, want to appear on the show? Get in touch at [email protected]