The Early Career Researcher Podcast

In the first of a series of episodes on academic publishing, Charlie is joined by Rosie Bonté (@Rosie Bonte on X/Twitter) from academic publishers Brepols (www.brepols.net). Rosie talks us through her journey from PhD research on Viking Scandinavia through to her appointment as Publishing Manager at Brepols, with advice on how to get into the publishing business. We also discuss some tips in acade...

Following on from our previous episode on Writing Conference Papers, Charlie and Olivia were joined by a new guest (Charlotte) to share our thoughts on attending academic conferences. We discussed: 1) what we like about conferences and what we get from attending them; 2) how to prepare before attending; 3) how to get the most out of the actual sessions; 4) the dreaded 'Networking', and 5) how to f...

In this episode, Rachael and Charlie discuss their experiences of conference papers. With summer conference season coming up, we're busy writing our papers and thinking about how to get the best out of our experiences. Our discussion touches on topics including: what makes a good (or bad) conference paper, how to actually write a good paper (and how long it takes), and we also reflect on what are...

In this episode, Charlie, Olivia and Rachael take time to discuss teaching jobs in academia: we covered 1) the types of teaching-focused job opportunities that exist, 2) the skills and experiences you might need to apply for these jobs, and 3) what makes good and not so good applications (Charlie in particular, recommended Karen Kelsky's The Professor is In', which you can find with a quick online...

Charlie and Rachael are joined by our guest contributor, Laura, as we discuss the topic of writing monographs. Discussion points include: 1) WHY we might want to write a humanities monograph; 2) how the publication process works; 3) how you can decide whether you have a good topic for a book, and 4) how to actually get your writing done. If you like the episode, you can follow the show on Spotify,...

In Episode 8, we discussed careers options outside of academia. With Rich, who works as a university careers advisor after finishing his PhD in 2020, we discussed: 1) some statistics on the numbers of PhDs who continue into academia; 2) reasons why ECRs might want to leave academia; and 3) some advice on how to decide what other careers might appeal. Links mentioned in the show: https://t.co/Au6T8...

When is the best time for academics to have children? What challenges does having children pose for the life of an Early Career Researcher? What information do ECRs need to help them make decisions about their future family plans? Whether you are certain that you don’t want children, or whether you don't know exactly when and how to make it happen around your career, or whether you have children a...

In this sixth episode, Charlie, Rachael and Olivia discuss how to apply for postdoctoral research positions in the UK and beyond. We discuss open-call funding schemes, as well as specific PDRA (post-doctoral research associate) job schemes, and we give our tips on how the system works, and how you can make the most of your applications. If you liked this episode, please give us feedback via Twitte...

In this episode, Charlie, Olivia and Rachael discussed the issues that we face as ERCs when we want to take holidays from our work. We felt like ECRs are under such huge pressure to produce work and keep up with the pace of the academic world, sometimes we can struggle to feel like we deserve a holiday, or sometimes we feel like we can't fully switch off when are are on one. So our podcast aims to...

In this episode, Charlie and Olivia are joined by a new contributor, Ana, as we discuss something that nearly all ECRs worry about: how to improve your academic writing! Almost every humanities researcher is responsible for disseminating their research by writing about it. Whether you are trying to write your PhD thesis, writing a conference paper, writing a journal article, or hoping to one day w...

In this episode, Charlie, Rachael and Olivia discuss a the tricky topic of ‘How to Start a New Research Project’. Whether you are starting out on researching for a new PhD, whether you’ve finished that and you’re now starting a new research job, or even if you are an experienced researcher trying to begin work on your fifth book, beginning the first phases of a project can be a daunting, and at ti...

Last time, we talked about the decision-making process: reasons for wanting to do a PhD, and offering up our experiences on what we felt it can been like to do a PhD (If you haven’t heard it, go back and listen to our different perspectives in Episode 1). In this episode, we discussed how to apply for a PhD, with questions like: - How does the actual process work, and what do I need to get started...

In our very first episode of the new pod, we explored one of the most important questions an early career research can ask, because it effectively starts your career: this question is: ‘Should I apply to do a PhD?’ Not everybody knows how the process works, so we discussed some basic questions relating to reasons for wanting to do and what it is actually like to do a PhD. If you enjoyed the podcas...