The PhD Life Raft Podcast

Denise Venturi is Ph. D. Candidate in International Law at the Catholic University of Leuven, Belgium.  Her research focuses on the concept of vulnerability with reference to LGBTIQ+ asylum-seekers and refugees. At present, she is a Fellow at the Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology (Halle-Saale, Germany). She has worked for UNHCR in various protection roles, with a focus on refugee status...

Nicholas Dirks is President and CEO of the New York Academy of Sciences, one of the oldest scientific organizations in the United States. Previously, Nick served as Chancellor of the University of California, Berkeley and Executive VP and Dean of the Faculty for Arts and Sciences at Columbia University. He is the author of eight books, including the forthcoming book, City of Intellect: The Uses an...

Jen Polk did her PhD in History from the University of Toronto and went on to launch from Ph. D. to Life, a career coaching and speaking business.  She specialises in graduate education and careers for doctoral degree holders. She's also a guest speaker on university campuses and academic and professional conferences throughout North America and beyond.    In this episode we focus on life after co...

Dr. Kate Massey-Chase is an academic, facilitator, activist, performer and writer. She's a Lecturer at Plymouth Marjon University, where she's leading a new MA in Arts, Health and Wellbeing . As a creative arts practitioner, she has worked across a range of educational and community settings, including delivering theatre-based and creative writing projects with young migrants, recovering addicts,...

Samir Morsli is a postdoctoral research associate in the Munoz-Espin lab at The University of Cambridge. His research focuses on the early stages of lung cancer initiation and progression, primarily involving zombie-like senescent cells. During his PhD Samir carried out an Internship and worked as part of the Public Engagement team at The Babraham Institute.   In this episode Samir shares his expe...

Laura Revilla is a PhD candidate in Heritage Studies at Brandenburg University of Technology (BTU) in Cottbus, Germany. Her research focuses on understanding diverse forms of heritage and security in Mexican communities through bottom-up practices and decolonial thinking. Through her journey, she aims to discover the uses and relevance of heritage in our everyday lives.    In this episode Laura sh...

Dr Kaisa Pankakoski is a writer, researcher, translator, and multilingualism consultant. For her PhD at Cardiff University she looked at multilingual families' language ideologies, strategies, and experiences in Finland and Wales. During the course of her PhD, she gained grants from eleven different funding bodies in her two home countries to complete the thesis. In this episode Kaisa reflects on...

Rachel Campbell completed her PhD in visual culture, celebrity studies, and musicology. Her thesis, 'The image of musical celebrity in the Nineteenth Century' considers the way visual representations of musicians influenced how they were seen as celebrities through analysis of oil portraits, busts, prints and other ephemera. She also holds a Bachelor of Music (First Class Honours) and is a profess...

Professor Laurajane Smith completed her PhD part-time between 1990 and 1996 while working as a full time teaching and research academic at both Charles Sturt University and the University of New South Wales. She is currently Director of the Centre of Heritage and Museum Studies, Research School of Humanities and the Arts, the Australian National University. She is also a fellow of the Society for...

Dr Chrissi McCarthy is the founder and Managing Director of Constructing Equality. Over the past decade and a half, she has formulated and implemented research-based methodologies to bolster equality within diverse organisations. Her client portfolio spans prestigious institutions including the National Health Service and Bristol City Council.  Chrissi's PhD explored equality, fairness and inclusi...

Dr Rose Aslan was a tenured Professor of Religious Studies who found herself burnt out and, on a sabbatical in Istanbul, decided to step away from academia. From her current perspective, Rose explores what she would do differently if she were to do her PhD again. Rose acknowledges that, although there were some good moments, she didn't really enjoy her PhD experience and, with the benefit of hinds...

Dr Eve Grubin is the author of Morning Prayer (Sheep Meadow Press), The House of Our First Loving (Rack Press) and Grief Dialogue (Rack Press). She is a lecturer at NYU in London and a tutor at the Poetry School. Eve received an AHRC / TECHNE  scholarship to write her PhD thesis (Kingston University): 'Boat of Letters and the Poetics of Reticence: A Creative and Critical Thesis'.    In this episod...

Dr Inès Amami holds a PhD from Sorbonne Nouvelle University in French literature and civilization.  Her research is about the representation of the West and the Muslim world in the Encyclopédie de Diderot (18th century).   Ines is also a political activist in the field of women's rights and fights against all kinds of violence.  She is a single mother of an 11 year old daughter.     In this episod...

It's the 100th episode of The PhD Life Raft Podcast! Fleur Farish-Edwards - a gorgeous member of the PhD Life Raft community - is leading the celebrations with a reflection on the way in which the podcast has been party of her PhD journey. Fleur is an experienced counsellor and supervisor, and along with her wife, facilitates creative workshops as "Two Birds Therapy". Fleur is also a university le...

Yulia Karpova is undertaking her second PhD!  Yes, for her, once though the journey just wasn't enough!  In this week's episode we talk about how things are different the second time around.   Yulia is currently studying at the University of Southern Denmark. She also holds a PhD in History (2015) from Central European University. From 2016-18, she held a Maria Sklodowska Curie postdoc at Aarhus U...

Kate Henry  is a productivity coach, independent scholar, and author who lives outside Boston, Massachusetts in the U.S.  Kate received her MFA degree in Creative Writing and her Master's degree and Doctoral degree in Rhetoric and Composition from the University of Massachusetts Amherst.     In this episode, we focus on an upcoming event 'A Month of Mondays' - which is designed to help PhD researc...

David Mendes is the host of Papa PhD, a podcast that shares stories of post-PhD career journeys.  He is also the co-founder of a media agency dedicated to serving the research community.   In this episode David reflects on his own journey as, at the end of his PhD, he chose to look to for work beyond academia.     We also talk about why the world needs PhDs - and the valuable skills and experience...

Stella Duffy is completing a doctorate training in Existential Psychotherapy and her research is in the embodied experience of postmenopause.  Alongside her therapy work, Stella is an award-winning writer of seventeen novels, over seventy short stories and fifteen plays and worked in theatre for over thirty-five years as an actor, director, facilitator and improvisor. She has been active in equali...

Welcome to Season Eight of The PhD Life Raft Podcast!! We are kicking off with a fabulous interview that gives a wonderful overview of the PhD journey. Steven Segal is a psychologist and academic who also practices as a philosophical counsellor.  His PhD was in the philosophy of Education and his work as Associate Dean of Higher Degrees Research, as well as his own supervision of doctoral candidat...

Welcome to the final episode of Season Eight of The PhD Life Raft Podcast! In this interview I am talking with Lucy Nevitt, a freelance professional proofreader who specialises in working with academic texts and doctoral theses in the Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences fields. Lucy did her PhD in Drama at Royal Holloway, then spent a decade working as a full-time academic at UWE Bristol. For sev...

Lisa Woodruff is the founder & CEO of Organize 365®.  She shares strategies for reducing the overwhelm, clearing the mental clutter, and living a productive and organized life.    Lisa is the author of four books including, How ADHD Affects Home Organization  and The Paper Solution and has recently started a PhD in psychology.   In this episode Lisa shares how she has employed her organizing tacti...

Anna Clemens is an academic writing coach with a background in Chemistry and a experience as a science journalist.   In this episode we talk about undertaking training to support your PhD journey.   We talk about the unexpected learning that is part of the doctorate and how to identify your priorities.    Anna advises on how to find courses that can support your professional development - from che...

Jen Harrison earned her PhD from the University of Wales, and has since worked in academia as a lecturer and researcher at a number of institutions worldwide.  As well as publishing books and articles in her own field (children's literature), she has served as an editor and reviewer for a number of peer-reviewed publications, as well as freelancing as an academic editor.   In this episode we talk...

Rebecca Suart has been a Social Researcher in the Civil Service since graduating from her PhD in Education at the University of Nottingham in 2022. She started her academic journey and onto a PhD in her 40s after taking a career break from Further Education. Alongside her PhD, Rebecca worked in a number of universities as a lecturer and researcher in the field of Vocational Education and Training....

Catherine Pope was awarded her PhD in the field of Victorian Literature  by the University of Sussex in 2014. She then went on to publish that material as a monograph.     In this episode Catherine draws on her experience as an author, publisher and coach to share advice on  the options for publishing your work- either as a book, a chapter in an edited collection or journal articles.   Catherine e...