aPhDinprogress

"What you  do makes  a difference, and you have to decide what kind of  difference you want to make" Jane Goodall  I first studied Zoology at the University of Sheffield and many of my contemporaries (class of '83) went straight into PhDs and from there into academic institutions. I went to live in a tent on a camp site in Devon to volunteer in a small zoo (which no longer exists) in order to get experience of working with real live animals rather than just the theory of them.  From there I went to a mud hut on the banks of a tropical river in The Gambia to work for the Chimpanzee Rehabilitation Project. Two years later, having become convinced that the outcomes would be better if the people of the place were both architects and implementers of conservation initiatives, I stopped being an interloper and came home. Just over 10 years of work with UK environmental charities followed: complete with miscellaneous adventures starring White Faced Wh...

  "Whatever you can do or dream you can, begin it.   Boldness has genius, power and magic in it"   Johann Wolfgang von Goethe A PhD is something I have thought about for a very long time.  Recently I read a quote that went something like "to do a PhD you either have to be crazy or crazy about your subject". Whilst I may indeed have touches of the former I certainly have the latter. I find the vocabulary of my thoughts about the idea of researching and reading enough to earn that title 'Doctor of Philosophy' quite revealing. I have heard others talk about 'needing' or 'wanting' a PhD, about 'getting' or 'finishing' a PhD to complete their C.V. or about a PhD as a magic key to a wonderful world of secure employment and the warm balm of admiration from their peers. My thinking always has, and still does, run on a different track.  For me a PhD has been framed as something meaningful to do in order to add ...