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Hope this is not too intrusive. Please ignore this ask if it is. How did you apply for a PhD in Australia? Did you get a scholarship or are you paying for it?

hello, not intrusive at all!

I just followed the steps outlined on the uni website but before that I did take a couple of months to work on my draft proposal, getting my documents together (academic transcripts, degree certificates, IELTS test report, CV), reaching out to potential references. I had already been listing down potential PhD supervisors (which kept changing as my proposal changed) and application deadlines. honestly, I wasn't very organised.

I'm on a full scholarship (tuition offset+stipend) and also working as a research assistant. Please NEVER NEVER do a self-funded PhD. PhDs are difficult and expensive; it will be very hard to financially support yourself while also doing a full-time PhD. Moreover, it is just unethical for universities to not pay graduate researchers because you're technically working for the uni. imho accept a PhD offer only if it comes with funding. I rejected an offer from the first uni I had applied to because I did not receive any funding. It turned out for the best. In fact, I was always clear that I wouldn't do a PhD without full funding and I would have waited for years, if needed, or just given up my aspirations for a career in academia.

#ask answered #phdblr #phd life #phd

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30.04.2024 // autumnal palette.

I have been trying to wake up early so that I can get on early start on the day. But I end up self-sabotaging. Last night, I stayed up till 4AM binge-watching Lovely Runner, all the while knowing that I've to wake up for a 10AM meeting. I shall try again tomorrow.

I continue to be on a quest to make this desk my own, even though I have to move to another workspace next year. A friend got me a cute mooshroom flip toy and I've decided to use it as a mood indicator — red mooshroom for positive moods, brown mooshroom for negative moods.

as far as thesis is concerned, I'm making some progress, I suppose. Currently, I'm reading about feminist archives and archiving practice, and some affect theory on the side. I am also creating a Dublin Core Metadata Element Set for one of the digital archives that will be my 'case study'. This is pure grind and I usually do it when I'm hanging out with friends after dinner.

My brain is my own enemy because it is unable to focus on one task and then I end up not doing anything. Okay, that is not true. I am doing things but it feels like I am not >.<

#studyblr #studyblr community #academia #studyspo #studying #study blog #phdblr #study #university #student life #study aesthetic #study motivation #phd life #phd

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27.04.2024 // I read halfway through Kate Eichhorn'sThe Archival Turn in Feminism: Outrage in Order while soaking up the sun in the deck.

Eichhorn's seminal work on feminist archives of feminist organising and feminist archiving practices is quite useful to me. But it always amazes me how scholars theorising from and about the West use such universalising and generalising language.The Archival Turn is about specific zines and other cultural materials produced by girls and young women in the US. Yet, due to the title, one might think that there was an archival turn in Feminism™ across geographical, sociocultural and political contexts at the same time.

#studyblr #studyblr community #academia #studyspo #studying #study blog #phdblr #study #study motivation #study aesthetic

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24.04.2024 // slowly becoming one with this desk. the wires bother me a lot so i've sought advice from a friend on how to organise them better. hopefully, they'll stop looking like such dump. a colleague also donated her french press to the office, which means that i don't have to spend $10 on coffee everyday because frankly, that is utterly absurd and I had, in fact, stopped drinking coffee for a while. but can't do without that caffeine; it keeps me functioning.

#studyblr #studyblr community #academia #studyspo #studying #study blog #phdblr #study #phd life #gradblr #coffee

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23.04.2024 // some affect theory and writing on a fairly warm day. i'm taking it slow this week, mostly because i feel lazy and kind of...blah.

affect always escapes any attempt to explain or understand it because it lies outside of language or cognition. perhaps that explains why affect seems so vague and abstract. im trying to figure out if affect theory will be useful for my research but I won't pursue it if it continues to be beyond my grasp.

#studyblr #studyblr community #academia #studyspo #studying #study blog #phdblr #study #phd life #phd #study aesthetic #university

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20.04.2024-21.04.2024 // it is strange how time functions. each day feels so long and then i look back and realise that months have passed. research work is picking up steam but I've been adamant about carving out social time for myself. perhaps, i'm not being as productive as i could be. but i cannot let my research/work consume me; un/non-productive time is as productive.

a snapshot of my days – studying during the day and chill time post-dinner.

#studyblr #studyblr community #academia #studyspo #studying #study blog #phdblr #study #productivity #study aesthetic #phd life

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16.04.2024 // a long day of cultural research workshop where I got to share some of the challenges I'm struggling with during this beginning phase of my research as I begin working on my literature review and methodology. it was also so fascinating to hear about other research projects that are at various stages of development.

concluded the day with Howl, Sophie & Calcifer.

#studyblr #studyblr community #academia #studyspo #studying #study blog #phdblr #study #study aesthetic #study motivation #student life #student

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13.04.2024 // slept through the day and was plagued by heartbreaking dreams. so I took myself out on yet another date, this time with T. Kingfisher's The Twisted Ones. I am thoroughly enjoying the narrative voice so far. Also decided to confront my brain and journal a bit.

#journal #studyblr #studyblr community #academia #studyspo #studying #study blog #bookshelf #coffee #study #study aesthetic #study motivation

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12.04.2024 // took the day off to clean my room, do laundry and other chores. afterwards — lunch date with Emily Wilde's Map of the Otherlands, then a BBQ, then cloistered myself away at our refuge.

#studyblr #studyblr community #academia #studyspo #studying #study blog #phdblr #study #study aesthetic #student life

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"...the question of the archive is not, we repeat, a question of the past. This is not the question of a concept dealing with the past which might already be at our disposal or not at our disposal, an archivable concept of the archive. It is a question of the future, the question of the future itself, the question of a response, of a promise and of a responsibility for tomorrow. The archive: if we want to know what this will have meant, we will only know in the times to come."

— Derrida, J., & Prenowitz, E. (1995). Archive Fever: A Freudian Impression. Diacritics, 25(2), 9-63.

#quotes #derrida #archives #theory

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bought this gem secondhand and can’t get over how stunning it is 🪐 reblog is okay, don’t repost/use

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09.04.2024 // motivating myself to read Derrida and to write daily reflections in my researcher's journal.

it has been raining quite a bit and the weather is becoming cold, but there have been some pockets of sunshine.

#journal #studyblr #studyblr community #academia #studyspo #studying #study blog #phdblr #study

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07.04.2024 // trying my best to work on my literature review while my brain is trying its best to hold onto reality.

i'm simultaneously excited and frustrated by how easily i tend to get distracted. today i began by reading about the impossibility of a total archive, which led me to reading about our compulsive and obsessive need to document and record everything (this studyblr is a good example), and i ended up going down a rabbit hole of literature on the intersections between death and technology.

🎧 calm before the storm

#studyblr #studyblr community #academia #studyspo #studying #study blog #phdblr #study #flowers #student life #study aesthetic #study motivation #research

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Hey :) what did you think of welcome to the hyunam-dong bookshop? I saw it on one of your posts on my feed & was curious to hear your thoughts!!

honestly I've mixed feelings about it. on one hand, i loved the slice of life, slow-paced narrative. each of the characters are resisting and questioning capitalist notions of labour and productivity in their own way, while struggling with burnout. also loved the descriptions of the bookstore; I felt like I was a part of it. in that way, it was a very cosy read. but on the other hand, it felt incomplete...? the narrative doesn't really go anywhere and I'm usually okay with that because life is like that, right? sometimes you just exist without any movement or growth, or it all occurs imperceptibly. but I just wish there had been something in terms of the story arriving somewhere. maybe that's because when I read the book, I wanted to arrive somewhere instead of merely existing.

tl:dr welcome to the hyunam-dong bookshop is a slow and cosy read with little to no conflict. however, the narrative doesn't really go anywhere.

#bookblr #welcome to the hyunam dong bookshop #reading list #reading #books & libraries #korean literature #ask answered

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"...death is one of the most radical attempts to destroy life and to abolish all debts in relation to it. The act of dying, inasmuch as it entails the dislocation of the physical body, never attacks totally, nor equally successfully, all the properties of the deceased (in either the figurative or the literal sense). There will always remain traces of the deceased, elements that testify that a life did exist, that deeds were enacted, and struggles engaged in or evaded."

— Mbembe, A. (2002). The Power of the Archive and its Limits. In C. Hamilton, V. Harris, J. Taylor, M. Pickover, G. Reid, & R. Saleh (Eds.) Refiguring the Archive (pp.19-27). Springer Netherlands.

#quotes #achille mbembe #death #archives #memory

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06.04.2024. // Easter break; finally saw the ocean. back to the grind now.

#journal #travel #australia

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27.03.2024 // first meeting with my advisory committee, getting some focussed reading done, attending a completion seminar, and preparing a paper for a workshop.

[no playlist today; I didn't want my brain to wander off into dreamlands]

#studyblr #studyblr community #academia #studyspo #studying #study blog #phdblr #study #phd life