Third year as a PhD student – done!
The first year of the doctoral degree program was memorable because it was exciting just to get started. The highlight of the second year was the PLL5 conference in Madrid, where I felt I had found my community. Now it is time to look back at my third year, 2025, as a doctoral researcher. At the start of 2025, I had just finished my 6-month grant and had to go back to teaching full-time and trying to fit my PhD into the little cracks of time I had in between. I had gotten a book chapter proposal accepted in late 2024 and was busy gathering data when the new year…
How to write a conference abstract
Conferences are an important, and a fun, part of being a phd student. You get to showcase your research and make important connections. As an introvert, I enjoy conferences as you can often skip the small talk and get to discuss interesting issues with people who are interested in the same topics as you are. That is, if you get into the conference in the first place! Depending on conferences, the amount of competition or what they are looking for can vary. Remember, that conference acceptances or rejections do not make your value as a researcher. I try to remind myself of this as well, as I was rejected from…
PHD Year Two – Done!
The first year of my PhD was full of refining my research plan, rewriting most of it, and conducting interviews for my empirical article known as Article 2. I also started a systematic review known as Article 1. During the first half of 2024, it was sometimes a struggle to balance full-time work and a PhD. The systematic review that had started well was put on hiatus and the little focus I was able to have, was given to the empirical study. The highlight of the Spring was my first international conference in Madrid and my very first poster presentation. That week in Madrid gave me a lot of confidence…
Getting started with academic writing
Scientific writing can be a scary thing for a new PhD student, at least that was the case for me. I wrote my research plan for a couple of years and once I was accepted into the program, I mostly read and collected data during my first year. I did not write at all! I felt that I was never ready to start writing, instead I read one more article, and another one, and then ten more. This week I published a video on my YouTube channel about getting rid of my fear of writing. Watch the full video above or directly on YouTube, but here are my three takeaways:
