Anecdotally, we all know that animals make us happy. Spending a few minutes playing with a puppy or watching a video of some cute animals on YouTube is sure to put a smile on your face. But did you know that research has shown several benefits of spending time with …
Recruiting participants is a challenge for many psychosocial research projects, especially at a graduate level, where resources are scarce and project timelines are tight. Having just completed my online survey recruitment, I feel the urge to pass on my recently acquired knowledge on this topic. I do not claim I …
Qualitative research is an approach used extensively in social science, in which, methodologies such as Grounded Theory (GT) are developed and chosen by PhD students at the School widely. Grounded theory is a methodology for developing theory that is grounded in systematically gathered and analysed data with the aim to …
During this lockdown we are staying at home more than we are used to—spending most of our days sitting and lying down, maybe moving from the living room to the bathroom, then perhaps to the kitchen, and then back to the living room! As PhD students, we are trying to work on …
Annual reviews are deemed important points of progression during the PhD journey. In addition to being a progression review, the annual review helps to support students to successfully continue and complete their PhD journey. For first–year PhD students, annual reviews may be considered one of the most important points in their year, more so than subsequent annual …
It is Friday morning, before the “lockdown Monday” and I start planning my food shopping list for next week. I am planning to get some fruit, vegetables, chicken and beef. I go to the supermarket in the evening and the shelves where I was supposed to find those items, were empty, completely empty. My first thought was: …
The School of Health in Social Science is associated with different departments, subject areas and research topics. It can be inspiring to work across disciplines and to share a workspace with researchers from varying backgrounds. Focusing on similarities while benefitting from our differences helped us create our relatively new research …
When I started my PhD in 2018, two more experienced students (who are now Dr Somia Imran and Dr Temitayo Odewusi) organized a brilliant workshop on Viva preparation. It was my first year, but I was curious how the process of finishing three to four years of work would look …