I Knew My PhD Would Test My Patience; I Didn’t Think It Would Test My Entire Belief System
There’s a term that often crops up in Migration and Refugee Studies scholarship: temporal uncertainty. It describes the lack of information and clarity regarding one’s future, the way this impact …
Read MoreWoman Heals Self-Esteem Through the Powers of FRIENDSHIP and LESBIANISM
Back in June, I set myself a challenge. A little experiment. After my lesbian awakening had put me through the ringer and taught me some valuable lessons about where I …
Read MoreReframing, Re-potting, Rerouting
A few months before I moved to London, my mum bought me a monstera plant. She told me that taking care of a plant is a good reminder to take …
Read MoreOnce More, With Feeling
After two years and nine months of learning Ukrainian, something glorious and unprecedented has happened. My obsession-prone, attention-span-of-a-goldfish brain has finally hyperfixated on something useful: the Ukrainian language. My brain …
Read MoreMuses and Main Character Energy
In the months before I left Glasgow, the whole city felt claustrophobic. Layers of memories lined the streets, stacked haphazardly on top of each other until my past held greater …
Read MoreReconciling With the Personal in PhD Research
Last night Russia launched its 4th mass drone attack on Kyiv this month. 1300 miles away I am writing about gender and forced migration for my PhD’s literature review. I …
Read MoreWhat I’ve Learnt In The First Year Of My PhD
When you tell people you want to do a PhD, the most common response is “why on earth would you want to do that?”, frequently followed by “oh, I could …
Read MoreThe Hopeless and Romantic
London’s heat has faded to a humid greyness, and I lie sprawled on my bed, listening to Maude Latour’s Save Me and thinking about romance novel protagonists and the voids …
Read MoreNew Queer’s Resolutions
The other night, in a moment of drunken clarity that definitely did not coincide with crying on the tube, I wrote a list called “New Queer’s Resolutions”. Like New Year’s …
Read MoreWhen the Need Arises
As the hills of Cumbria and Lancashire disappear behind me through the train window, Lana Del Rey’s Bluebird urges me to “find a way to fly” through my headphones. I …
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