Endings and Beginnings

My contract at work ends 31st March 2024. As with a lot of university roles, both academic and professional services, my role was project funded so when the project ends so does the funding to pay my wages. It is not truly a pleasant working environment in that respect, many […]

What you find when you clean up

Yes, yes, it’s a procrastination too, but I did need to clean up my office over the holiday break. Going through all the papers I’ve printed off, deciding what is still relevant, what I need to read, what I can discard. Found a whole sheaf of papers I wrote while […]

The boundary gap: some thoughts

Engagement, and the role of ‘boundary spanners’*, exists on some levels to close the gap between academia and community, and here I use community in its widest sense, any person or organisation working or involved with the university. That gap, I believe, is a gap of knowledge and trust, caused […]

The result of speaking up

In my previous post I shared that I was giving my first public presentation about my PhD research, it was to a group (small group) of colleagues from across campus. Most of whom I didn’t know. Reader, I was nervous. To mitigate my anxiety, and menopause memory challenges I decided […]

My first presentation

On Thursday 23rd November 2023 I am going to speak in public about my research for the very first time … to say I am nervous would be a vast understatement. Anyway, this is the gist of my speech tomorrow. Hello, I am Sharon Summers, Engagement and Knowledge Exchange Manager […]

You’re stronger than you think

This phrase is on a sticker at the top of today’s page of my TN daily journal. I need to remember it, daily. Remember it when I look at my lit review and wonder what to write next. Remember when I think of my upcoming Confirmation Panel and the butterflies […]

Literature Review (the beginning)

I’m coming up to my confirmation panel … 2 months and counting down … and my supervisors have advised that I do my lit review for it. I’ve been reading papers and making notes for ages, now I have to write about them? Rude! Anyway, I beat procrastination back into […]

Whiteboards & Canva Plotting

Further to my last post on finding the way that’s best for me … I’ve just digitalised the results of conversations from the last two days. I feel so much more confident about what I am doing (and my ability to do it). As one supervisor stated when she saw […]

Forge your own path

(and don’t be afraid to ask) Welcome to my island of imposter syndrome surrounded with the ocean of no confidence and overlooked by the mountains of fear. I’ve been struggling with my supervision sessions for a while. I have three amazing supervisors, all colleagues, all people I trust and have […]

Fuelled by Coffee

A little explanation … When I was dreaming up a name for this blog I decided on ‘fuelled by coffee’ as basically that is what keeps me going sometimes. I never drank coffee until I was pregnant with my first new life form, and then, for some reason, as my […]