I know of this one: http://www.phdcomics.com/proceedings/index.php
it's very much US-oriented and comes with some witty cartoons:)

I wouldn't worry about it either - my undergrad degree was in languages, my masters was in gender studies and my PhD is in sociology - and this route doesn't seem that uncommon in my department.

thought it might be nice to post something positive - I just learnt that I have been upgraded and officially am now registered for a PhD- so two more years of funding left - way to go:)

look up www.conferencealerts.com; you can also try subscribing to academic mailing lists in your area through www.jiscmail.ac.uk - my area is also quite interdisciplinary (social movements theories/Eastern Europe/gender studies/visual sociology) and I have found most information about conferences and events via these lists. good luck!

there's a girl in my department who got a funded place for a PhD after spending two years (one year full-time, second year part-time because of no funding) at a different university where she tried to do a PhD but had no proper supervision, no money etc. She did have to start from scratch in a sense in my department - but already had some foundation for a literature review and says she is very happy she came here as now she has funding and an excellent supervisor. So maybe it is worth tryinng starting again?

keep looking up the scholarship offers on jobs.ac.uk, sometimes departments wake up quite late and discover that after all the still have money to spend on a student bursary for September/October starting date (I know that this is what happened in my department last year). Also, another place to look for "last-minute offers" - some of which are addressed at overseas students - are academic mailing lists.Go to www.jiscmail.ac.uk and sign up for the lists that are relevant to your field, the lists that I am on periodically advertise studentships.good luck!

I understand where your question is coming from - but no, that wasn't really the issue at hand,I'm doing a PhD myself and we were seeing each other once a week or so - besides,I offered to her that until she is finished iwth the write-up I would adjust to her needs. The thing is, she has decided that there is no space for a relationship in her life at the moment.

my girlfriend decided that she needs to be "more obsessive about her PhD" and left me a couple of days ago...

Plus,there are some other places where you can get help - and I'm speaking here from my personal experience,I'm a non-UK student as well,just got dumped by my partner (who decided that her PhD is more important than me,whatever) and I have found it helpful to use helplines such as the Samaritans (www.samaritans.org) - you can e-mail them,call them 24/7,and there will always be somebody to talk to.

Dear Nore,I am sorry you are having problems. From what I have gathered while reaidng this forum,going through my own PhD and talking to people is that having no data in your 8th month is not necessarily cause for alarm - the process of getting a PhD is messy and takes you through a lot of ups and downs.As for your mental well-being-I understand you might not want to take anti-depressants,but sometimes they can help you see the world in brighter colours and once your mood is up,then the PhD will seem easier.If you think that the counselor doesn't understand you, you can always try and change them-must be more than one at the counseling service?

exercise is good - I did yoga for two terms,now try to swim everyday.It is quite easy to learn basic techniques of relaxation-plenty of stuff on the web,and you can always use your university nurse practicioners to talk to you about that, and the counselling service can be helpful if you want to make some more structured changes.anyway,hope that the stress goes down soon!

I feel very lucky now, too - I'm nearing the end of my first year now (social sciences) and the way it's worked so far was that I would meet with my supervisor every 3-4 weeks. At each meeting I would tell her which part of the literature review I am preparing for the next meeting, we would agree on the deadline for me to send it (usually a week before the next meeting) and we would arrange a date for the next meeting as well.

http://www.kent.ac.uk/studying/funding/postgraduate/
link to postgraduate funding at Kent

how about use tinurl.com - this will help you condense the link into something manageable and short

new social movements, with an emphasis on activism occuring in public space (marches, demonstrations, pride parades and the like)