Hi Nad75 thank you for sharing this.

I am a historian and a Taylor and Francis journal editor and I am really shocked by this abstract and article, not because of the ideas per se (that's standard pro-colonial theory that has been around for the past 250 years.), but because these are expressed without any supporting evidence. Has this article been edited at all? Peer reviewed?

If the author is rebuking something as solidly constructed as postcolonial theory, I would expect some equally solid argument in return. This is not about silencing academics, it's standing up for academic rigour and intellectual standards.

Stylistically it is full of colloquialisms and journalistic language.

A sentence such as: "Western colonialism was, as a general rule, both objectively beneficial and subjectively legitimate in most of the places where it was found, using realistic measures of those concepts" is just a personal opinion as it does not tell us what these realistic measures are and how these 'objective benefits' are - and what is 'subjectively legitimate'? There are no references to objective parameters in spite of the (empty) reference to them.

I would desk-reject this article - without sending it to peer review. I can deal very well with people thinking differently from me (I am a 19th century historian, basically, all the subjects of my study were either colonialists or supporters of colonialism) but I will not condone rants passing for journal articles.

The petition on change.org which calls for its retraction states its case eloquently: “The offending article has brought widespread condemnation from scholars around the globe. The article lacks empirical evidence, contains historical inaccuracies, and includes spiteful fallacies. There is also an utter lack of rigor or engaging with existing scholarship on the issue…We do not call for the curtailing of the writer’s freedom of speech. We instead hold ourselves and our colleagues in academia to higher standards than this. We expect academic journals to do the same."

I urge you to sign the petition on change.org.

Hello the Nerdy Workaholic... I think your name puts you in good stead for a PhD :) - I have found the PhD to be a complete kettle of fish from a masters - I had no dark moments during my masters and many during my PhD, but I understand now that the discomfort was actually me getting somewhere intellectually where I was not before.This is not to rain on your parade but prepare you that in case you go for the PhD and then it hurts... it's completely normal!

And I hear you about 'the money thing' - it was and is definitely an issue for me too.

You ask me a great question about industry or academia. I don't know yet. I have the cutting of a great industry job on my desk just at this very moment but on the other hand I need to sort out my bibliography and, small detail as it may be, I am finding that until my thesis looms large in my head I cannot really concentrate on anything else - has anybody else found this?

That's why I find myself, 6.30 am on a Sunday to work at my bibliography. I just want it totally done, to get my life back.

Hello all, how you doing? After almost exactly **three years on the dot*** I have now 'finished' my thesis! I am editing for submission, my sups want to glance at the whole thing one more, but I am nearly done. Done, done done - referencing, footnotes, illustrations, and now sorting out my final bibliography. How do you say DONE in all EU languages (oh. don't.)

I can't believe it! I had so many 'dark' moments! I have moaned so much ... to my family, to my friends, to everyone who would listen.


But I have done it (fatto, fini, finito!) and I think some parts of it are the best works I have ever produced... what next....what next?

I just wanted to wave, for once positively, to all of you that have finished saying HELLOOOO I will join you, hopefully soon (don't want to be too smug yet) BUT I want to give a particular message of solidarity out to those who are struggling. God. I feel your pain. "just keep swimming' - it will pass! Honestly I have thought so many times "I shall quit".

So tell me, what are you up to?

Sorry but I object to the 'international students' labelled as one. The world is a big place, you know?

Try not to care so much? And when you have found out how to do it, can you teach me how not to care as well, thank you!

I get so anxious.

Sundays are bad days.

Chapter-in-progress is a bad time.

Sunday-chapter-in-progress are the worse -days and times.

I spend the day eating rubbish, getting stressed and, in general, hating myself.

Then things get better but it's as if I need to get the bottom of despair for the situation to perk up.

Don't get me wrong, I am not bad at all.

I have already published quite extensively, I am a professional editor and I edit an academic journal.

I know what I am doing.

Yet, I suffer.

Fieri sentio, et excrucior.

I am used to writing and was published several times before starting the thesis - written long articles on peer-reviewed journals - I just did not expect the whole PhD process to hurt quite this much. I find Sunday mornings as particularly nasty times as I just want to cry and feel like a total failure on all fronts.

So, based on the assumption that action is better than moping (I do tend to curl in a ball and die type of thing) I'd like to start a thread on positive undertakings!

Today is Sunday so my positive action for today will be to give myself permission to have a day off from any writing work and just resolve a couple of administrative bits and bobs on my list - which mainly include invoicing people so - whe-hey! money = happiness... right?

I am glad for you people whose supervisor is not their boss.. my main supervisor is, well, not just my boss but an absolute monarch who gives conflicting information and sometimes has temper tantrums (this has been confirmed by all her students... I thought I was doing something wrong until I started asking around...) she is also very very good and even if her criticism is delivered without tact, she is very often correct. I have worked with lots of academics and she's by far the sharpest - she just knows how to make an argument 'work', catches up 'holes', suggests ways to strengthen the argument etc. SO... this is just to say... your supervisor may be your 'best friend'... Lucky you... but it's not always that way and for some of us it is a subordinate relationship and one has just got to get on with it and try to finish quickly and move on!

Chickpea- I SO hear ya! In my early years in the field I suffered so much in the hands of incompetent managers that I decided that my own way to 'leadership' was going to be 100% collaborative. One of my assistants in past years already had a PhD and I like to think that I was respectful and helpful and we learned a lot from each other. She still asks me for references - and usually gets the job - so I (we) may have done something right there! am also doing this PhD as it is more and more necessary in my line of work and realised that I could not apply for higher level jobs because, even if I have more than the experience/publications required I could not because I had no doctorate.

On funding, I am fully funded on a really low stipend (15k) BUT I am allowed to work 6 hours that, on consultancy basis, allows me triplicate that amount. I have kids and I could not feed them otherwise.

I am also doing a PhD in my 40s and, although there may be people of my age who do not take to criticism well, in my case it was not so as I was already an established academic writer and used to peer review... which can be SUPER FIERCE.... if one thinks supervision is hard, what are they going to do when they experience a harsh peer review? :D

There is a truth, however, that when you have reached a more mature age and a higher professional position it may be difficult to go back being a student simply because you are used to be influential in your decisions - for instance, I direct a high-prestige grant and I am used to be a senior manager, problem solve and be listened to whereas as a PhD student I need to follow departmental administration that hasn't really been well thought of. I must really 'sit on my hands' sometimes and resist the temptation to tell people how to do their job!

Another thing I find difficult is to move from shorter well-contained essays to am major project - but I tell myself that I undertook this PhD to learn writing book-length projects so now I cannot complain if it hurts a little.

In short, I'd say go for it - you won't regret the chance of producing meaningful work, I think.

Hi there all, I am new to this forum and currently writing up my thesis in Art History/Museology/Cultural Sociology for September 2017. I am doing relatively well, having written already about 45% of the thesis to my supervisors' satisfaction - but I am fully funded and there is so much pressure on me to do well that sometimes I feel rather overwhelmed. I am also anxiety-prone.

I am doing this PhD as a 'grown up', I already have an established career in my chosen field* and I have already published several (peer reviewed) articles in journals, in fact, I am an academic journal editor myself - this fact instead of reassuring me amplifies my anxiety - I really can't be messing up this one!

Anyway, I'd like to make contact with other people in the same situation, i.e writing up their thesis, and get to know how you are doing/coping.

* I chose to do a Phd mainly for two reasons: first, I wanted to write a book and this was way to get a long-term project funded
second, a PhDs is required for me to progress professionally.