Hi! I just found this post on the forum by chance! If these was a message function I would message you. Sorry, hope you don't think I am rude. I see you last logged in on 11th June - so you might not even read this!

My PhD looks at exotic animals both living and dead in the eighteenth-century (Britain). Building on ideas like object biographies and eighteenth-century 'it-narratives' or 'novels of circulation' (18th century literary genre giving objects voices) l explore how these exotic animals were constructed as objects or 'things'. I look at ideas like animals as commodities, as political symbols, or as objects of sensory and emotional engagement. I track how the status of these animal objects changed over the long eighteenth-century. I look particularly at early museums and menageries. A lot of my work is concerned with eighteenth-century ideas about what constitutes an 'animal'. Whilst doing my PhD I have become increasingly interested in the cultural history of animal rights - and this has informed my own ideas about animals in the present.

What is your research on? :-)

In my first year I was lucky enough for my department to pay full time fees for me. But I didn't get the AHRC so had to work for 20 hours a week in the university library.

It was hard work and by the time my AHRC acceptance letter came in August last year I was exhausted. My project probably has been damaged - my records for my reading in my first year are scant. But at least I managed to do some kick-ass research,

Good luck.

My boyfriend got an acceptance (but it was a thin letter of justice) from the AHRC today. He applied for English (theory)

:-)

I find using the toilet a neccesary yet revolting thing. I would never read or write there. I just want to forget about it! :$;-):p

I'll send soya or seitan? Maybe tempeh?:-)

I am 59% real! Does that make me almost ethereal! I do hope so! :p

Hi. I'm looking at eighteenth-century sources (popular printed ephemera, etchings, natural histories, paintings).

For example, I found an aspect of a particular series of advertisements interesting - a constantly recurring feature. I checked in the secondary literature and found a broad range of theoretical stances to take, but that had not been applied to the material I found interesting. So I did that.

I would be more specific but I find it hard to give up nuggets of research online!

But seriously, I think you can't go wrong with looking at the primary stuff, picking out trends that interest you, looking at the secondary literature in that broard area, an applying it to your framework. Usually when I try and fit sources into a framework I try and see what other academics have done with similar material in different periods. That is helpful in developing theories to best intrerpret your own sources.

Writing history is something I always struggle with though. I'm crap with chronology

:-s

Thanks! Trust me to not be procrastinating and checking the forum on the very days the stars are handed out!!!!!:-)

I wanna star!!! :-s

Pretty please :-)

How awful! PhD failure is a real nightmare of mine (and probably loads of us!) but at least I know my supervisors would NEVER let me submit if they thought I could fail!

urm, because Jade decided to drag it up...