I'm on Phdbug's side for this one.  Weirdness is relative. Besides, anyone who is in the position of doing a 'weird' PhD won't consider it to be weird, so no one will be able to say whether their PhD is weird or not - note how any replies to this thread are about OTHER people's PhD's.

You've asked a question that no one can answer.

Isn't this question just a bit of light relief?

ok how about a PhD that's least academic! not in Humanities or English etc unless its a PhD on famous dictator mustaches through time!! and loosely based on something academic!

And the moral of the thread is: no PhD student will ever come close to admitting, in any way, that their research is strange, or an unusual choice. Also, they are, on the whole, reluctant to cast the first stone about the research of others, lest they get a whopping great boulder catapulted right back at them. This is no laughing matter.

People have expressed bemusement and astonishment at my choice of research topic - but that is because they are fools.

My choice of research topic is...feet. And nope, there's nothing deviant about me - apart from a failure to shave for a week. So beat that anyone!

We can open this up to the PhDs you've heard about (i.e. not your own research).

I've seen one for studying salad leaves.. I'm sure its interesting to some.. and very important but i do think spending 3 years studying salad leaves would be very odd!!

I have my Monkey Man project. (up)

No wait, that's my secret hobby project. ;-)

For my PhD I'm working on skeletons. :-)

Back when I was a valuable member of society working in the marketing department of a major corporation, I used to sit behind a desk eight hours a day, writing letters from a man who didn't exist to millions of people I'd never met, in an attempt to persuade them to spend money they didn't have on things they didn't want, thus lining the pockets of yet more people I'd never met.

If that's considered 'normal' and a fruitful use of one's time, I'm not sure how I'd go about assessing the relative 'weirdness' of my my PhD topic (in philosophy of mind) now I'm a worthless sponger using taxpayers' money to indulge my appetitite for airy-fairy pontificating. I certainly *hope* it's weird.

I've heard the interview about the ping pong research on Radio 4 twice now and I thought the PhD student acquitted herself really well.

Having listened to it twice, however, that's four times I've heard Laurie Taylor ask her when she's going to submit her thesis. Doesn't he know that every time you ask a PhD student that question, a fairy dies?

Magictime - did you used to be Santa?!!

My PhD isn't on a weird topic at all, I'm studying gifted education, but if I had to choose another topic I would love to do a PhD on Harry Potter. And I know there are some people who have!

Aussiechick - surely you're not suggesting that Santa solicits money from people through an aggressive direct marketing strategy, rather than simply distributing gifts out of the goodness of his heart?!

I hope his lawyers aren't reading this. They *could* be, you know. They could be doing part-time PhDs on 'The Provision of Goods and Services by Imaginary Magical Persons: a New Perspective on Corporate Liability'.

(Speaking of imaginary magical persons - Harry Potter this Sunday!)