Bewildered, what you say sounds very familiar and I do agree. It mirrors what's going on in my area unfortunately, though it's a different discipline. I'd add to your reasons for wanting to go into academia though - it's not just the research topic I find interesting, but I really like teaching and working with students. When problems with mismanagement etc get too much, I find it's actually working with students that reminds me why I'm there. Otherwise there doesn't seem any point in working in a college as you might as well be anywhere.

I agree, it is a gruelling experience, but I like to tell myself that this is the worst part of the whole PhD process, actually trying to finish the whole thing. I might be horribly deluded of course, but I really hope that if I can get this behind me then I'll be ok for any other part of academia I end up in. At least that's what a couple of our research fellows have told me.... that it's a bit hideous at the time, but worth it for the range of skills it gives you. I'm doing it because I do want to work in academia, but this whole process has shown me that I don't like working in complete isolation, so for me, any future research I do would be best conducted as part of a group, even if it's just a cluster of staff in the same department doing related research on individual topics rather than one big project. As Missspacey said, there are so many different parts to lecturing that it does give variety, which is notably absent in the continuous drudgery of the PhD writing up stage!!

I wouldn't worry too much about thinking you know nothing any more about the rest of your discipline, as you mentioned, it's in the nature of specialising on a tiny area for so long. If you were still interested in it, I'm sure you'd be able to remind yourself of bits you'd forgotten fairly quickly by looking at key texts again. You'd always know more than your students anyway! I forget stuff I've been teaching for years and find I have to revise it before the new academic session starts each year, especially if I've been buried in my PhD for months on end.

If you've enjoyed doing the fieldwork, there's always other possibilities for research, maybe working with other institutions rather than in a university, like charities, government departments or business/industry based organisations. What you do afterwards doesn't have to be 100% academia, as theoretically we develop a lot of other transferable skills as well as get a doctorate.

btw the thing about the paragraph breaks - send Pete a PM with info about your browser and computer, like the browser and version you're using, pc or mac, operating system, and he might look into it. I had that problem a while ago and he had to tweak some code to fix it.

One of our Profs brought all his PhD students with him when he started at my uni a few years ago, so they are now registered with us instead of their original uni. We had a similar situation when another prof left us to go to different uni, but his students remained registered with us; he is still supervising them but they have been given an additional supervisor based at our uni. I've no idea what the various university administrative procedures are in these situations, but it doesn't seem unusual. If your supervisor is keen to take you with him and that would suit you too, can you ask him to find out the details of how it would work?

It would be best if you looked for a specific PhD programme and then apply through the appropriate channels - try www.findaphd.com. This is mainly a forum for postgrad students, so I can't really imagine you getting replies from any passing Professors on here. You need to do the research yourself and contact specific people, rather hoping they will come to you.

Liminalplace, I'm a chronic meanderer actually, I seem to go through heavy productive phases followed by very slow ones where not enough of note gets done! I don't think I can work at that intense level all the time or I'd go a bit mad. I like to think a little bit of procrastination helps with the work-life balance or something! :-)

Congratulations! I'm still dreaming of that day....

Wookie, thank you for your very nice words!

Tokyorabbit, I know what you mean about lack of posts and embarrassment, that's the other side of this thread lol! I'm the same, you can keep your guilt about not getting much work done to yourself and no one knows that you've been a bit patheticly unproductive, but tell other people on the internet??? Well, maybe not! Hope your theoretical grappling works out soon, I've found that chapters that I thought should have been straightforward to rewrite were actually really complicated when I started on them. I comfort myself with the idea that my critical thinking has become soooo sophisticated since I wrote the previous version of that chapter that of course it's going to be more complicated to rewrite now! :-) Mind those wild nights out though, you're only going to be finishing a PhD once in your life (thank goodness!) so make sure you get enough sleep!

Yes, me too with the busy thing!! I'm quite behind due to being ill a bit recently, but have a big deadline for Dec 1st for my complete second draft. I'll do what I can and see what the feedback is - my main supervisor said it was 'looking good' up to this point, which sounds cautiously positive, though it will be an even busier few months after this. I am quite excited about there being a real end in sight though!! Someone said it gets to the point where you've lived with your thesis for so long that you don't want to let it go, but I am definitely ready to finish!

Funny about all the pirate stuff on the news recently, I thought of you! It's a totally different angle to the Hollywood pirates of the Caribbean thing, I wonder if it made anyone rethink their ideas about it all?

Yes, and we've all got tiaras lol!!

Me too, I think it's one of the things that's keeping me going with all the work I've still got to do. Moving on to something else, though I'm not exactly sure what yet. I'm going to stay put in my part-time job for a while and get some publications out there, though I'm not sure how it works if your thesis would be an (apparently) good book as it's quicker to get a couple of journal articles published than get a decent book published and I need more things on my CV asap. Hopefully my supervisors will have some good advice.

I'm quite interested in getting teaching in different colleges for experience too, so I can compare other places with my own uni. I feel a bit institutionalised at the moment as I only teach here, but sometimes I think other places might be less stressful to work in, though it may not be the case! A friend got a new lecturing job really fast after completing her PhD but soon realised it was worse than her old job, apart from getting more money, so I'd rather check other places out a bit first myself. There seem to be so many other possibilities, so I know what you mean about your brain being in a tizz!

We've all got tiaras!!

It was the best route for a career change for me, getting back into academia after working in a totally unrelated job for years since I finished my BA. A part-time MA made me realise that was what I really wanted to do and also identified a very interesting area for future research. A very good member of staff at the same uni was keen to supervise me for a PhD after readiing my MA work, so it's all turned out rather well so far!

Ooh it's great! Customisation possibilities would be nice too :-)

Though I did like the little orange people with their arms in the air as well.

Hi Olivia, I wondered how you were as well! I find I start wondering where people are and if everything's ok when they're fairly regular posters and then they disappear for a while. Sort of like I would in real life, I guess!

I like the other Dilbert one about being addicted to the internet because it's more interesting than people too.

Ooh very flash! I've just seen Sillybilly grow flesh before my very eyes. I thought it was a green paper bag with a cherry floating above it before that :-)