I'm in the first year of my PhD and don't know who to talk to about this. My department is composed of several different subjects, mine being the smallest. I actually did my post-grad in this department so have been at this uni for a while now. However, the head of the department is trying to get rid of my subject area and this has left me very worried. He is on a one man mission to improve the research reputation of our department, and is pushing for his subject area to be the most prominent, while getting rid of others he does not think are as important. Already the modules in my area have been greatly reduced, which has left me worried about a job in the future, or even teaching experience in my second and third year. I can't speak to any of the other students in my department, because there are no other students of my subject matter. I am worried that my PhD will be worthless, if I ever get it. I am so worried about the whole thing that it is making me lack motivation. What is the point of putting so much effort in if my subject will be obsolete anyway. I also don't think the head of year likes me because I am not sychophantic like the other students. I think he has a bit of an ego and likes it being rubbed, which I refuse to do. I know this probably sounds a bit silly but it is actually just quite cathartic writing it down because I've been so worried about it. I've already heard him speaking quite dismissively about my subject matter, which makes me feel awful. I know I can't do anything about it, but it's making me feel miserable. Thanks for listening.

Hi Myoung,

I can sympathise - I am in the very odd position of being in a small social science research cluster within a science faculty, where were are treated a bit like second-class citizens and have been gradually compressed so we now only take up one corridor in the entire building! However, some of your problems puzzle me a little - especially your worry that your phd will be 'obsolete' if you get it from a department where very few people are working in that particular field. I can't see any reason why that would be the case unless your field is *really* miniscule at a national and international level; the only thing is that you'll have to reconcile your hopes of getting a job in your existing department with the reality of moving elsewhere. Presumably as your department moves away from research in that area, other departments around the country will be taking the opportunity to develop a specialism in that field. To give an example, the uni where i did my undergrad degree got rid of all its British politics lecturers bar one because they wanted to re-orient the department around international relations; a couple of years later a brand new British politics research centre opened at another university. There's always demand for the full range of specialisms - they just shift around a bit.

As for your head of department - do you really need to come into contact with him on a regular basis? If not I would suggest keeping your head down and trying to focus on the task of the PhD. If he's as irritating as you suggest, chances are he's annoying a lot of others in the department as well and things will come to a head before too long. As you said, there's not much you can do about it, so avoid getting involved with office politics as much as possible!