Hi everyone, my BA's in English Lit and I finished my MA in Performance Studies a few years ago and have been trying to apply for a phd ever since, but every time I come up with an idea, I begin working on a proposal only to discover that somebody else has already done it and/or it belongs to a field I have no background in therefore no department will take me e.g. philosophy or psychology.
Without wishing to sound like an X Factor contestant, I really really want to do a phd. My life is pretty much on hold until I get started. I'm still doing the 'temporary' shop job I began during my MA and focussing all my spare time on finding a subject.
I've been plugging away thinking "not to worry, I'll find something soon" for some time now and am starting to wonder if I'll ever get out of this limbo and get started. Any people I've asked for advice so far have said things like "We've all been there, you'll find a way around it" or "Well, I had my idea while I was doing my MA", or questioned how much I actually want to do this as if that's the problem. Am I going about this the wrong way? Help!!

I don't know about your field, but I will tell you some general stuff.
Maybe you can work on a subject but see it from a different perspective (maybe using another research method????)
As far as the lack of knowledge...well, this is the scope of a PhD (at least one of its scopes), to learn new things! At least that's what I am doing. When I started, I knew what I wanted to do, but it was in a field that I didn't know enough. As I progress, I keep learning new things, new techniques....

Hi Gidget,

I just logged on to PGforum to start a thread along the lines of "thesis topic - help!!" as i, like you, am trying to decide upon a topic to research and write a proposal around, but every time I think BINGO, I do a little google-ing only to find it's been done already :( I was quite relieved to find your post to be honest (I know that doesn't help you but it's nice to know I/we are not alone in our concerns).
My field is Women's Studies - coming from a postmodern angle and i want to research around Cyberculture as this is what I focused on within my MA. I too really, really want to do a PhD and I was advised to do so after my MA so it's something I am really passionate about. I thought I had got the subject decided upon and have started the proposal, did a little more literature searching this morning to find a bloody book that looks and sounds like it has come out of my own head :-s
The only thing I can say really is that although the subject may have been looked at previously, you may find that you are coming from a different angle/perspective or perhaps you could 'tweak' it a little? I know this is difficult, the book I found this morning looks as though it's written from the same perspective as mine would be - it's very disheartening isn't it? And i feel like I am driving myself a bit crazy - obsessing over finding this unique, undiscovered topic that doesn't seem to exist!

Are you able to speak to your MA tutors? I graduated a few years ago now and am trying to get in contact with one tutor specifically but can't seem to - which again, is frustrating and disheartening.

Something I find quite useful is to brainstorm (mind-map, whatever) my research interests onto a big sheet of paper and look at threads attached to each topic/area - or questions I would like answered. This helps to remind myself what my interests and passions are, and also helps me to re-focus on the subject after hours of going over it in my head and transgressing so far away from the original subject I lose myself in it!!!

Well I don't feel like I have been much help - but I *do know* how you feel ;) let me know how you get on;-)

Hi Emmaki and EmmaB, thanks! You've both been really helpful. It's really draining when you keep getting your hopes up and then being disappointed again and it's a massive relief to know I'm not on my own!

You've inspired me to start looking back over the latest topic I'm into to see if there are any gaps I might have missed. I might try talking to my ex-MA tutor again. Only trouble is the last time I went to see them it was the day after yet another opportunity had fallen through, I was very disheartened and they ended up getting a bit frustrated with me! You could see their point, it had been a year since the previous meeting and I still hadn't technically made any progress. So I thought it best not to go back again until I had something water-tight. Still, I suppose maybe a chat just to let them know I haven't given up might not be a bad idea.

I've been doing the brainstorms as well! I've found they're the handiest way of getting ideas down and for finding links between things.

Anyway, thanks again and fingers crossed for your research as well. :-)

Just out of curiosity, what was it like to do a performance studies MA? Did you go to a drama school? Was it more theory based or practical (?) because I was considering doing an MA in something like that, but I prefer the more physical side of performance rather than the theory based stuff when it comes to drama. I think drama should be all about the getting up and experimenting.

my ex prof told me what to do and what topic I should work on, bcoz he wanted to supervise me.. I think he did the whole thing for me , he helped me write my proposal too..
i think u have got to contact any ex prof u have.
wish u the best :-)

Hello Gidget:
You're suffering the same problem that we all have, so don't worry !!  One professor told me that the basic of research is to connect the unconnected, to link whatever had been completed unrelated before.  This Professor suggested to me to do this:  write down in a piece of paper a lot of bubbles and write inside them the name of any area that you are interested in, including hobbies and things that you don't know nothing yet but will love to learn. After that, start to make lines connecting the bubbles and think what could come up from that connection.  Perhaps that will help you to arrive to a new idea that come from the uniqueness of your own experience.  After all, Newton connected the idea of throwing a stone away with the idea of the moon orbiting around the Earth.
Good luck !!!!!

I have just ordered the book that sounded as though it 'came outta my head' :-s in the hope that I read it, and find a great, big, bloody gap in the research. I really, really want to continue with this topic so although I tried to put it in the bin in my head, and think of something else - i am trying to take my own advice, and find another way around it. I just have to accept that my research isn't going to be something that has NEVER, EVER been even THOUGHT ABOUT before!!!! ;-)

Hi EmmaB

Am more or less doing the same thing. Somewhere out there is a phd I can do! Am sticking with the current idea for now as well and every time I come across a book or article that rings alarm bells remembering to take a deep breath and read the whole thing through first just in case. Gah!

Thanks Faturita! That sounds like it'd be a fun thing to do as well! Thanks for the support, it's given me the boost I needed to get down the library again. Cheers!;-)

Hi guys,

Well, correct me if I'm wrong but it sounds to me like you are thinking of topics, then checking whether they'd been covered? I think you might try to go the other way round. Identify the key research in your fields, the latest texts that interest you most and so on... and see what they do not cover, or what they cover 'wrongly'. I was always told as an undergrad' that a good topic came from other people's mistakes... Then again, I always proceeded like you to find my topics and just got 'lucky' - or in the case of my PhD, I was unlucky at first because I really wanted someone else to have done the research before... the PhD became a plan once I realized no one had.

I did my undergrad' studies in English Lit and have significantly shifted fields for the PhD. I even know a girl who did architecture for her MA and education for her PhD (with bits of architecture somehow, although I still don't quite get how), so don't give up with projects that take you into other disciplines! On the contrary, interdisciplinary topics tend to be more original, thus less likely to have been covered. And I'm told AHRC quite like them :p

Hi Gidget

Have you read 'How to get a PhD' by Phillips and Pugh? In the fourth edition on pg62 they give 15 definitions of originality, which can include making a synthesis of other people's work or continuing an original piece of work. I found it useful.

Hi Gidget,

I can TOTALLY identify with your dilemma!! I finished my MA in Film in 2006 and really wanted to do my PhD on a particular director but couldn't decide exactly why I wanted to do my PhD on her work. Anyway, I have spent the last 3 years working and continued to think about the PhD and this director and it has only been in the last month that the lightbulb has come on and I now have the beginnings of a unique research area and much more direction!!!

I contacted the university that I was interested in a week ago with a general question about the course and a sentence that summoned up my area of PhD interest and I am now going up to the university in Feb to meet two of the senior lecturers and current PhD students.

Basically what I'm trying to say is that the unique idea will come to you and you should stay positive. Can I ask what general area of research that you are hoping to pursue?