well i guess that is what conferences are for ..... and the workshops etc... loitering around the corridors and pg rooms is a diff kettle of fish though;-)

ehh true swantje ..... all good in theory ... the rest always comes out in the wash anyway.

guess i'm just having one of them pissed off days [eh lets be honest a pissed off year.. hehe] where i fail to see any benefit to anything... no matter what the lifeforms at uni say.

swantje:

agreed on your wisdom of references... sadly references are required in most places in order to do pg study (not that i agree with the need for references cause in principle they prove absolutely nothing.. i've written enough of them for other ppl for their pg studies and work stuff to know that.. they are pure twaddle.. but hey no one told the emperor that he was naked either).. in theory your work should have enough 'legs' to get you to where you want to go without the need for cronyism .. k... that was my bit of idealism for the day.. now back to the real world..lmao

of course the 'peripheral players' are more known than the phd candidates.. goes without saying... which takes us back to useful/not useful categories which you argue against in your next paragraph

anyhoo i'm with missspacey on this one....no academic ever comes into the pg rooms so unless you spend your time hanging around the coffee machine you dont get much out of coming in everyday .. at least at my uni (which is also uk based)

collaboration is useful ..no deying that...

swantje ....

this of course depends on your field.. and whether ppl in your dept are generally a part of that field (as in a sub specialisation).. like you say fields are much smaller, insular and more distibutive than apparent at first... international conferences are a great way of getting to know them and whether you want to be a part of them .. but having said that if your work is placed on the boundaries of a few fields and the ppl in your dept are minor local 'players' and/or part of only one of the fields.. then the significance of being 'known' by them is of little import and impact upon your future (yep i know that is not the nicest way of viewing things - very instrumental.. but then so is the other side of the arguement)

however it does make sense to 'be known' in the dept if the aim is to remain at the same uni or roughly in the same geographical area ...

Olivia that is a damn fine article.. thanks for the link.. :-)

it made me feel all melancholic again about oz ... i've been away for 5 years now... originally i went only for 10months to europe to do my MA and somehow 5 years have slipped by

i used to do the same as you and listen to music that reminded me of oz [tripleJ or 3PBS radio web stream]... then as time wore on i did it less and less often.. i also remember ringing up my mum in the middle of the european winter and asking her to send me dried gumtree leaves from her yard so i could put them up in the house and feel more at home in the alien landscape surrounded by non-english speakers (my housemates being totally unaware of what a eucalyptus leaf looks like have accidentally used them to flavour their soup thinking they were bay leaves.. then complained bitterly on their flavour.. lmfao)

after 3 years of being away i went back home for a short 3 week visit which stretched to 5 months... and a strange thing happened ... i realised that 'home' has changed.. and even though there was the comforting reality of being able to slip back into being in oz .. there was also the knowledge that i no longer fully belonged here [and prolly never did due to the fact that i migrated to oz with my folks when i was 10yo i always had a feeling of 'otherness']... i love oz but i miss all the other countries i've lived in at the same time. this is a limbo for which there is no cure... [except for msn an emails... and that is debatable anyway..lol]

my accent is unplaceable for the locals now.. in the uk they think in safa or kiwi.. in europe they think im australian... and in oz they think i'm scottish.. i cant bloody win.. lmfao.. nor do i care to win that game anymore :-P

yep i agree that it is helpful to be seen around the place if you wish to remain at your home institution after completing the phd.. all part of the networking and 'keeping in the loop' scenario. (i know this caused a few minor problems for me when i needed academic referees at my home institution in oz in order to get myself to europe for the MA and phd, mainly due to the fact that no one could comment on me other than on my ability to write essays and emails... LOL but some careful word choices and minor editing of reality took care of that and i finally obtained references from dept heads which were vague enough to do the trick)

personally i neither like the town nor the uni i'm in and will be glad to see the last of it after the phd... so remaining here is not something i aim for.[my sup has also done everything in her power to make sure that i do not get a job here by ringing up ppl in the dept that wanted to offer me an RA position and pulling seniority over them.. but that is another story].. i guess once i finish the phd (hopefully... fingers and toes crossed on that one) i can then try to go for a post doc in another country [or at least another uni]... or take up basket weaving ... lmao

i know what you mean about the need for a regular moan about the state of things with other students.. it is really helpful... and i do admit to coming in occasionally into the pg rooms just for that and an irreverent laugh at the state of things... i do take my work v seriously but i do have a habit of laughing at it and cracking inappropriate jokes about it... it keeps my sanity relatively intact ;-)

in an ideal world i would like to change sups, since my ones make the spanish inquisition look like a picnic in the park however im esrc funded which makes that difficult..not to mention the dept politics that would bring up (ooops.. i've gone off topic here .. sorry.. will post the sup change as a sep topic at some point)

true it does depend (at least in part) on provisions made for pgs by individual unis... our one provides common pg rooms.. with about 15 pgs to a room.. you do get a small cubicle, a desk, 2 draw filing cabinet and a small bookcase to yourself (provided no one appropriates those when you're not looking)... they also felt kind enough to supply us with our own laptops... in essence i guess the facilities are good.. BUT for me at least it still doesnt compensate for being at home where you can listen to music, make endless cuppas, burp, fart and scratch your ass at your leisure... ;-P

mind you if we all got our private office space i would be persuaded to come into uni more often. ;-) this used to be the case in oz (where many a phd student has been known to unoffically live in their office in order to save cash)... but i'm at a uk uni now.

g'day

some of us work from home and others prefer to work in the library or in the pg rooms. i'm interested in ppls opinions on what works for them and why. what do they find are the pros and cons of each etc.

also for those of us who do work from home exclusively.. did you experience any pressure from the 'uni hierarchy' to 'conform' and be seen at your desk at uni? (or 'be an active participant in the vibrant departmental research culture'- as they so nicely frame it at my uni) lol

btw... i work at home .. and do my upmost to avoid all human (and otherwise) lifeforms at uni ... the ony time i come in is to do the printing/photocopying, library grabs, to present a paper at a conference or to sign the attendance list for a workshop... i was the same for my undergrad (DE mode - where i became a 'virtual email entity' for a few years ... which had some hilarious moments i.e. for some reason my uni thought i was a male and only realised that i 'm female when it came to issueing my degree diploma.. gotta love it when ppl assume and build mental pictures of ppl they've never met) lol

i'm with Cheep on this one... erratic work efforts interspersed with time wasting internet based social life (helpful for the late nights .. this is where time zones come into their own).. lmao.. when the deadlines finally crunch down then i switch off the internet, place myself under house arrest sit in front of the pc and stare at the blank screen (or the wall) until i manage to produce 'something'. since i live by myself there is no imposed routine other than the monthly meeting with the sups and any deadlines which they might set.... this has its good points in terms of flexibility but it can also mean that it becomes easy to loose track of time and get stuck in self-perpetuating feedback loops in your own brain which consequently lead to procrastination.

i've always found routine scary and depressing (it reminds me of a white picket fence and the 2.4 kiddies nightmare scenario)...instead i find comfort in navigating chaos.. the most frigthening experience is going into the pg rooms and seeing how 'organised and efficient' everyone else appears to be.. hence i only haunt the uni corridors at ungodly hours of 11pm plus when all is quiet and i can do my free printing and photocopying

now if i could only persuade the uni library to have 24/7 access then life would be sweet.. lol :-P