Category: Connections

I began this entry a while back, when I read a section in Latour & Woolgar (1979) that resonated with me in reflecting on how I learned to research: Almost without exception, every discussion and brief exchange observed in the laboratory centred around one or more items in the published literature (Latour, 1976). In other…

Clare and Wendy have blogged about what a PhD means to them, which made me wonder what it means to me. For me, becoming a PhD is about having the freedom and support to do research that interests me and makes a difference to my field. I want to be a good researcher. It’s not…

Wendy’s thoughts on finding things vs. making connections reminds me of something Earl casually said about graduate students in relation to my thesis research at a research group meeting. At the graduate level, he suggested that students are dealing with not so much with finding new things, but more so with the linking up of…

On my commutes to and from campus, I often meet other academics who make the 1.5 to 2 hour bus ride each way much more pleasant. Yesterday, for example, I sat with a Trent professor whose reaction upon finding out that I was a fourth-year doctoral student was, “Oh, I’m so sorry” 🙂 She teaches…