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PhD Proposal Help

22:22 / 16.11.03

I need to start thinking about writing a PhD proposal, and I know that there are plenty of 'lithers who are either currently doing or have already completed a PhD, so I was wondering if anyone could offer some useful hints and tips for those of us (me especially) who are yet to embark upon the happy journey of a research degree.

I have actually written a PhD proposal, and submitted it, unsuccessfully, twice - an anth. dept. turned me down basically (mostly) because the one lecturer who could supervise already had his quota of students, and sent me off to cultural studies, and cultural studies turned me down for being too 'journalistic', for not having an MA (this is being remedied), for not relying enough on queer theory, and for using bullet points. I don't expect anyone to be able to help me with most of those, but some general guidelines (or links to sites which offer tips) on how to actually approach and present a proposal would be wonderful, and greatly appreciated.

I'll probably be applying to anthropology and cultural studies departments, probably only in UK universities.

Thanks!

23:21 / 16.11.03

Not sure I can give you any specific advice, since I have little idea how anthropology and cultural studies work, but here is a piece of advice I have been repeatedly given. Be arrogant. Confident doesn't do it justice. Push it further than you feel is proper.

Incidentally, I've been told that that advice is especially relevant for women, given academic mores. But I'm not sure how subject dependent it is.

Ex

09:16 / 17.11.03

Show you're the right person, with the right topic, in the right place. (This is all nicked from a funding talk given by a British Academy board-member.)
So make your topic sound good, but also make sure they know you're exactly the right person to be doing it (stick in academic experience, maybe a soupcon of extra-curricular activities if they're relevant, as they can be in queer fields). And that you need to do it at their institution - reference any archives or resources they have, or their "research culture" or whatever you can scrape together.

Also worth presenting yourself as filling a gap in the conceptual market - cobble together a survey of the existing work and add a "This is why they suck and I rule", or a "This is why I am new, refreshing and perky".

All this you may already have done. All that remains is for you to print it in 16-point comic sans (green ink's best) and staple a tenner to it. The very best of luck.

14:11 / 17.11.03

Just posting to echo Ex's advice (and Lurid's about sounding super-confident) and to say that, with 500 words to sell yourself, it might be worth splitting it up into five gobbets of 100 words or so each:

1) what the project is
2) why it is important
3) what the resources/method you propose to use are
4) why you are qualified to do it
5) why you want to do it and they would be idiotic to turn you down etc.

Having said that, I have had no luck in getting funding, so...

14:17 / 17.11.03

Many thanks, all - *very* much appreciated.

We're The Great Old Ones Now

14:35 / 17.11.03

Schmooze the fuckers.

Go find them, chat them up, and find out what tickles their fancy. Get patronage. Involve them. Academic admissions are subjective and ludicrous. Play the system.

Scrubb is on a downward spiral

19:06 / 17.11.03

And again, all that Ex and KKC said, with bucket-loads of confidence and schwing. Lots of "I'm great, the school I propose to go to is great, and there is a bloody great hole in the academic field which I and I alone can fill". My funding body (the ESRC) rates applications on the strength of the proposal, the strength of the candidate and the strength of the supervisor. Not literal strength, although that would be ace - fields of professors mudwrestling to get grants....

Best of luck.

21:57 / 17.11.03

That would be ace. Well, anyway, it is a happy image to bear with me during the quest for a place, and for funding.

Many thanks, everyone.

00:57 / 18.11.03

Also: focus, focus, focus.

You will be able to complete only a small fraction of what is appealing about any given subject.

Think in publons. (Publon=smallest publishable particle)

13:08 / 18.11.03

Good luck Chol! I keep thinking 'Where's Cholister, haven't heard anything for a while' and then you post. Hope it works out!

13:32 / 18.11.03

Awww...thanks, Quantum. And thanks, Logos.

I should be sort of alright, I think. As far as getting a place goes, at least - getting funding will be a different matter entirely.