On 17 th December I submitted the words of my finished thesis along with an Access database of magical objects from Roman Britain.
This is huge for me. For posterity then, here is a retrospective on my PhD. A memoir might be a better word. Part-time, distance learning PhD life fits well with the pushes and pulls of the real world but lacks the whole campus-based experience. Oh, and the OU rocks! Many other different working strategies undoubtedly exist and I am not proposing that my path is the correct one; this is merely a review of the many sometimes faltering steps I took along that winding track.
I will likely amend and update this post as I mull this over more. I must also acknowledge the privileged position I have had, firstly in being able to go to university for BA and MA studies in the first place, and secondly for being blessed in my relationship with a working partner where neither of us had care responsibilities during my research time.
Beyond privilege: not a small amount of luck and chaos has led me on this path and for all of this I am entirely grateful. Getting started. I had always held hopes of doing PhD research.
Jane Webster. It came back up again in or when I had got as far as getting an offer of a place to study PhD Roman Archaeology, or something like that, at the University of Kent. I had to decline that place due to lack of funding. It was around this time that, fuelled by a righteous desire to do academia, I wrote and published a paper in Britannia based on part of my MA thesis.
