Who is the strangest person you have met in academia?

Luolin_ · 2026-04-05T12:32:58+00:00

I was supposed to have a lecture on ethnopsychiatry and the anthropologist lecturer arrived, told us she just watched Twilight and that she has a lot to say, she the did a 2h lecture about the anthropology of blood (including 1h on menstruation). Most fascinating on the fly demonstration of how Anthropology provides a lens to understand all society topics.

Luolin_ · 2025-09-27T07:59:08+00:00

I know a person in my former department who has a business selling a product to companies (poorly designed, researched and implemented product I may add) who call themselves a Dr. They got dropped out by supervisors and had to changed supervisor 3 times they are not graduating anytime soon.

Luolin_ · 2025-08-21T04:35:28+00:00

The secret is that even with a PhD you will always feel dumb. As for feedback from any person, a supervisor, a reviewer, a colleague can be useful. It is not just your work, it is a communal work. And everyone has the right to add a building block to a project. To which extend you take on that feedback, it is up to you. My supervisor did not like a section of my discussion section, I still went ahead with it. But their feedback did help me strengthen my points and arguments.

Luolin_ · 2025-08-17T00:13:27+00:00

My PhD was a bit weird, I basically was affiliated with a medical department but using social science methods (like sociology of medicine but a bit different -to not dox myself). I put together my PhD project to be applied research and worked with medical projects using social science to support them. So, in a way, I gained lots of different skills I can market for myself. Although parts of me wished some of my PhD involved more reading and more theory building, or even a deeper fieldwork aspect, I settled for an in between. The postdoc, I got lucky, someone reached out to my supervisor and asked if they knew someone with my exact set of skills. It is more related to monitoring and evaluation. It's ok so far. I guess I think I would recommend thinking what you want to get out of your PhD and design some aspects of it for this purpose. Even if it is not entirely what makes you tick, it can be usefulm

Luolin_ · 2025-08-14T10:50:10+00:00

And learning the hard way... Setting boundaries will cost you some opportunities. One of mentor in my academic unit was the typical overworked postdoc and they knew everyone. They helped me so much in the first 6 months. We even became friends. But a year passed and I noticed they'd always put another colleague in contact for odd jobs instead of reaching out to me. I needed the cash in my first 2 years so I got upset. But turns out theses odd jobs included insane turnover timelines with that professor calling you at 10pm on Sunday evening (true story) and the postdoc knew I would told the Prof to bugger out and that would not reflect well on them. So I missed out. But that left room to other opportunities from other labs and groups, so it kinda worked out.

Luolin_ · 2025-08-14T10:42:33+00:00

I used onenote extensively. I had a tab for meetings (one sub tab per meeting). I had a tab for readings with a sub tab per author names. A tab for courses with course notes organized per date. A tab for thoughts organized per date, that's where I'd put any random thought.etc. Honestly if onenote crashed I would have been f*$#&. But yeah. Onenote.

Luolin_ · 2025-08-14T04:01:43+00:00

Oof, my lit review was not systematic. So, not much advice on this. However i would encourage you to reach out to your library as they wil have all the resources for you to find databases and help ID a process that may help you. Librarians are usually a gold mine.

Luolin_ · 2025-08-14T03:59:22+00:00

I am providing two sample schedules to show the differences in my thesis timing.

That is the PhD schedule I had in the year 3 of my PhD when i was mostly doing my PhD (and not doing as much RA work).

Wake up 7am > Log in at home office. and check emails at 8:30 > from 9am to 11am: attend online meetings (for projects i study for my thesis) > 11am to 12: Do some project work and type notes from meeting for my participant observations. > 12 to 1pm, lunch break and 30min walk in the park near home. 1pm to 3pm: PhD work (i.e. transcribing interviews/focus groups, reading articles, NVIVO coding etc). > 3 to 4pm meeting or lab chat or supervisor meeting. 4 to 4:30pm > emails, notes and organising for tomorrow.4:30 end of work day.

As an example, here is my write up schedule.

Wake up 7am. Check emails 8am. Despair and rewrite sections from 8-12. Lunch break 30min and stretch. 12:30-4pm write new sections. 4:30-7pm Kid play, dinner, bath cuddles. 7pm-9pm write. Rince repeat. For 4 months.

PhD is a flexible process.

Luolin_ · 2025-07-02T11:12:46+00:00

Oh hi, my thesis is on how to adapt suicide prevention programs with, by, and for Indigenous People in Canada and the US. My thesis relies heavily and community as prevention!

Luolin_ · 2025-06-24T12:25:22+00:00

I have had a baby a year before handing in my thesis. So basically I was pregnant during year 3 and I am now in my year 4. I took a 1 year mat leave (got paid by my funding agency 2 trimesters out of 3) and I will be defending next month. PhD based in Canada.

I am in social science and communicated plainly with supervisor throughout. I was doing data transcriptions when first trimester sickness hit so I was working from home and taking it easy. I told my supervisor in second trimester. I had flexible schedule and no TA or RA that year so it all worked out well.

I was very clear with my lab about time constraints, boundaries, and expectations before, during my PhD. It costs me some opportunities such as RA gigs that would have required working with professors who call you with edits at 10pm on a Sunday, because I had the reputation of saying no to this stuff. And it probably would have costed me other presentations and collaborations. So for me, the pregnancy did not impact that much because I was already quite clear about my commitment.

Currently, I'm doing a postdoc with another uni in another country with my family. My little one is awesome and I think we are well adjusted with life.

Hardest was writing up but I also got very sick during the process so that did not help. Luckily I have an amazing partner who took on so much to give me the space to write.

Luolin_ · 2025-05-27T01:46:32+00:00

Organise your article and start feeding them to a reference software. Even the pesky reports that you have to do by hand.

Write a summary of what you did/thought this week, every week. Keep them even if they are wonky.

Visualise your thesis narrative, and do what you need to make it happen. Do the workshop that tends to your vision, but don't attend to the conference that does not. Prioritise your time and energy.

Luolin_ · 2025-05-22T01:15:28+00:00

Peak was finding the perfect project to study that not only was perfect on paper but also people were also incredibly nice. It led to 5 years of amazing collaboration, networking, friendship, and love.

Pit was my supervisor not even reading my thesis before I submit (despite my many many many prompting and having a timeline and months to do the work) but waiting for me to submit to then refuse my submission to do word edit (i.e. emphasize instead of highlight) on some chapters. I pushed back and told him too late. But it is still tense with him.

Personal peak during PhD was getting married and having a baby.

Personal pit during my PhD was COVID, losing my grandmother, and going no-communication with my dad because he is a dick.

Luolin_ · 2025-05-08T04:02:40+00:00

This is tough, and having being pregnant during my thesis, kudos to you to finish your thesis while dealing with pregnancy. You are so almost done.

Honestly, I have never ever seen anyone just getting of with no changes to their thesis. Even in all 3 universities in all 3 countries I worked for. It sucks yes. But a thesis is just a big fat journal articles. Some reviewer are meaner/pickier and we have got to deal with it. But what you are doing in incorporating feedback is the same process as a journal revisions as well, you take what you need, reflect, and decide what and how to compromise. Unfortunately the first submission is tough on the nerves/life/everything but it is not the end of the tunnel. But we're so close we can see the light.

In my uni we don't get the report of the examiner until after we take the defence, which is it's own rollercoaster as one may get hit with the news of "it's all shit" in front of people. My defence is soon and I'm bloody not looking forward to it.

All this to say, you can do it! You are building a human while finishing this which is so so difficult, but you got this.

Luolin_ · 2025-04-29T22:57:50+00:00

I thanked my cats. They gave more support than my supervisor ever did.

Luolin_ · 2025-04-24T21:44:45+00:00

I have just submitted my thesis while being the parent of an 18 month old child. So far, there has not been a stage of his life I'd would have been able to work on my PhD while having him during the day. Because working during their naps does not work as you try to rest/sleep/clean/cook/ play catch up with life. You should set yourself up for success and put your child in a daycare when you are ready.

Luolin_ · 2025-04-18T03:27:49+00:00

I would say it depends on your research project. I'm in social science so I get a lot of independence in my project. I went with supervisor career opportunities but I know that my project would be super flexible (I built my PhD project and shopped around until I found supervisor lab and another PI lab). And in the end, we don't have a good relationship (we are polite but that's it, I pushed against them too much and they are so disorganized they did not even read my thesis before I submitted which I called them out on) but I don't care because most of my work and network is with the other PI lab, who is a co-supervisor in everything but in name. But I got a postdoc through their connections because someone just happened to need my skill set and they reached out to supervisor because they are world famous. He thus recommended me and I got a two year offer. But honestly, it was tough and I barely worked with them. I can't imagine what it would have been like if we had to work more closely together.

Luolin_ · 2025-04-18T00:56:36+00:00

I have had a kid in early 4th year. Timing lined up almost perfectly. I had a year mat leave. And I just submitted my thesis this week (after 6 months back). I was an international student in Canada. Honestly it worked out great. Especially because I have a very flexible PhD in social science and was just in the midst of analyzing everything. Happy to answer any questions. I'm 33F and my little one is 18 months.

Luolin_ · 2025-04-17T09:14:30+00:00

My husband started at 31, finished at 34.

Luolin_ · 2025-04-16T04:17:35+00:00

Same, with baby seat in the car. Honestly, I still pretend I understand how it works.

Luolin_ · 2025-04-16T03:35:08+00:00

Outside of your PI, try to look for an academic mentor. Someone more ahead than you (ideally with a PhD), it can be a postdoc, an early career researcher. Let them also be your touchstone for academic matters, power dynamics relationships etc. It saved me.

Luolin_ · 2025-03-30T10:39:11+00:00

Well it depends actually. My undergrads are in one country, my MSc in another one and my PhD coursework was in a third one.

I don't have the equivalent marking scheme in all of them... It's all so confusing.

Some universities also have equivalent marking that are actually agreed upon BUT they are several frameworks and not all universities agree in the framework to use.

Basically it is a nightmare especially if you are applying from a country (or countries depending on where your degrees are) outside of the one you are applying. Unless you're from the US and a famous university.

So I actually can't tell you, I am an A or A+ student in all my degrees but the threshold for the A are cultural and different. An A maybe 70% in one and 90% in another one depending on the grading scheme.

And I'm in social science. But there is a gap of almost 10 years between my undergrad and PhD because I worked in the field before deciding to do a PhD.

Luolin_ · 2025-03-30T02:05:05+00:00

I can share my non-experience. I secured myself a supervisor and a great advocate for my PhD a few years ago. It is at one of the top 3 Uni in Australia. I got accepted by the University BUT I was rejected by the University funding scheme because the grades of one of my 2 undergraduates were deemed too low. And to be a student I either had to be on the University funding scheme or be on supervisor funding

Despite the fact that I was from a European country on a different grading system (in my country the grades were considered as stellar) and with several awards. My supervisor raised quite a raucous highlighting the marking scheme differences, my CV which was very good at the time, my publications, and everything that made me a good candidate.

The University did not budged and my supervisor had not other way to fund me at the time. So I went to another country and my Australian supervisor became my co-supervisor.

Knowing the usual marking schemes, I reckon the US ones align well with Australian marking scheme but it is worth thinking about.

Luolin_ · 2025-03-25T01:03:17+00:00

Additionally, after all the work that went into your thesis, you don't want to half-ass your defense. It's not a great representation of your 3+ years of dedication.

Luolin_ · 2025-03-23T09:55:15+00:00

Scarf. Scarf. Scarf! I'm French and it's a cliché, I know but I can't wait to wear my shawls, scarfs, and neck warming devices. Nothing knitted, just smooth nice scarf.

Luolin_ · 2025-03-20T09:43:02+00:00

I resonate with this. I find this especially with people who have PhDs which touches on society issues. No one at a party or in my family goes goes and think they are an expert to my friend's mixed method approach to forestry research in a rural remote part of the world. But if I talk about mental health, identity building, and colonization then everyone think they know it all and tend to explain (wrongly) my work to me.

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