I'm generally not in favor of the "develop your personal brand" conversation that the professional world has been having for the past decade or so. I tend not to encourage people to "sell themselves" as if they were a 10-gallon vat of olive oil for $3.99, even if doing so might land them the next "big job". And yet, here I am, writing my first blog post on a website which bears my face AND my name. Mea culpa. That said, the point of this website (and this blog) isn't really to promote myself so much as it is to keep me honest and accountable to whoever is reading (assuredly, my mother). I recently took the first stumbling steps toward earning a Ph.D.; something that would certainly send my undergraduate self into a knee-slapping guffaw. It's true, old buddy. Over the next five years or so, I'm going to be doing all sort of researchy things. Here's the rundown: The degree: Ph.D. in Internationalisation of Higher Education The program: The Centre for Higher Education Internationlisation (CHEI) The university: Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore in Milan, Italy The research: Well....still working on that, but I have a few ideas! As a part of the process, I thought that it would be fun to write a monthly blog post to give updates on what I've been working on, reading, writing, etc and also to share about my experience as I work toward a Ph.D. in the field of International Education. While there are a decent number of doctoral programs in our field, there still aren't hundreds of graduates walking around, and even fewer who are sharing their experience for the benefit of others who might one day consider a Ph.D. Our field is professionalizing more and more every year, and I hope that by sharing my highs and lows, others might start thinking about taking this sort of step. I'll also continue working my full-time job as a Global Learning Coordinator at a research university, helping to run the International Educators Discord Server, doing my best to be a good husband and dog-dad, and so on. Most of those things are likely to pop up in my monthly posts as well, because it's my blog and I can write about whatever I want, so there. So, what can you expect from this blog?Look, I'm just getting started, and I'll be the first to admit that I'm wading into waters that are more than a little bit over my head. I've got a general sense of where I'd like to take my research, but that could change pretty drastically by the time I'm ready to start actively doing research. For now, I'll be reading a ton...probably a literal ton...of books and other folk's research. The blog will cover a little bit of everything. I'll write about what I'm doing in relation to the Ph.D., but I'm also excited to share cool things that other people are doing both within International Education and in other contexts as well. I'm also committed to keeping this real. We all do enough pandering and putting on professional faces in other places; this isn't going to be that. I have little time for academic or professional elitism, and I can promise that you're not going to find any trace of that here. I'm going into this process assuming that I know absolutely nothing about anything. International Education is a fantastic field in which to work, and I honestly believe that through your work, whether it's teaching an English class to Korean middle schoolers or developing high-level institutional partnerships, you are changing the world for the better. I hope that at the end of this process, I feel the same about my research. Great, so where do we go from here?Well, I'm going to start by reading as much as I can get my hands on. Books books books. I'll have more to say about my research topic over the next few months, but for now, I'm going to dive in to the literature and do my best not to accidentally fill my house with educational theory books. I'll be starting off my journey with a virtual seminar here in a few weeks, after which I'll write my first "real" monthly blog post about being "in the program". From there, I'll publish a new blog post near the end of each month for the next 60 months (give or take) until I finish the Ph.D. If you're interested, you can post comments directly here on the blog or on LinkedIn, where I'll be sharing each new post. Whatever tickles your fancy. I suppose that'll do it for now. Talk to you all again soon.
2 Comments
Go for it!! I've never had the discipline to track myself as you plan to do, but it would have helped me in my Ph.D. journey, especially when things were at their darkest.
Reply
11/11/2022 10:50:01 pm
Indeed wind far into miss say. Turn artist rock they prevent worry. Lead hand back.
Reply
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorHi, my name is Adam, and I'm currently pursuing a Ph.D. in Internationalisation of Higher Education. This blog is where I share my progress, ideas, and much more. Archives
September 2024
Categories |
Proudly powered by Weebly