Tag Archives: PhD

Boris Johnson’s PhD (Rousse)

Posted on May 8, 2014 by Dreamaticus

Boris Johnson’s PhD thesis was so ancient that the yellowing paper cracked as you turned the pages. Presented in two battered cream-cloth bound volumes, the content was somewhat disappointing. I’d hoped that it would come in useful as I did … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged authority, Boris, Boris Johnson, cloth, company, contact, crack, cream, dissertation, doctoral, doctorate, expedition, fishing, industry, Johnson, Linlithgow, pages, paper, PhD, spy, study, Sun Microsystems, text, thesis, uni, volume, volumes, work, yellow | Leave a comment

Dressing up for the doctoral defence (Rousse)

Posted on April 18, 2014 by Dreamaticus

Each time that I attended a doctoral defence in a Nordic country I was impressed by the trouble that my hosts took to look their best on a student’s big day. On this occasion GW wore a spangled cream and … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged collar, cream, defence, doctoral, doctorate, dress, dressing, hiar, host, hosts, label, Next, Nordic, outfit, PhD, sequin, sequins, shift, shoulders, spangle, student, students, tag, wear, white | Leave a comment

Animals of unfixed species, gender and sexuality (Rousse)

Posted on April 14, 2014 by Dreamaticus

I knew that my boss wouldn’t mind if I took a small tin of lip salve from the supply that she kept in her office drawer. I needed it for the forthcoming PhD studentship interviews, along with a glass of … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged animals, black, candidate, cat, chest, creatures, date, drawer, fluffy, form, gender, glass, interview, jumper, lip, lipsalve, lumps, office, PhD, purple, salve, sexuality, sleek, species, studentship, suitor, throat, unfixed, water | Leave a comment

Icing sugar icons and a PhD viva re-run (Rousse)

Posted on April 12, 2014 by Dreamaticus

While JA was making pastel button-sized icons out of icing sugar, PL ran some sophisticated programs on his laptop. To begin with they worked silently side by side. Then PL started interrogating JA about his PhD. This raised so many … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged button, icing sugar, icon, icons, laptop, pastel, PhD, progamming, re-run, shop, shops, viva | Leave a comment

Return to the staff room (Rousse)

Posted on March 25, 2014 by Dreamaticus

Since we’d all been brought together in one big open-plan office I was much happier at work. I particularly enjoyed working more closely with the PhD students. Best of all, PC identified a small area that would become a staff … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged office, open-plan, PhD, room, staff, student, students | Leave a comment

A deal with Oracle goes wrong (Rousse)

Posted on February 24, 2014 by Dreamaticus

X shouted an insult at me as he left campus at 4pm on Friday – just as I was arriving at work to clear my e-mail. He was convinced that I was not doing a proper job of looking after … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged accusation, campus, deal, donate, drink, e-mail, fail, Imperial, Oracle, PhD, research, smart, staff, strangers, students, supervisor, teaching, TPR, university, work, wrong | Leave a comment

Efforts for an A grade student (Rousse)

Posted on February 5, 2014 by Dreamaticus

I called to DT that I’d see her at the revolving door so that we could head home together. Then I thought that I had better check my office before I left. The PhD applicants who had unexpectedly turned up … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged academic, applicants, door, home, mess, office, PhD, recruit, room, students, tidy, work | Leave a comment

Pens lost and found (Rousse)

Posted on January 25, 2014 by Dreamaticus

PT interrupted F’s PhD supervision with a question. “Are these pens yours?” he asked me. “Did you leave them behind when you moved offices?” There were three pens in total: a beautiful dark blue-marbled fountain pen; the striped wooden roller … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged 1980s, ball, biro, disappointment, found, fountain, lost, marble, office, offices, pen, PhD, present, question, roller, stripes, supervision, wood, wooden | Leave a comment

Magic tables only a partial solution to University accommodation problems (Rousse)

Posted on January 4, 2014 by Dreamaticus

I was dismayed over the state of my accommodation. I had been allocated a tiny desk squeezed into the corner of a large computer lab populated by PhD students. My computer and printer took up most of the desk’s surface … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged academic, academics, accommodation, chat, computer, conditions, corner, desk, dismay, furniture, lab, leg, legs, magic, opportunity, partial, PhD, printer surface, problem, problems, solution, space, spare, student, students, table, tables, tea, technician, tray, university, Vice Principal, wall, woe, woes, work | Leave a comment

A haul of hopeless academics (Rousse)

Posted on December 28, 2013 by Dreamaticus

Once again I had disappointed my boss with my lack of financial acumen. Meanwhile I was advising another colleague to be very careful over the content of his e-mail correspondence, and a former colleague was despairing at the cheek of … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged academics, acumen, boss, colleague, decade, despair, disappoint, e-mail, finance, haul, hopeless, PhD, publish | Leave a comment