Episode 1: Dr Shaine Bushell

In the first episode of Viva Survivors I’m talking with Dr Shaine Bushell, PhD maths graduate of the University of Liverpool and now the Mathematics Enhancement Course Leader at the University of Chester.

Shaine and I were officemates during my PhD, and we’ve remained close friends ever since. It was great to interview him for Viva Survivors, and really interesting to hear the story of how he came to be a researcher, how he prepared for his viva, what happened and what he has been doing since then.

Episode 2 of Viva Survivors is up right now! For details of future episodes, be sure to follow us on Twitter: @VivaSurvivors.

The Viva Survivors Podcast is here

About a year ago I had an idea to interview people about their viva and share their experiences, so that PhD candidates would have the mysteriousness of the viva demystified a little. I wanted to ask people about how they had prepared, what others had told them, and also ask them about their experience on the day.

When I started to develop the idea and talk to people I realised that it was not going to be enough to just ask people about the viva. It would be important to understand the context that they were in. What was their research about? Why had they done it? What had that been like? Did they enjoy doing it? And what were they doing now? What had their PhD meant to them, and what advice did they have for people who were researching now?

Following the name of some workshops that I deliver, I decided that it would be neat to call these interviewees Viva Survivors. Plus it just sounds cool!

Today the site launches with two interviews:

  • Dr Shaine Bushell, a PhD maths graduate from the University of Liverpool
  • Dr Anna Tarrant, a PhD social geography graduate from Lancaster University

In the next month there will be at least two more podcasts going up, and I’m looking for more people to interview so that I can maintain a regular update schedule of two or three new podcasts a month. Would you like to be interviewed for the podcast? I’m looking for PhD graduates from all backgrounds, all disciplines, all nationalities – whether you work in academia now or not, whether you were part time or full time, had fun or hated it – I want to hear from YOU! The listeners of the podcast do too.

So get in touch with me, either via my work site or on this site. Please tell people about Viva Survivors, volunteer to be interviewed – or if you have any questions or topics that you think I should cover in future episodes please let me know.

Follow Viva Survivors on Twitter at @VivaSurvivors!

Tomorrow

Around noon tomorrow, 6th June 2012, I’ll put the first two podcasts up on here. They are interviews with Dr Shaine Bushell, a maths PhD graduate, and Dr Anna Tarrant, a social geography PhD graduate. They were among the first people that I interviewed for Viva Survivors, and I’m hoping that you will find their stories as interesting as I did.

So tune in then! And in the mean time, follow this site on Twitter here: @VivaSurvivors. See you tomorrow.