Introduction to Me

Hello everyone,

I am delighted to announce that I am the new Managing Editor of phd2published! Just by way of introduction, here is a bit about me and my intentions for this role:

Anna 2011: Questions galore!

I am a human geographer by training and my thesis examined the social geographies of contemporary familial identities in a British context. I completed my PhD in July 2011 and have since realized my ambition to stay in academia. Currently I am a Senior Teaching Associate at Lancaster University, teaching a broad range of topics at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels. This is a short term, 10 month post and I view it as my opportunity to fill in the gaps of my knowledge, to get established as an academic and to develop my networks. So how do I asked?

My first reaction: publishing! I have actually already published two peer-review articles while doing my PhD, so at first I assumed it would be a fairly easy job to turn my thesis into more papers or even a book. I have since realized however that building from these existing publications is a much more complicated matter, and I am now faced with many more questions than answers and much more anxiety than confidence. How do I go about publishing again? How do I develop a publishing strategy? Should I write a book, or split my thesis into chapters? Am I good enough?

Any of these questions sounding familiar?

Finding some solutions…

I found PhD2Published in a desperate bid to find some answers and was impressed by the range of relevant topics discussed, the integrity of the site and its personalised approach. Finding the site also happened to coincide with an opening for the Managing Editor role so I contacted Charlotte and here I am, excited at the prospect of meeting new people and sharing wisdom to find solutions for my various issues and problems.

My ultimate goal as the new Managing Editor is to find out more about the process of preparing for academic publishing, to research the various steps and decisions I need to make on the journey to publishing from my thesis but most importantly, to engage in some peer-to-peer sharing. I aim to do this by building upon the fantastic work of Sarah-Louise Quinnell and Charlotte Frost as well as hunting for some great hints and tips from published academics and academic publishing houses. I hope that this will be a great support, not only for my own work, but everyone out there who is in a similar position to me and just needs a bit of advice for confidence building, encouragement and some occasional food for thought.

Like Sarah-Louise, my interests are fairly interdisciplinary so I would love to hear from people from all fields, from geographers to sociologists, gerontologists to natural scientists. Variety is the spice of life as they say, and regardless of academic interests, we must all face the publishing mine field if we want to progress. I also want to provide a space that you can all shape and mould, in order to help as many people as possible. Send me comments, tell me what you want me to find out, give me any feedback you have and together we can continue to make this site as useful as it can be.

I’ll be back very soon with some more blog posts and comments but right now, I’m off for a much needed cuppa…

Anna x

😀