Hello, and welcome!

The six years I spent as a PhD student encompassed far more than working on my dissertation. After my first year at Michigan, I spent the summer volunteering as an English teacher in Poland and backpacking around Europe. As I checked into each new hostel and connected with yet another group of new roommates, I began to realise that remaining in academia as a professor following my PhD was not the path that I wanted to pursue. Having spent many days and nights hearing stories about different people’s career trajectories, lifestyles, and families, I knew that I wanted to build a life that would allow me to choose where I live and to participate in many different types of projects and work environments. It is sometimes possible to obtain those things while working in academia, but I knew that personally, I would prefer to pursue a career outside the tenure track.

 

From the moment that I arrived back in Ann Arbor in August 2018, I began to plan for the kind of life I wanted. Whenever I wasn’t working on my dissertation or other PhD programme requirements or taking time to relax and spend on my hobbies, I focused on building experiences that would help me to explore a range of career pathways and build professional experience. I taught language and literature courses to undergraduates within my department, making sure that I pursued as many professional development opportunities as possible, including the U-M CRLT Graduate Teacher Certificate, Rackham Professional Development Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Certificate, and the Community Engaged Course Design Workshop. I completed an internship with the CRLT Players via the Rackham Doctoral Intern  Fellowship Programme, which led to a nine-month stint as a programme assistant the following year and contract work for CRLT and Wolverine Wellness.

 

Volunteering and service were also great ways to build experience and connections. I spent four years as part of the Telluride House, a residential scholarship programme focused on self-governance and community service. I volunteered on a weekly basis with Food Gatherers until I left Ann Arbor in March 2020, and facilitated a graduate student writing group with Sweetland Center for Writing in 2021. Since I returned to the UK, I have volunteered as an online English teacher for the charity Refunet. At Michigan, I also gave my time to several committees, first in my academic department and later across campus, such as the Building Faculty Capacity Committee to Support Student Mental Health and the Campus Mindworks Munger Transdisciplinary Fellows Committee.  

 

And let’s not forget informal activities that you might not include on a CV but which nevertheless help to broaden your experiences, skills, and mindset. Returning to the UK to study remotely meant that I could start various online side hustles and monetise some aspects of my life without being restricted by a visa; I have found so many ways of making £10 extra each day and getting free items or discounts over the past three years! Travel is one of my main interests: I was fortunate to travel frequently within the US and overseas prior to the pandemic, visiting 21 states without ever driving a car and saving for budget, extended trips in Europe in 2018 and 2019. And I was so happy to mark the end of my PhD in 2023 with long-awaited trips to Canada and Malta! I took regular circus classes with a focus on trapeze throughout my PhD, and maintained a regular yoga practice and walking habit. Above all, I always held time in my schedule to connect with friends and family, whether remotely or in-person.

 

All the experiences that I was fortunate to have helped me to clarify my life and career goals, and to maintain a good balance between PhD and life. I’m delighted to bring these professional and personal experiences to building this site and its resources.