Winner Dean’s Prize for Best Student Independent Project

What course/degree did you do?

I did a BA (hons) in Politics and then continued at Leeds Beckett to study a Master’s by Research (MRes) in political philosophy

What are you doing now?

I am a PhD student at the University of Brighton. I have been awarded a scholarship to carry out research into the relationship between populism and climate politics with a particular focus on South America and left-wing forms of populism. This research is being undertaken alongside academics at universities in Brazil and Chile.

What trajectory did you follow to get there?

After completing my MRes I knew that research, in some capacity, was what I wanted to do as a career. The process of applying for a PhDs can be a long one, especially if you need to secure funding as I did, and it took a year of applications before I was offered my current position. This period consisted of writing proposals for PhD projects and interviews whilst I was working at the same time.

I found my PhD opportunity advertised on https://www.findaphd.com/ and would recommend this website to anybody interested in pursuing further postgraduate study. 

What do you enjoy about what you are doing now?

I love that I’m able to research and write about a topic that I really care about and enjoy. As a postgraduate researcher I am able to attend lots of conferences and lectures related to my research and I’m really passionate about the ways in which my project could contribute to existing knowledge about both the climate crisis and populist politics

What skills are you using that you got from Uni?

The most important skills that I learned at Leeds Beckett are project management and research skills. I found my final year dissertation and MRes to be very helpful in terms of making me organise and motivate myself, something that I had previously struggled with.

Even if I don’t end up with a career in academia, I know that these skills will be incredibly useful whatever I do. I had an amazing team of dissertation supervisors who gave me both academic and emotional support, providing a really supportive environment. This experience has helped me with building good relationships with my current supervisors during my PhD.