Exploring Messiness in the PhD with Jamie Pei

It’s the last episode of the season!  And it’s about to get messy!! Jamie Pei obtained her PhD in Women’s Studies from the University of York in 2021 and is now a PhD & life coach. She has a particular interest in helping PhD students to work with the ‘messiness’ of research, addressing both the unpredictability and uncertainties of research itself, and also the surrounding factors, challenges and wellbeing issues within the doctoral experience. For this reason, she calls herself The Messy Coach, and believes that there is always magic to be found in the mess! In this episode Jamie talks about her background as a journalist and her journey into and through the PhD - including a very tricky viva. We discuss separating your identity from the PhD as a means of keeping perspective. Jamie explores the benefits of letting go of ‘perfect’ and the need to control.  She also offers a top tip on how to make messiness work for you.    The book I mention in the episode is ‘The Wounded Researcher’ by Robert Romanyshyn.  You can listen to my podcast episode with Robert here: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-wounded-researcher-with-robert-romanyshyn/id1537420258?i=1000554749343   You can contact Jamie here: Website: jamiepei.com Twitter: @verymessyjamie Instagram: @verymessyjamie PhD mailing list: jamiepei.com/mail Mailing list: jamiepei.com/phdmail If you would like a useful weekly email to support you on your PhD journey and information on The PhD Book Club you can sign up for ‘Notes from the Life Raft’ here:  https://mailchi.mp/f2dce91955c6/notes-from-the-life-raft