So, You Think You Want to Do a PhD

Fae Hicks & Zara Fahim

07/08/2025

General housekeeping  

• Please keep microphones off unless you have a question and/or until our interactive workshop session at the end and our Q&A session.
• We encourage questions throughout the presentation so please do submit any questions in the chat box when relevant to the slide otherwise we will revisit general ones at the end.
• The slides will be shared on our website but do also check our comprehensive guide! We enjoyed putting this together for you :)
• Please note we are not available for personal help outside of these sessions with your applications or able to look over any proposals etc. Do make sure to ask anything today and we will of course help you!
• For any other general enquiries about the sessions, please do email us at lagbpsc@gmail.com - we always welcome your feedback!
• Follow us on Instagram and Bluesky if you haven't already! @lagbpsc
• We hope you find today useful! :)

​

Zara Fahim

Education and interests

• AHRC Midlands4Cities PhD Linguistics (Modern Languages), University of Nottingham, 2024 – 2028 (4 years now due to jury service & part-time placement)
• Sociolinguistics – language contact/ emerging youth multiethnolects in diverse urban German contexts; language attitudes and ideologies;

​

• MPhil Theoretical and Applied Linguistics (Romance pathway), University of Cambridge, 2022 - 2023
• Comparative Romance syntax (particular focus on French and Italian; structure of the left periphery e.g. V2; and diachronic contact-induced change at the Romance-German interface (i.e. Rhaeto-Romance/Northern Italian Dialects);

​

• BA Modern Languages (French, German, Italian), University of Birmingham, 2017-2021
• Not many linguistics modules – Romance linguistics and educational linguistics e.g. Modern Foreign Languages (MFL) uptake in schools; UK educational language policy; underrepresented groups.

​

• A levels: French, German, Government and Politics

​

• Current AHRC-funded research placement (UoN and Nottingham Museums): decolonising the C19th French taxidermy history of 'George the Gorilla' at Nottingham's Natural History Museum, investigating how and why he came to Nottingham from Africa via France. 

Career aspirations

Goal: anything research/heritage/policy-related

Plan B: run off to an Alpine farm and be a chalet girl...

All proof you can 1000% change trajectory (completely!) AND not come from a "traditional linguistics background"

Fae Hicks

Education and interests

• PhD Linguistics, University of Edinburgh, 2023 – 2026 (hopefully)
• meta-theoretical comparison, formal phonology and syntax, generative Historical Linguistics, philosophy of Linguistics
• MA(research) Linguistics, University of York, 2022 – 2023
• Parametric comparison of Latin syntax
• BA Linguistics, University of York, 2019 – 2022
• Interests: ancient languages, reconstruction
• Best performance: semantics, data science, historical linguistics
• A levels: Physics, Chemistry, Latin

Career aspirations

Goal: academia

Plan B: consulting

BA MA(res) RA PhD Proj postdoc(?)

Ancient languages;

Philology

Theories of change; formal phonology and historical syntax

Historical syntax; parameter theory

Historical syntax; Latin; theories of change

Development of phonological theory

Development of phono-syntactic theory

descriptive

generative

N.B. your best subjects are not necessarily what you’ll be best at researching

Agenda

Info session and Q&A ~ 50 min

• Structure of PhD
• What is it like doing a PhD?
• Is a PhD right for you?
• Application timeline
• Finding your research topic
• Reaching out to potential supervisors

​

Email writing practise ~ 10 min

​

What is a PhD…?

• 3 – 4 years of research
• No classes
• First year: finding your feet
• Second year: establishing yourself in the field
• Third year: the beginning of the end
• (Fourth year: crunch time)

What is it like doing a PhD

• Fae’s week at a glance
• Zara’s week at a glance
• Travel! Conferences, summer schools, research visits, field work
• Tutoring
• Work/life balance ???

Is a PhD right for you?

A PhD is hard work for poor pay and will likely come at the expense of aspects of your personal life and will certainly financially impair you, so ask yourself…..

• Would I be content with having spent 3 – 4 years working on a PhD even if it didn’t lead to an academic career?
• Is the instability of early-stage academia compatible with the personal life I envision?
• Will I be able to afford to self-fund my 4^th year? (most PhD funding is 3 – 3.5 years, most PhDs are 3.5 – 4 years)
• Do I like research?
• Is there anything else you would be happy doing?

​

PhD application timeline

11/09 research proposal

09/10 personal statement

06/11

funding applications

08/01 interview prep

05/02 weighing your options

How we can help:

Finding a research topic

• Read!
• A lot!
• Some papers suggest areas for future research
• Some papers identify issues then don’t address them
• Some papers discuss a new theory that you could try to apply to specific types of data
• Don’t be afraid to apply for more than one topic
• E.g. Zara reached out to 4 universities with 4 different proposals (4 offers; 3 fully-funded):
• Comparative Syntax – Language contact between Italy-Austria & distribution of V2 structures in endangered Romance and Germanic dialects (two universities – both fully funded)
• French sociolinguistics - Language contact between Italy-France (one university)
• German sociolinguistics - Emerging multiethnolects in urban German contexts (one university – fully funded)

​

​

​

​

Zara’s story

Finding a supervisor/university

Potential starting places depending on your priorities

• A researcher you’d like to work with
• Names that keep showing up in your reading
• A department you’d like to work in
• Lots of names you keep seeing
• A research cluster you’d like to join
• Something you’d like to work on
• Google “historical phonology UK” and see where comes up
• Somewhere you’d like to live

Refining your research topic for the specific supervisor

• Once you have a broad research area in mind you can start refining it and tailor it your potential supervisor
• You will probably end up with (slightly) different projects for each university you apply to

​

Finding a supervisor/university

Some extra tips or questions to ask yourself:

• Choosing a supervisor is like 'academic dating' 
• Vibes matter more than CV
• You're choosing a crisis responder, a confidence builder, someone to ask 'dumb questions'
• Matching work styles: 'Hands on' vs 'hands off' supervision? Regular face-to-face contact or sporadic emails? Work/life balance or midnight/weekend emails?
• None of these are wrong, just learn what works for you!  
• Check their track record
• Have their most RECENT students finished on time/within their funding? HUGE red flag if no.
• Are you their first PhD student or are they more experienced? Neither is bad. 
• What are past students doing now? Do they still speak/work together?
• It's OK to say NO to a supervisory relationship even with a 'big professor' at a 'fancy uni'… I did!
• Academic genealogy/ Building a village 
• Will you fit well on the 'family tree'? Never know when a door will open due to who you know and 'older academic siblings' are GREAT for advice..
• Will you have support outside of supervisory team? E.g. personal tutors, a research group/PhD siblings? SO important and healthy to have outside perspective, too.

​

​

​

​

​

Zara’s story

Finding a supervisor/university

Some final thoughts:

• Can they meet your needs?
• Important for me was my development all-around as a researcher, not just thesis e.g. growing as a presenter at conferences, squashing imposter syndrome, growing academic confidence etc.
• Do they ACTIVELY support EDI initiatives? Will they recognise (or listen to) your struggles and promote your growth? Foster open discussion? Maybe involved in initiatives in their fields themselves? Ultimately, would you feel 'safe' in their care?
• Are they good mentors and 'pushy' towards opportunities?
• Whatever you do, MEET THEM FIRST before committing.
• In person, ideally, but email, zoom, etc. Their reciprocation (or not) will speak volume to their commitment. 
• Remember it's 3+ years of just you and them – peers come and go. Supervisors (normally) don't. Don't get 'trapped in toxicity.' It's intense and you WILL be miserable. 
• It's SO IMPORTANT the vibe and enthusiasm is there from ALL of you and they are genuinely interested in both YOU and the project. 
• Trust your gut – If the slightest vibe feels off, choose change over complacency. Like dating, it's okay to outgrow each other and change paths. Just don’t settle. You are still moving forward. Sometimes you may simply need a change of eyes or styles... 

​

​

​

​

​

​

Zara’s story

Finding a supervisor/university

Some advice on what not to do!

But no pressure – if things go wrong you can change

Fae’s story

Reaching out to potential supervisors

DO NOT

• AI generate your email
• Send the same email to everyone

​

DO

• Use correct forms of address
• Be brief
• Be informative
• Show your interest
• Highlight the relevance of your proposed project

Dear Professor SURNAME,

I am a MASTERS STUDENT AT/ RECENT GRADUATE OF the University of PLACE studying SPECIFIC SUBFIELD THING. I am reaching out to inquire about potentially working with you for my PhD. I have found your research on XYZ interesting and think I could really benefit for your support during my PhD. I am hoping to work on RELATED THING specifically DETAILS DETAILS DETAILS. If this is of interest to you, I would be happy to share some more details.

I look forward to your reply!

Best wishes,

NAME SURNAME

​

Some context of who you are and why you’re getting in touch

use be polite use full academic title in first email

Tailoring to the researcher

Content

Keeping things brief but showing you have more to say

Use your full name because they don’t know you and so they can go and google you

Email writing workshop

Practise writing your approach emails

Thanks for listening! Any questions..? 

Don't forget to follow us on Instagram and BlueSky! 

@lagbpsc