[vc_row margin_top=”0″ margin_bottom=”15″ padding_left=”0″ padding_right=”0″ bg_position=”top” bg_repeat=”no-repeat” bg_cover=”false” bg_attachment=”false” padding_top=”0″ padding_bottom=”0″ parallax_speed=”0.1″][vc_column width=”1/1″][dt_banner type=”uploaded_image” image_id=”6564″ target_blank=”false” bg_color=”rgba(0,0,0,0.26)” text_color=”#ffffff” text_size=”big” border_width=”3″ outer_padding=”10″ inner_padding=”10″ min_height=”270″][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”1/2″][dt_quote type=”blockquote” font_size=”big” background=”plain”]Academia is shaped by collaboration yet postgraduates are frequently under-prepared for this aspect of the profession, says BAAS Postgraduate Representative Rachael Alexander.[/dt_quote][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/2″][vc_column_text]In what seems like a lifetime ago, I was asked to do a brief interview about my new role as BAAS postgraduate representative. I mentioned then how my aim was to increase engagement with and between postgraduate researcher communities in the UK. I hoped to help foster a supportive environment in which postgraduates can thrive and progress, and feel confident and prepared for academic[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”1/1″][vc_column_text]life. Those aims haven’t changed. As we’re constantly reminded (as if we weren’t already aware) the life of a PhD student is fraught with worry, uncertainty, and exceptional difficulty. It can be a largely solitary experience.
Without pretending to speak for all postgraduates, it often seems the case that what allows us to manage the long hours of lonely reading and writing are the occasions when we can engage with other researchers. The times when we can share our progress, ask the questions we don’t think are appropriate for our supervisors, and occasionally have a good moan about glacial progress over a glass of wine. Online networks, postgraduate research groups, and conferences are all vital parts of this. One of the first times I felt like a “real” academic, like I might not be some sort of imposter, was at the BAAS PG conference held at the University of Nottingham in 2013. Suddenly, it wasn’t just me, my laptop and an insurmountable task. Again, at last year’s BAAS PG conference at the University of Sussex I had the same sense of involvement. The people I met at those events and the research projects I discovered I later followed online with U.S. Studies Online, which became one of my most visited websites. Outside of the conference environment, I still felt like part of a community of researchers. Yes, work was solitary for the most part, but not always.
Academic life is arguably far less solitary than the PhD experience. From conferences to the co-authoring of books to the creation of research clusters, academia is shaped more and more by extensive collaboration. Yet, this aspect of the field is one postgraduates are frequently under-prepared for. As with last year’s conference, we’ll aim to provide a forum for new research where postgraduates can gain feedback and advice. This year, however, we want to encourage consideration of collaboration, and what it means in the context of America and American Studies. Jointly organised by the University of Glasgow and the University of Strathclyde, the conference theme will be “Collaboration in America and Collaborative Work in American Studies”. We are particularly interested in collaboratively produced and presented papers on any area of American studies, and individual papers that address the overall theme. Again with collaboration in mind, the conference will run alongside a HOTCUS postgraduate training workshop, open to all postgraduates interested in American Studies.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row margin_top=”15″ margin_bottom=”0″ padding_left=”0″ padding_right=”0″ bg_position=”top” bg_repeat=”no-repeat” bg_cover=”false” bg_attachment=”false” padding_top=”0″ padding_bottom=”0″ parallax_speed=”0.1″][vc_column width=”1/1″][vc_column_text]I don’t think it would be an overstatement to say that this conference represents not only the aims of the whole organising committee, but also my own aims going into my second year as the postgraduate representative of BAAS. These have changed very little in the last year. I hope this event will engage with the greatest possible number of postgraduates in the UK, encourage discussion of American Studies—both as discipline and practice—in a manner which offers new and interesting perspectives, and, of course, have a plentiful wine reception.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row margin_top=”15″ margin_bottom=”0″ padding_left=”0″ padding_right=”0″ bg_position=”top” bg_repeat=”no-repeat” bg_cover=”false” bg_attachment=”false” padding_top=”0″ padding_bottom=”0″ parallax_speed=”0.1″][vc_column width=”1/1″][vc_column_text]Rachael Alexander is a PhD candidate at the University of Strathclyde, Glasgow. Her research focuses on a comparative study of American and Canadian mass-market periodicals in the 1920s, considering them as both collaborative texts and cultural artefacts and bringing together literary perspectives with aspects of Consumer Culture Theory.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]
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