Recent content by Lisa

"Done is better than perfect" should be on every PhD student's wall. I spent two years trying to write the perfect literature review. Two YEARS. Finally my advisor said "submit what you have or you're not progressing." I submitted something I thought was terrible. Guess what? It was fine...

The hallway waiting is the worst part of any defense story I've ever heard. 10 minutes? An hour? I'd literally dissolve into a puddle. You're brave just for scheduling this. Good luck!!

Cost in ethics is usually treated as this neutral thing but it's so loaded. Like, who pays the cost? Who decides what counts as a cost? Is suffering a cost? Is dignity a cost? You could do a whole chapter on how Enlightenment thinkers framed "cost" as rational/calculable vs. how contemporary...

I think there might be a mix-up here? "Dissertation writing services" usually means companies that write papers for money. But your post is about ethical representation in creative practice research. Which one are you actually asking about?

This is completely normal. Your first language is processed in different parts of your brain than later languages. It's tied to emotion, memory, childhood. It's literally wired differently. Dreams access those deeper parts. The parts that don't care about grammar or vocabulary. The parts that...

The historical figures in your committee is sending me. Like imagine Foucault asking about your methodology. Or your research subjects showing up like "actually that's not what I meant." Your brain is just running through every possible anxiety. Including the absurd ones. That's how brains...

I made a rule: no talking about my dissertation after 7 PM. Not to friends. Not to family. Not even to myself. If I thought about it, I forced myself to think about something else. It felt impossible at first. After a week, my brain started to remember there are other things. TV shows. Weather...

Congratulations you just became a real scholar. The first stage is wanting clean answers. The second stage is finding messy ones. The third stage is learning to write messy answers cleanly. You're at stage two. It sucks. It gets better. Maybe.

Family gathering last weekend. My uncle, who I haven't seen in years, asks what I'm doing. I say "working on my PhD, writing my dissertation." He nods seriously and says: "Is that a legitimate program? Or one of those online things?" I wanted to disappear. Or scream. Or both. My dissertation...

I spent my first three years of grad school paying full price for everything like an idiot. Software. Journal access. Conference travel. Food. All of it. Then a friend shook me and said "you have a .edu email. USE IT." Here's what I've learned about grad student discounts: Software is...

I'm in my fifth year of a sociology PhD. Started with a topic I was passionate about. Ended up with something completely different. Here's what I learned about picking a topic that won't destroy you. Passion isn't enough. I started with a topic I LOVED. Really loved. Spent a year reading...

I don't even know how to write this post. My hands are shaking. I defended yesterday. Passed with minor revisions. I'm Dr. Now. Dr. Me. Dr. Someone who spent 6 years of her life on a project that's finally, finally, FINALLY done. 🎉🎉🎉🎉 The defense was terrifying. Two hours of questions. Two...

I was done. DONE. Finished Chapter 5. Wrote the conclusion. Formatted the bibliography. Celebrated with wine and takeout and a full night's sleep for the first time in months. 🍷 Then my advisor read it and said: "This is great! But I think you need one more chapter connecting your findings to...

ABD. Dissertation on gender representation in 19th-century literature. Was making good progress. Then... nothing. Two weeks of nothing. Complete blank. Writer's block so thick I can't even open the document. 📄 I sit down. I stare. I open social media. I stare some more. I make tea. I reorganize...