Introducing...

Seeing as I've linked to this blog in my University of Exeter e-profile, I guess I should start writing in it on the off chance that someone might actually want to read something. So consider this my introductory post.

About me: I'm a research student at the University of Exeter's English department, pursuing a full-time PhD in early modern English literature. I won't bore you with the details of my research project at this point - the details will emerge as I go along, I'm sure.

I've been at Exeter for some time now - I did my BA here, and then my MA immediately after. I then took a year out and got some work experience, although I didn't stray far from the university - in fact, after a period working as a Teaching Assistant at a comprehensive school in the city I ended up back at the university again, working as a database assistant in the Development and Alumni Relations Office (a fancy name-tag for their fundraising department). I did that for six months before taking up my present role as part-time Finance Assistant in the same office. Again, I won't bore you with the details about what I do at work - you may be subjected to the occasional rant about it during one of these posts. I'll just say at this point that the best thing about this job is that it pays enough for me to live comfortably whilst doing my PhD, and that's good enough for me right now.

Now that my biography is out of the way I can move on to explain why I created this blog and what sort of things you can expect to see in it.

First off, this is not going to be a collection of dreary research abstracts - the tone will be intentionally (though perhaps not consistently) light, but the subject matter will be restricted to matters relating to my PhD, or to postgraduate study in general. I used to write in Livejournal as a teenager (A Catalogue of Neural Impulses was the name of that blog) , but I grew tired of the pretentious, inconsequential ramblings I voiced to the indifferent world in it. This blog isn't a new home for the same adolescent voice, but it is by no means written solely for the benefit of postgraduate research students (though they will admittedly benefit the most from it).

My desire to start blogging again in the first place stems from my frustration with the apparent lack of online resources for postgraduate resrearch students specialising in my own field - early modern English literature (a broad term, but one I'll refine as I go along for your benefit). In the weeks leading up to the start of my PhD I scoured the Internet for tools that might help me, or guide me, or simply reassure me as I embark on this solitary expedition. There are some, but they're not easy to find, so I see it as my duty here to publicise what's out there, and to add something of my own as well. What that 'something' is remains to be seen - I'm currently teaching myself some PHP, so we'll see what comes of that. This blog alone should be good enough in the meantime.