Postgraduate Research Conference 2026

Event Keynote

“The Unbearable Lightness of Being ... A Researcher”

Prof Nicoleta Cinpoes, Professor of Shakespeare Studies, Institute of Arts and Humanities

Cued by Milan Kundera’s novel The Unbearable Lightness of Being (1984), my talkunpacks the concepts of ‘weight’ and ‘lightness’ in relation to doctoral research.Interrogating their evaluation as positive and/or negative, I suggest that doctoralresearch is precisely in the business of shifting this assessment paradigm. While the two terms are ordinarily viewed as polar opposites, I suggest that they areinterchangeable; as a result, research emerges as a cyclical rather than a linear journey.To put it simply: how do you give an answer when you don’t even know what question to ask, and the language in which to articulate it has not yet been invented? In doing so, I am thinking – with the aid of maritime terms – about the compass a researcher constructs to navigate uncharted waters and manage strange encounters as much as about charting the course of research itself. I am interested in how such conceptsintertwine during the developmental ‘twin journey’ of the ‘doctoral research’ and the ‘doctoral researcher’ (Dely Lazarte Elliot 2022: 1659). Ultimately, I am proposing that, in the case of PhD research, as well as any research for that matter, the integration of process and product applies to both the research and the researcher. 

Panels

Getting the most out of your conference experience

Want to get the most out of your PGR conference experience?

Join us for our panel session on Monday 22 June and find out more. We’ll be joined by three of our current doctoral students, Beas Banerjee, School of Science and the Environment, Heather Chapman, School of Health and Wellbeing, and Krista Easton, School of Health and Wellbeing, who will reflect on their experiences of attending and presenting at both internal and external conferences. They’ll also share how attending conference events has shaped their research as well as anything they wish they had done differently. We’ll wrap up the panel session by sharing some top tips for getting the most out of this year’s PGR Conference.

Workshops

Co-creating the researcher skills world

Throughout the conference, the Research Librarian and Academic Liaison Librarians invite delegates to co-create a researcher’s skills map, plotting where they are in the research skills world. If researchers find themselves in unchartered territory, on an open access oasis, or are all at sea with systematic reviews, the Librarians will be on-hand to set the coordinates for the Library support best-suited to help. 

When the going gets tough...navigating the throwness of Doctoral study to flourish in your studies and beyond

Sarah Weaver, Dr Gilda Davis and Dr Emma Innes

This workshops aims to discuss health and wellbeing during the doctoral journey and as an Early Career researcher. Concepts of health, wellbeing, and resilience are personal and often experienced by individuals in multi-dimensional and subjective ways. Despite this, feelings of uncertainty, anxiety, ill-health and overwhelm may feel like common companions on our research journeys. Numerous studies highlight that doctoral candidates have higher reported rates of stress and mental health disorders than the background population. This peer-led workshop seeks to share stories from researchers about common challenges and experiences during their doctoral studies, and the actions that they took to overcome or manage them. Reference to the underpinning literature and recent evidence will be made. As part of the workshop, we will co-create an e-resource that encompasses a variety of multimedia activities and support networks, Apps or advice for researchers and students. By sharing and normalising conversations about the uncertainty and feelings that may occur in the world of academia and research, individuals may benefit from mutual support from their peers. Promoting health and wellbeing, and signposting tools and resources, may help researchers overcome common stressors as they navigate their doctoral/ECR journey.

 Keeping the 'PH' in your PhD: why dismissing philosophy makes feedback hurt more than it should

Irene Conti, Dr Bere Mahoney and Dr Cate Rose 

Feedback, critique and uncertainty are central characteristics of the PhD journey, but doctoral researchers often perceive these elements as intellectually challenging or even as criticism of their personal competence. This workshop introduces the idea that thinking like a philosopher is a tool for reframing how ones engage with feedback, critique and uncertainty because it provides a strategy for reinterpreting these central PhD characteristics as essential for their intellectual growth, and not as threats to their personal competence. This reframing tool uses the four pillars of philosophy - intellectual humility; foundational concepts; tolerance of uncertainty; and, reflection and distance, all foundations of the kind of thinking developed through doctoral study. The workshop explores how doctoral researchers can use this reframing tool to develop a constructive and reflective approach to feedback, critique and uncertainty, a capacity that is essential to all student doctoral journeys as apprentice researchers and beyond.  Participants will also be encouraged to bring along an example from their own experience (for instance, a piece of feedback or a feedback experience that stayed with them) to support reflective discussion and practical engagement during the workshop.