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Applying for a PhD studentship? Here are some tips from the ‘other side’

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So you want to apply for a PhD and you see an advert for a funded studentship that sounds great! In this post, I want to walk you through what you should do from this point through to submitting your application.

Contacting your potential supervisors

Does the advert say something like get in touch with supervisors or contact to express interest?  Perhaps it doesn’t but you still want to submit an email to alert the academic supervisors to your interest in the PhD studentship.  My advice is please do not email busy academic staff with what we read as a simple ‘hiya’ email.  Please only get in touch to ask a pertinent question.  Be very sure that your question cannot be answered somewhere else, such as in the application pack information.  It does not look good for a potential doctoral student to ask for information on something that is easily found from the most basic research!

Of course, you may want to ‘test’ us, by emailing and seeing how quickly you get a response!  Smart.  But to reiterate:  have an insightful question for us.

Your application

Read ALL instructions well ahead of time so that you can prepare everything you need in good time.  For example, do you need to submit a reference or two WITH your application or AFTER?  Again, you are applying to undertake advanced research training, so to not do even some basic research at this stage does not look good to us your potential supervisors.

As to the information you provide in your application – please, please frame it towards research.  You’re applying for a doctorate, so tell us in detail about your research training and experience, across every bit of your application. Put your education upfront:  degree title, classification, dates, institution.  If you did a dissertation then tell us not just the title but which methods you employed and what software packages you used (e.g., SPSS, NVivo).  Summarise the key information for us, in a cover letter for example, so we don’t miss it.  I’ve read so many PhD applications that tell me very little about the type and level of research training the applicant has had, what methods they are experienced in from their own research at undergraduate and Masters-level degrees.  How can I possibly invite such a candidate to interview for an advanced research degree when I have no idea of their research knowledge and skills?

But isn’t my employment important for other reasons?  Yes of course it can be.  If you are applying for a social science doctorate on a sensitive topic, for example, then of course it is important to tell us that you have experience of working with vulnerable groups.  But do more than simply bullet point a job, as this is leaving us to connect the dots.  Tell us where you worked, with whom and when, and then be explicit why this experience is invaluable for this PhD.

In any application it is not enough to simply state the qualities you think you have, you need to EVIDENCE them.  Are you a self-starter?  Then say that and then back it up with an example.  Do you have good time management skills, then tell us of a time this was vital.  Prioritise the skills you think are most relevant to the doctoral research you are applying to do.

In short, tailor every application and do not submit a generic CV, cover letter etc.  We.  Will.  Know.

Interview

You are invited to an interview?  Well done!  You’re likely among 3-6 interviewees.

Be prepared to talk research.  You are applying for an advanced degree in research so it will be research focused.  Brush up on your methodology and methods knowledge, and be prepared to talk through your own research training and experience.  Be prepared to answer why you want to do a PhD, why THIS PhD, and why this institution.  What are your career goals?  Use your question time to probe our approach to supervision and gauge whether you want to be supervised by us! It is important to try to get to know your potential supervisors as 3-4 years is a long time to spend with people you might not get along with.  I recognise that it’s become difficult for candidates to feel they have choice on such matters, given the competition for fully funded studentships.  Nevertheless, it is worth doing a bit of research into your supervisors and institution so that you are prepared for what you will embark upon for at least 3 years of your life as a full-time PhD student (longer if part-time).  Search for advice on these matters on other sites, as there is some really good information out there on this.

Finally, good luck!

What exactly does sexual wellbeing mean?

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That was a question we asked as we reviewed the evidence so we could know whether there is any definition of sexual wellbeing, and how people have measured it.

I’ll provide more information on the review findings in due time (we need to finish writing the paper first!), but let me provide a few interesting bits of information to whet the appetite:

  • There seems to be very few studies that offer a definition of sexual wellbeing, yet they are attempting to measure it.
  • One study developed a multi-dimensional measure of sexual wellbeing (see reference, below) although they did not explicitly refer to sexual wellbeing and said sexual health instead.
  • If we think about the various influences on peoples health, we can draw on the social determinants of health framework, which tells us such influences can come from individual factors but also from wider community and indeed socio-cultural factors.  So, sexual wellbeing should also be influenced by such a variety of factors, as it’s an aspect of our health and wellbeing.  But there don’t seem to be many studies that explore the wider level influences, as most seem to focus at the individual level – cognitive-affect – as well as the relationship level.

If we can’t define this nor measure it more broadly then how can we assess the outcomes of complex interventions?  Will we miss what’s really happening?  How can we tell how well we’re doing as a society if we don’t know to what we refer when we say sexual wellbeing never mind have a way to measure it?

So, a lot more work needs to be done, particularly on how the wider community-level and socio-cultural levels impact on individuals’ sexual wellbeing.  But let’s start by trying to come up with a good definition, on which we can all base our work.

Reference

Smylie, L., B. Clarke, M. Doherty, J. Gahagan, M. Numer, J. Otis, G. Smith, A. McKay and C. Soon (2013). “The Development and Validation of Sexual Health Indicators of Canadians Aged 16-24 Years.” Public Health Reports 128: 53-61.

You can read our paper:

Lorimer, K., L. DeAmicis, J. Dalrymple, J. Frankis, L. Jackson, P. Lorgelly, L. McMillan and J. Ross (2019). “A rapid review of sexual wellbeing definitions and measures: should we now include sexual wellbeing freedom?” Journal of Sex Research.  https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00224499.2019.1635565

2018

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Lorimer, K., Ross, J., Caswell, R. (2018) Empowerment, power and control of survivors of sexual violence in healthcare settings: evidence from a systematic review. BSA Medical Sociology 50th Anniversary Conference, 12-14 September, Glasgow, UK (Final Conference Programme)

Lorimer, K., L. McMillan, L. McDaid, D. Milne, S. Russell and K. Hunt (2018). “Exploring masculinities, sexual health and wellbeing across areas of high deprivation in Scotland: the depth of the challenge to improve understandings and practices.” Health and Place, Vol50. Open access: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1353829217300795

McAloney-Kocaman, K., K. Lorimer, P. Flowers, M. Davis, C. Knussen and J. Frankis (2018). Sexual identities and sexual health within the Celtic nations: an exploratory study of men who have sex with men recruited through social media. Rethinking MSM, Trans* and other Categories in HIV Prevention. A. Perez-Brumer, R. Parker and P. Aggleton. Oxford, Routledge.

Caswell, R., K. Lorimer, J. Ross and J. Heskin (2018). Assessing the measurement of patient experiences and outcomes in healthcare settings on receiving care after sexual violence: a systematic review. 4th Joint Conference of the British HIV Association (BHIVA) with the British Association for Sexual Health and HIV (BASHH), 17–20 April 2018, Edinburgh, UK.

Dalrymple, J., L. DeAmicis and K. Lorimer (2018). How is sexual wellbeing defined and measured? A rapid review with implications for evaluation of complex sexual health interventions. 4th Joint Conference of the British HIV Association (BHIVA) with the British Association for Sexual Health and HIV (BASHH), 17–20 April 2018, Edinburgh, UK.

Dalrymple, J., J. Frankis, F. Fargie, L. Kelso, S. Panesar and K. Lorimer (2018). Towards an effective method of delivery of clinical supervision for sexual health nurses. 4th Joint Conference of the British HIV Association (BHIVA) with the British Association for Sexual Health and HIV (BASHH), 17–20 April 2018, Edinburgh, UK.

2017

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Dalrymple, J., J. Booth, P. Flowers and K. Lorimer (2017). “Psychosocial factors influencing risk-taking in middle age for STIs.” Sexually Transmitted Infections 93(1): 32-38.

Flowers, P., O. Wu, K. Lorimer, B. Ahmed, H. Hesselgreaves, J. MacDonald, S. Cayless, S. Hutchinson, L. Elliott, A. Sullivan, D. Clutterbuck, M. Rayment and L. McDaid (2017). “The clinical effectiveness of individual behaviour change interventions to reduce risky sexual behaviour after a negative human immunodeficiency virus test in men who have sex with men: systematic and realist reviews and intervention development.” Health Technology Assessment 21(5).

Geffers, J., C. Beaudry, H.-C. Yang, F. Huang, O. Phanraksa, M. Dominik, Y.-C. Lin, M.-C. Huang, S. Komai, K. Lorimer, W. Piyawattanametha, P. Saengchantr, H. Saleh, B. Tagg and A. Veerakumarasivam (2017). Global State of Young Scientists (GloSYS) in ASEAN – Creativity and Innovation of Young Scientists in ASEAN. Halle (Salle), Global Young Academy.

 

Rapid review of definitions and measures of sexual wellbeing

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PI: Karen Lorimer
CI: Jenny Dalrymple (GCU)
Funding: Chief Scientist Office (CSO) Catalytic Grant

A WHO/UNFPA working group met in September 2007 to elaborate on sexual health indicators, at which the term ‘sexual wellbeing’ was discussed. In short, there was little agreement among participants about what sexual wellbeing was, nor how to measure it. Participants of that meeting concluded that ‘more research was needed to explore the various dimensions of ‘sexual well-being’ in order to draw up an appropriate set of indicators.’

Aim: To assess what is known from existing literature about how sexual wellbeing has been operationalised and measured.

Research questions:

  1. Do any measures of sexual wellbeing exist?
  2. If any measures of sexual wellbeing exist, what attributes of the concept were used and why?
  3. How has sexual wellbeing been defined and assessed across empirical studies?
  4. What factors are associated with sexual wellbeing?

This catalytic grant funding underpins a larger grant application to a research council, to de-risk the larger project.

Reference
World Health Organisation, Measuring sexual health: Conceptual and practical considerations and related indicators. 2010: Geneva, Switzerland.

We need to look beyond individuals if we want to tackle gender-based violence: embracing social determinants of health

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This is a re-posted blog piece I wrote for Gender Politics at Edinburgh blog; the original post can be found here.  It was part of their series for 16 Days of Activism against gender-based violence.

As a sexual health researcher with a background in sociology, I’ve always been fascinated by the influences upon people’s health.  The social determinants of health framework conveys the various levels of influence on health, including individual, peer group, community and wider society [1]. Often depicted like a rainbow, the framework shows at the inner level there are the immediate or ‘downstream’ influences, such as individuals’ knowledge.  As we progress outwards, the neighbourhood and community level is where we may see the reinforcement of certain norms and individuals may reside in a gendered environment.  Moving towards the outermost layer, or the ‘upstream’ influences, are the wider socio-economic, cultural and environmental level influences such as poverty.  This is an important framework to draw upon in relation to the prevention of gender-based violence, as it reminds us that individuals who perpetrate such violence do not exist in a vacuum, and that should inform our prevention work. We should be trying to intervene across these levels to prevent gender-based violence. However, we do see the dominance of interventions targeting individuals, and which seek to modify individual-level factors such as knowledge [2, 3].

One could say that tackling wider structural issues, such as poverty, are commonly for governments to implement across policy fields; but we should still see a lot more work at community and peer levels than we do.  If we keep focusing on trying to change individual knowledge and behaviours, will we really transform society? The Scottish Equally Safe framework [4, p6] explicitly references gender inequality as underpinning gender-based violence:

We need to eliminate the systematic gender inequality that lies at the root of violence against women and girls, and we need to be bold in how we do it.

None of this is easy, and individual-level interventions have an important role, but on their own they will not be enough to tackle violence against women and girls.  Systematic reviews have found very little evidence on how community level factors are associated with sexual violence [2, 3].  So, if we are to see more work across different levels then it is important that we do that work on the basis of evidence.

This is where the work by my colleagues and me is useful:  we carried out interviews and focus group discussions with 116 men and women age 18-40 years, in which we sought to better understand local gender dynamics and the importance of experiences in places, for the way these influence sexual health understandings and behaviours, including coercion and violence.  Within this, we focused on masculinities, to explore how they are shaped and how they impact on behaviours and attitudes. If we go back to the social determinants of health framework, our work found masculinities at the wider societal level being reworked at a local level of community, peers and family [5].  For example, at the community-level we heard of peer group acceptance of violence and a sense of how normalised various forms of violence were.  Ally [pseudonym], an interviewee from Glasgow, said of domestic abuse:

It’s just something that I’ve seen for years, aye [yes]. It’s a common thing, aye. You know? You might no’ see the physical acts o’ violence. You dae [do] sometimes. But you see the way women are.

When the gender norms flowing from the dominant form of masculinity – hegemonic masculinity – get reworked at community levels and picked up by individuals, then we need to try to tackle the issue at the wider ‘upstream’ level.  When you hear how localised, socio-cultural influences did not appear to foster more egalitarian expressions of masculinity, then how do we expect individuals to be empathetic and respectful towards women?  Thomas, an interviewee, captured this when he said:

people just don’t realise what it’s like tae live and kind o’ grow up in some o’ these places and I think that they’re kind o’ ignorant when they think that they can just change a couple o’ things and it’ll make everything awright

There is a limit to what individual-level interventions can achieve, but they are important when used alongside other approaches. So, we need to keep our attention firmly fixed on improving gender equality, and fostering more positive community-level norms. We must seek transformation not just incremental gains. There are some good examples of interventions that have sought to shift individual behaviours by tackling gender norms as they are linked to gender inequalities.  For example, the Stepping Stones intervention in the South African context is labelled gender-transformative as it sought to reconfigure gender norms towards gender equitable relationships [6]. However, when dominant structural-level influences, such as poverty, remain unchanged then it may be that we only see marginal gains even with such work.  This is why it is important that we pay attention to each of the levels a model such as the social determinants of health alerts us to. We must impress upon governments to reduce poverty, we must ensure there are not just laws but law enforcement, and we must seek to intervene across communities to ensure these environments are conducive to individual behaviour change.  Importantly, this means understanding various communities and not assuming everywhere is the same.  Yet, as the same time, gender inequalities across the whole of societies must be tackled to improve women’s lives.  The Scottish policy says we should be bold.  Indeed, we should.

References

  1. Dahlgren, G. and M. Whitehead, Policies and strategies to promote equity in health. Copenhagen: Regional Office for Europe. World Health Organization, 1992.
  2. Tharp, A.T., et al., A Systematic Qualitative Review of Risk and Protective Factors for Sexual Violence Perpetration. Trauma, Violence, & Abuse, 2013. 14(2): p. 133-167.
  3. DeGue, S., et al., A systematic review of primary prevention strategies for sexual violence perpetration. Aggression and Violent Behavior, 2014. 19(4): p. 346-362.
  4. Scottish Government & COSLA, Equally Safe: Scotland’s strategy for preventing and eradicating violence against women and girls. 2016: Edinburgh.
  5. Messerschmidt, J.W., Engendering Gendered Knowledge: Assessing the Academic Appropriation of Hegemonic Masculinity. Men and Masculinities, 2012. 15(1): p. 56-76.
  6. Gibbs, A., et al., Reconstructing masculinity? A qualitative evaluation of the Stepping Stones and Creating Futures interventions in urban informal settlements in South Africa. Culture, health & sexuality, 2015. 17(2): p. 208-222.