Category Archives: PhD
A is for… (#atozchallenge)
A is for…
Authors for Japan, orchestrated by Keris Stainton.
In response to the devastating earthquake in Japan, Keris used the power of social media to ask for donations from authors and they responded by providing signed books, mentoring pakages and so on. Then came the bidding.
All in all the project has so far raised just over £12,000.
I was lucky enough to win my bid on a signed set of Tabitha Suzuma’s 5 books plus a character to be named after me in her next book (sorry about that Tabitha ;o)).
So, as well as helping a good cause I am going to be introduced to a new YA author and I am extremely excited to read her books. They look challenging in terms of their themes and in YA I think that is a good thing.
Visiting Tabitha’s website I was impressed to see her bravely talking about her experiences with depression and discussing how writing has helped with this. Quotes like this that I read from writers all the time make me confident that the topic for my PhD is relevant and that the findings will be interesting to me and to others.
So please keep an eye out for reviews of A Note of Madness, A Voice in the Distance, From Where I Stand, Without Looking Back and Forbidden.
(A is also for April Fool – I promised my Twitter and Facebook followers I would be playing an April Fool and I still managed to trick a few people with my tweet about giving up work to write full time…..I wish).
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College of Occupational Therapists Conference 2011
College of Occupational Therapists Conference 2011
On the academic front I believe I neglected to mention that I have had two abstracts accepted (with my supervisor Dr Caroline Ellis-Hill as co-author) to the College of Occupational Therapists Annual Conference 2011 to be held in Brighton in June.
I had my first experience of the conference last year and loved it – some of my Twitter followers will have seen me tweeting about it using the hashtag #cot2010. #cot2011 is already in use so if you are an OT or interested in OT please join in the discussions.
Last year I spoke on the use of e-portfolios to support Continuing Professional Development in a Seminar entitled – Continuing Professional Development to e or not to e. I discussed with participants experiences I hadusing one particular tool with my students. Currently we are investigating switching to the Mahara Open Source portfolio tool and I have just been asked to attend an e-portfolio conference in Birmingham in March (not to present at this one though).
This year I submitted two abstracts based on my early PhD work. I will be delivering an oral paper called: Writing an occupational journey: engagement in creative writing as worthy of investigation in a session on ‘creative occupations’. The other will be a facilitated poster discussion called: Creativity in qualitative methodology: planning an occupational science project.
Also along with Caroline and my other supervisor Dr Paul Stevens I hope to submit an abstract to the September 2011 Plymouth Occupational Science conference around my intended use of autoethnography. I’m also planning to put in an application for a UKOTRF (United Kingdom Occupational Therapy Research Foundation) Career Development Loan to support my PhD research. So I have a busy month ahead.
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Fiddling Around
I have not blogged for a loooonnnggg time and my first blog post for a while is going to be a fairly brief one just to say I have been fiddling with a new theme and adding a few bits and pieces.
I hope to start adding some more content soon including some writing!
One of the things I have decided is that I am more than one thing and I would like to make this blog about all the things that interest me and take up my life other than just writing (so expect to see some posts about Occupational Therapy, my PhD journey, Lecturing – including my interest in the use of technology and social media (ps. I LOVE MY iPAD).
Speaking of writing I have actually been doing it a lot, much more than in a long time, and it feels good. I’ve also been very busy over on Slingink, what with getting anthologies together for our Shorts and Slingink Prize comp and administrating the Slingink Scribbling Slam. Also I released the first volume of a new magazine Slingink All Shorts on my birthday in August. I am currently looking for submissions for the December edition so please check out the magazine page on http://www.slingink.com (thanks).
I have decided that I am not busy enough! So I am going to once again attempt NaNoWriMo – I have not yet got above a few thousand words let alone anywhere near the 50,000 required but I have always attempted to write my longstanding WIP. This year I have decided to write a brand new novel – based on an idea I had as I waking up last week! So wish me luck.
And now I must go to bed.
Hope to see you soon.
Kirsty
kirstyes 