“If a man would pursue Philosophy, his first task is to throw away conceit. For it is impossible to begin to learn what he has a conceit that he already knows.” Epictetus LXXII

It’s good to know that The University of Queensland has once again ranked well nationally and internationally. It will always look good on my CV UQ has again performed well in the latest top 500 rankings of world universities. The respected Academic Ranking of World Universities is undertaken by the Institute of Higher Education at […]

My research project was confirmed this morning which means that I can forge ahead with the full backing of the School and the University. Well, that’s a weight off my mind, now the real work begins.

Last Friday was the first of the postgraduate seminars within POLSIS and the topic was “The PhD process from beginning to end”. One of my supervisors was the presenter so some of the things she had to say came as no surprise to me, but on the other hand, I wish that I had attended […]

Last Friday week I presented my Statement of Intent (SOI) paper at a seminar open to all academic staff and my peers within the school of POLSIS and any other interested parties. This presentation is part of the confirmation procedure wherein you must explain the background to your research problem, why your research is important […]

I am in awe of our university library service, especially the document delivery feature. I found a reference to an unpublished masters thesis that was completed in 2001 at Uppsala University in Sweden, the title of which seemed very relevant to my own PhD research. I contacted the chief librarian at Uppsala and received a […]

I’m writing again, I’m actually writing! Not here in royby.com but I’m writing academically again and what a great feeling it is to get over whatever block has been in my head for such a long time. For months now I’ve been the master of procrastination, any little thing that I could do to delay […]

I would really like to get to this workshop but I will be back in Viet Nam when it is being held. Damn, just not enough time to do all the things that I want to do. As it is I will be at the “Asia Reconstructed” conference hosted by the Asian Studies Association of […]

So… the big question is, what is the question?? The first thing that needs to be established when undertaking a PhD is, “is the question that I am asking answerable?” If the answer is no then it becomes obvious that a more viable question needs to be found. The question need not be complex, in […]