By Tim Galsworthy
Last night I settled down to watch an episode of a detective series, something which I have done for as long as I can remember. As the events unfolded and I navigated the whodunnit, it dawned on me. A PhD is an awful lot like a detective series! Perhaps it’s my disdain for research red herrings. Perhaps it’s my wish to imagine myself as a clever and heroic crime-fighter. Perhaps it’s rooted in my incredibly rebellious youth, spent watching crime dramas with my parents… Whatever the reason might be, I became convinced that PhDs are like detective series and I was led to the question I will now pose to you:
Which British detective series is your PhD?
Midsomer Murders
Your PhD never stops growing in scope and content. Wherever you turn you make new discoveries, meaning that your research has ballooned beyond its original starting point. Perhaps you had a big change of focus in the middle. Even though your project seems like it’s never-ending, you love what you do and you know that you will get there in the end
Luther
You are studying a gritty, difficult, and complicated topic. The substance of your work, and what doctoral life has thrown at you, often gets you down. With everything you have going on, it feels like you never sleep. But, for all of the hardships, you just can’t walk away from your PhD. It’s what you were born to do and – deep down – you absolutely love it. You also probably have a big wool coat which you wear every second of every day.
Brenda Blethyn, who plays the indomitable DCI Vera Stanhope
Vera
You are studying a topic which seems old-school while everyone around you appears to be undertaking trendy and new-fangled research. You are something of a traditionalist in how you work, often relying on tried and tested methods. Despite coming across as prickly, eccentric, and reticent, you have a heart of gold and are passionate about seeing your peers succeed.
Grantchester
You are a master of procrastination and manage to do everything but your PhD! You have taken on an array of responsibilities, commitments, and teaching. Your outside interests and extra-curriculars often come to dominate your time. At the end of the day, however, you are a very good researcher; you always manage to pull a rabbit out of the hat.
Exeter College, Oxford, where we bid farewell to Inspector Morse
Inspector Morse/Lewis/Endeavour
You spend most your time in old churches, dusty libraries, and imposing cloisters. Your research focuses on the “great and the good”, who it turns out are up to just as much skulduggery and scandal as the rest of us. Your PhD has been made up of different phases, where you have felt very differently about your topic and your institution. However, this is your calling. You never want to leave the safe familiarity of the ivory tower.
Shetland
Your PhD makes you feel very isolated from the rest of the academic community. Your subject is incredibly unique and takes you to distant locations, meaning you spend a large amount of time on your own. It sometimes feels like you write and research only in places which are dark and cold, but your excellent collection of knitwear sees you through.
Deshaies, Guadeloupe, the setting for much of Death in Paradise
Death in Paradise
Your PhD continually takes you to exciting and far-flung places. Doing field work in these glamorous locations is undoubtedly the best part of your doctorate and often makes your friends very jealous. Even when things get you down, your love for your research – and where it takes you – makes you happy and keeps you going. You may or may not have a pet lizard called Harry.
There are so many more brilliant series which I could have included – Scott and Bailey, Broadchurch, Rebus, Taggart, A Touch of Frost, Inspector George Gently, New Tricks, DCI Banks, Poirot, Miss Marple, Foyle’s War. And these are just from British TV! We would love to hear about all the other detective dramas which remind you of your PhD.
I think almost all of us can see parts of ourselves and our doctoral projects in all of these shows and characters. Currently I see my PhD as somewhere between Vera and Death in Paradise. The most encouraging comparison of all is the resolution these shows provide. The villain is almost always caught, the detective almost always cracks the whodunnit. And just like DCI Barnaby or DI Perez or DCI Stanhope, we will all get to the end of the episode – to the end of our PhDs – and we will all solve the case of becoming a Doctor.
Tim Galsworthy is a first year History PhD student at the University of Sussex. His research explores American Civil War memory and the Republican Party in the civil rights era. He serves as Topical Editor for Pubs and Publications. He also watches too many detective crime dramas!
Twitter: @timgalsworthy
Image 1: https://pixabay.com/en/detective-searching-man-search-1424831/
Image 2: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Brenda_Blethyn_at_the_2014_Berlin_Film_Festival.jpg
Image 3: http://www.free-city-guides.com/oxford/university-colleges/
Image 4: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Deshaies_Guadeloupe.jpg
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