Abstract
The COVID-19 global pandemic was an inordinate time of social, personal and academic disruption and uncertainties for social science postgraduate students. Postgraduate students experienced much of the pandemic in a myriad of ways which were not experienced by other sections of society in the United Kingdom or Republic of Ireland. Many postgraduates’ carefully prepared research plans were revised to comply with legislated COVID-19 social-distancing regulations, necessitating a move to online methods. Revisions to a student’s PhD had temporal, spatial and (un)well-being consequences as their future-selves were questioned. Unexpected additional delays eroded students’ timelines to complete their PhD increasing their academic and personal anxieties. Focusing on postgraduates’ disrupted research and their lives during COVID-19, this thesis explores a unique opportunity to discuss varying aspects of their spatially constrained predicaments and the associated disruptions which were (un)successfully readapted to.This thesis investigates spatial, temporal and (un)well-being aspects of postgraduate lives during the pandemic, and examines how the pandemic affected them and their doctoral research projects. The research also, importantly, reveals how students attempted, successfully or not, to manage their personal and academic disruptions. This thesis foregrounds the impact of students constrained spatial living and the associated physical and existential (im)mobilities of their absent routines that used to structure their pre-pandemic activities. The research presented explores how postgraduates’ institutions helped or hindered their academic lives, particularly its bureaucratic influences. This work is based on one year of ethnographic research with postgraduate students. The thesis examines the students’ personal and academic dis/connections and identifies to what extent COVID-19 altered their sense of personal and academic purposefulness. As an ethnographic exercise in future-looking, the thesis ends with several recommendations that urge universities to rethink how mental (un)well-being is approached, experienced and resolved in post-pandemic times.Thesis embargoed until 31 December 2029.
| Date of Award | Dec 2024 |
|---|---|
| Original language | English |
| Awarding Institution |
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| Sponsors | Northern Ireland Department for the Economy |
| Supervisor | Maruska Svasek (Supervisor) & Ioannis Tsioulakis (Supervisor) |
Keywords
- COVID-19
- Pandemic
- Spatiality
- Temporality
- Well-Being
- Social Science Postgraduate Students
- Homing