The Messy Work of Doing Research
Navigating the Emotional Landscape of a Research Career
2 hours, online or in person
While research can be intellectually rewarding, it can also involve significant and ‘messy’ emotional complexity. Competitive work cultures, precarity, high performance expectations and the pressure to continually produce can shape how researchers think, feel and relate to their work over time.
This workshop explores the emotional realities of contemporary research culture, including experiences such as imposter feelings, perfectionism, overwhelm, self-doubt and people-pleasing. Rather than treating these solely as individual shortcomings, the session considers both the external structural realities of academia and the internal cognitive, emotional and physiological responses that can arise within these environments.
Participants will be introduced to practical, grounded approaches for responding more constructively to these experiences, including reflective tools, self-compassion and mindfulness-based practices, and strategies for rebuilding clarity, self-trust and agency.
Through guided reflection and applied exercises, the workshop supports researchers to better understand their own responses and patterns, and to develop more sustainable ways of navigating the emotional demands of research work.
Learning outcomes
By the end of the session, participants will:
- have gained insights into the diverse range of experiences and working practices within the PhD journey
- be equipped with a wider set of tools and perspectives to create positive, peaceful progress and research experiences
- have gained strategies and practices for developing personal and professional skills alongside their PhD and for sustaining a healthy work-life balance