Nina Held

It was one of those fateful encounters in life that brought me to Lancaster. When I visited the Social Sciences’ methods Summer School in Essex in 2002 I met another feminist, Sveva from Italy, and we instantly ‘bonded’. She asked me whether I had ever thought about doing an MA in Women’s Studies in England. I hadn’t - this was my first visit to England and I didn’t know much about the country - let alone Women’s Studies. Over the next months we both did our research. I thought Brighton would be a fun place to study but then Sveva came up with Lancaster. I remember Googling it thinking: ‘why on earth does she want to study in Lancaster?’ She had heard that the Institute for Women’s Studies was the best in the UK. Ok then. I should not be disappointed and I never regretted that decision. Doing the MA was the most inspiring thing I have ever done in my life. We were 16 students from all over the world and had one stimulating discussion after the other. That the Institute has a long history and tradition became apparent through excellent organisation and teaching of the courses. Now, in my final year of my PhD, what I like most about the Institute, today Centre for Gender and Women’s Studies, is its ‘culture’. I remember one occasion when I had a PhD student from Germany visiting and her jaw dropped when she saw how warmly my supervisor and I greeted each other. My supervisors have given me the best support I could wish for and I feel very lucky that I had the opportunity to do my PhD at the CGWS.

Ana Pereira

I am extremely happy to be at the CGWS. Being at the Centre really gives you the chance to meet and work with people who are leading experts in their field - this is truly a privilege. The CGWS is also extremely active in terms of the range of events, seminars and specialized training that is offered to its students and the University community. Its events are often truly interdisciplinary in nature and reach out to other communities across the University. Students are truly encouraged to collaborate in all of the centre's activities and one quickly finds a sense of community. In short, the CGWS is a great place to be!

Elisavet Pakis

The phd workshops have been a great forum in terms of support, feedback, discussion and exchange. The community of postgraduates has been a great source of friends, colleagues and interlocutors. For me personally it has been very important that there has been a consistent thread of black feminism, postcolonial thought, transnational feminism/queer studies, and that I have encountered this intellectual and political heritage and practice, and been able to learn from it.

Esperanza Miyake

For both personal and academic reasons, I chose to I live in Manchester, away from my 'home institution' throughout my entire PhD. My thesis was an ethnography based in Manchester, where my fieldwork involved me being part of a LGBT choir's weekly activities in the Gay Village. As a consequence, I went 'back home' to Lancaster only occasionally for supervisions, or any specific lectures/meetings. The exception to this routine was during my second year when I was tutoring for the Women's Studies 101 course (first year undergraduate module) and I had to commute at least three times a week. Whilst tutoring was rewarding, I will be honest and say this period was rather tiring: train delays and cold winter nights carrying heavy books and papers backwards and forwards is no fun. But one thing that made the whole process bearable was the fact that I enjoyed touching base with my colleagues.

To continue with the analogy, going 'back home' was important to me. Living away can mean that at times you feel you are missing out on some of the day-to-day activities of your own research community, and you feel somewhat disconnected from the centre of academic interaction - especially since a PhD is a rather lonely process anyway. But whenever I would unlock my office door, pop my head in, I was always greeted and teased by my colleagues as if I was some distant relative returning home for a short while. There is nothing like a personal and academic catch-up, the swapping of references and the exchange of ideas over a coffee or perched on your office desk: both staff and students never treated me like an outsider occasionally coming in, but instead, more like supportive cheerleaders seeing a scared fellow researcher off into the big wide world of fieldwork. This is why I valued my visits back to Lancaster: they rooted me to a community, and reminded me of where, what, how, and why I was doing my research.

I would hasten to add though that I always kept in touch with both staff and students between my visits, and these communications were equally as important to me as my visits to Lancaster. Emails and phone calls kept me up to date with departmental events, calmed me down if I was having a crisis with my work, and just swapping files and articles with colleagues meant I didn't feel too disconnected. Work-wise, this often meant that discussions were more intense and speedier - like writing home, you got the bare essentials, the vital information down (as well as the sillier too, of course!) It forced you to have to summarise and stay in focus whilst still retaining a sociable aspect.

I think I've been lucky with the CGWS at Lancaster: it's a place that promotes and encourages research and support between students and staff. If it means that your research happens away from home, then they make sure you will feel at home away from home.

Anne Rudolph

Nearing the end of my doctoral research at Lancaster University I look back on a tremendously enriching time. I came to Lancaster and the Institute for Women’s Studies (now the Centre for Gender and Women’s Studies) because of its large community of enthusiastic and dedicated feminist scholars, its strong interdisciplinary focus, and its international orientation. The expertise of faculty in the areas of gender, sexuality, and science studies combined with their support of and interest in lesbian and queer research was invaluable for pursuing my PhD project on discourses of female-to-female STI transmission. The respectful and constructive atmosphere at seminars, conferences and supervisions has been a productive and enjoyable learning and working environment. Lancaster Women’s and Gender Studies is part of a number of feminist academic networks and is in regular exchange with feminist researchers UK-wide and internationally. This is manifest, for instance, in an exciting range of seminar series with visiting scholars and has also led to important opportunities for presenting my work at various conferences and events internationally. As part of my doctoral training at Lancaster I have also benefited from excellent mentoring for teaching in Higher Education.