Doctoral Student Spotlight: Antonia Voigt, Education PhD Student & Best Full Paper Award Winner

Antonia has been paving the way for greater sustainability management in UK universities after choosing to explore the topic for her doctoral thesis. Her work was even recognised for a prestigious award last year! 

We caught up with Antonia to learn more about her area of research expertise, her journey as a PhD student at the School of Education, and what her hopes are for her groundbreaking research after successfully defending her doctoral thesis.

Antonia presenting her PhD findings at the 84th Annual Meeting of the Academy of Management, the preeminent professional association for management and organization scholars.

Tell us a little bit about yourself!

I am a passionate researcher, and for the last nine years, I have immersed myself in the world of academia. I believe in the power of lifelong learning. Every year, I have pushed myself a little further beyond my comfort zone and tried out something new. Whether through presenting my research at a global conference or serving as the Faculty PGR representative at the University of Bristol, I am striving to have a positive impact on people’s lives. On the rare occasions when I am not at university, you will probably find me folding intricate origami figures or watching the latest K-drama series.

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In Conversation With: Pen Williams, Education PhD Student & BERA SIG Best Presentation Award Winner

We spoke with Pen Williams, an Education PhD student and doctoral researcher at the School of Education, who recently won the Nature, Outdoor Learning and Play Special Interest Group (SIG) Best Presentation Award at the British Educational Research Association (BERA) Annual Conference. She told us all about her journey at the School of Education so far – progressing from her Masters degree to her PhD – to her specialist research interests and her reaction to receiving the prestigious award this year.


Tell us a little bit about you!  

I’m currently in the third year of my PhD at the School of Education and am busy analysing the data I collected earlier this year! Before returning to full time study, I was a secondary teacher for about 20 years, teaching English in schools and colleges in and around Bristol. I also work with the Global Goals Centre on delivering their workshops based on the sustainable development goals. Other than that, I’m a mum, proud Bristolian and season ticket holder at Ashton Gate for the Bristol Bears! 

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Designed by Students for Students: Skills Workshops for our PGR community

By Antonia Voigt and Deepti R Bhat; PhD students, School of Education

A generous grant under the “Enhancing Research Culture” scheme at the University of Bristol enabled us to provide our postgraduate research community with a unique and much needed learning experience.

Over three months, from February to April 2023, we ran four workshops under the heading “Learning to connect: Building our research community through effective communication”. These included a session on learning how to write an impactful conference abstract, how to design a captivating presentation, and deliver it in a memorable way, and lastly, how to build relationships through networking.

We are excited to know that we were able to make a difference to our postgraduate research community through this project. In this blog, we want to share our experience and three take-away messages. (more…)

An African Feminist Framework project

people's hands working together n Blog by Dr Zibah Nwako, PhD

I am super thrilled to announce that I have been awarded a prestigious ESRC (Economic and Social Research Council) Postdoctoral* Fellowship for my impact project: “Towards an African feminist framework for students’ welfare in Nigerian Higher Education”. The application process was highly competitive and I was informed that there were 28 applications received for only 7 fellowship places.

*Postdoctoral [adj.] – relating to advanced work or study that someone does after completing their PhD

(Cambridge Dictionary)

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