Hello,

Ever since I began this program, I have felt that I do not deserve my place and funding here. I have the feeling that only my supervisor is keen on having me here, for only he believes that my work is great. I even feel that my ideas aren't that great, that I owe my good grades to overtly generous markers, and that I am 'stealing' another person's place. I am so upset. I hate my work/my ideas, and I always think others in my department are way smarter and more deserving. I know I won't last if I am like this, but when only one person in the whole department supports you, and the others do not believe in you, you do end up feeling like a fraud.

I am so upset, I cried so much today. :(

I really need to start believing in myself, but I cannot. How can I?

Hello all,

I am 5 weeks into my phd and I don't know what exactly I am doing, nor how I am going to do it. I don't have any case studies in mind, I have no idea what my variables will be and worst of all, I have no clue as to what empirical approach I will be using. :(

I thought I had discovered the gaps in the literature, but now I realise that those gaps have been filled! The more I read, the more I feel like I have nothing to contribute.

I am feeling rather depressed. I would like to know what I am supposed to have done by now? And also, by the end of the first year?


Many thanks

Hello all,


so I thought I had come up with an amazingly original idea... only to realise that someone else had it as well in 2011 and published an article in a prominent social science journal, using similar methods to what I had hoped to use, and on a geographical area I had hoped to focus on! I just found out recently. I am feeling rubbish and not that special anymore. :(

Can I still pursue this idea?

my mind starts wandering off after 10 minutes of work. :(

I eat to deal with the guilt.


I like my topic, but I am an eternal procrastinator and I am so disorganized nowadays.

I sent it to your email address.

I don't know how to attach... How do I do that?

Hello all,


can anyone access this article from Mobilization?


Signals or Mixed Signals: Why Opportunities for Mobilization are not Opportunities for Policy Reform

Marie Cornwall , Brayden G King , Elizabeth M. Legerski , Eric C. Dahlin , Kendra S. Schiffman

Hello all,



I had a first meeting Phd with my supervisor, but I feel like I cannot do this. I was given lots of useful advice on what areas to look at, but I now realise I have way too much to read across several fields that I honestly want to give up already.

My work will require me to look at many different theories (group consciousness/collective action/self-categorisation and more) and apply them to a region of the world. This means that I will be looking at several countries. I wanted to only focus on one, but my supervisor suggested that comparisons are more useful at testing theories. I agree with that, but I feel like it would be too much (I would have to look at how one particular form of social identity got politicised in about 6 countries, by looking at instances of political protests based on this particular identity within a given time period). So not only will I have to look at the structural factors, but also at the psychological ones. I feel like I would have too much to read and won't have enough time to cover them all.

I am lost! :(