Publishing During & After the PhD
Join us in conversation with early career academics from the School of Social and Political Sciences, discussing the challenges of publishing their research during and immediately after the PhD. Each academic panelist will share an overview of their diverse experiences, touching on topics such as approaching academic journals, writing for academic / non-academic audiences, navigating the peer-review process, and more. Following this initial discussion, our panelists will respond to questions from the audience of current graduate researchers.
Our speakers:
Dr Mhamed Biygautane (Panelist and Chair) is a Lecturer in Public Policy in the School of Social and Political Sciences at the University of Melbourne. He holds a Ph.D. and a Master of Public Policy and Management from Monash University, and was the recipient of numerous prestigious international scholarships such as the Endeavor Scholarships and Fellowships, the Mohammed bin Rashid Al-Maktoum Fellowships, and Partnerships for Learning Undergraduate Studies (PLUS) program. Mhamed’s research interests are located at the interface between public management and organizational theory. He explores how the institutional context affects the implementation of public sector reform initiatives and programs such as public-private partnerships, privatization, knowledge management and downsizing public sector organizations, with particular emphasis on the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) and Middle Eastern countries.
Dr Dara Conduit (Panelist) is an Australian Research Council DECRA Research Fellow in Political Science in the School of Social and Political Sciences at the University of Melbourne, and a Non-Resident Scholar at the Middle East Institute in Washington D.C. She has a PhD from Monash University (2017), a M.Litt in Middle East and Central Asian Security Studies from the University of St Andrews (2011) and a Diploma of Languages (Arabic) from Deakin University. Her research sits at the intersection of authoritarian politics and cyber technology, and she is pursuing a research agenda within political science to further the understanding of the contentious politics between actors in authoritarian regimes, particularly in relation to their tactical innovation. She has a regional specialism in the Middle East, particularly Syria and Iran. Her work has been published in top-tier political science journals including Democratization, Political Geography and The Middle East Journal. Her book The Muslim Brotherhood in Syria, which was published by Cambridge University Press, won the 2020 Oceania Book Prize for International Studies. She is a regular media commentator, has been invited to attend UN consultation meetings on the National Agenda for the Future of Syria (2020, 2021), and has provided advice to the UN OHCHR’s Working Group on Mercenaries.
Dr Kate Williams (Panelist) is aLecturer in Public Policy with the School of Social and Political Sciences at the University of Melbourne. She holds a PhD in Sociology from the University of Cambridge, funded by a Commonwealth Scholarship and the Cambridge Overseas Trust. Her research occurs at the intersection of public policy, sociology and research policy. It focuses on the production, use and evaluation of policy knowledge, and on cultures of evaluation and emerging methods of research impact assessment. She is currently lead investigator on a UK Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) Research Grant (2021-2024), which compares methods and cultures of research impact evaluation across the UK, Australia, and the US (the cultural impact of impact project). Her previous work, funded by an ESRC Future Research Leaders Grant and a British Academy and Leverhulme Grant, investigated the creation and assessment of value in policy knowledge contexts, including the World Bank, London School of Economics and J-PAL. She has published on these topics in Research Evaluation, Policy Studies Journal, Policy and Society, Public Administration, the Sociological Review, the LSE Impact Blog and other venues.