Doctoral Research | Update

Research 1 Minutes

It’s been a little while since I last updated on how my professional doctorate is coming along. I’m researching policing service provision for Gypsy, Roma, and Traveller groups in Scotland and the rest of the UK. I’ve had some really great data from both a policing perspective and from Gypsies, Roma, and Travellers in Scotland. When I last blogged, I was just finishing up my interviews.

The subsequent five months have been fairly intense. I’ve juggled work and writing with transcribing, coding, and drafting, until I have a complete(ish) thesis sitting in front of me of some 67,000 words. There is still a lot of work to do before submission in about a month’s time, not least getting the manuscript down to fewer than 60,000 words, sorting appendices, and formatting the document properly. There have been more early mornings than I care to count, but I am at least able to see the end of the process.

I’ll hopefully submit in about a month’s time, after which it will be a couple of month’s preparation for my viva voce and the actioning of any changes suggested from this. I’m half looking forward to not having to schedule hours of every day away for study and half dreading the void that no research will leave in my life – study at postgraduate, masters, and doctorate levels has kept me busy over the last decade or so. For now, I might be slightly more intermittent with my blog posting over the next few weeks as I hit peak doctorate time!

*Thanks for reading, folks. My recent short stories include ‘The Young Man from Number Twenty-Seven‘ and ‘Sense of Community‘.

Matthew Richardson is a writer of short stories. His work has featured in Gold Dust magazine, Literally Stories, Close to the Bone, McStorytellers, Penny Shorts, Soft Cartel, Whatever Keeps the Lights On, Flashback Fiction, Cafelit, Best MicroFiction 2021, Writer’s Egg, Idle Ink, The Wild Word, and Shooter magazine. He is a doctoral student at the University of Dundee, a lucky husband, and a proud father. He blogs at www.matthewjrichardson.com.

Published by matthewjrichardson

PhD student and short story author. Published in Gold Dust, Literally Stories, Near to the Knuckle, Soft Cartel, Penny Shorts, and Shooter.

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16 thoughts on “Doctoral Research | Update”

  1. all the best, Matthew: you’ve put in the hard yards; may the final part of presentation flow smoothly; it certainly comes across as research that is much needed so useful action can be taken —

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  3. Thank you for the update, Matthew. Best wishes for you in your studies. I’ve never studied on the doctorate level, but earning two Masters degrees was enough! I can definitely relate to your comment about needing to schedule your time.

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  4. Thanks for letting us know, Matthew. Best of luck as you finish this final stretch; I have no doubt you’ll do so admirably–and I suspect your research will yield some positive changes in the policing practices affecting these populations.

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