Epsiode 18 - Ruth Gilligan (Senior Lecturer at Birmingham University)
Welcome to the Beyond Your Research Degree podcast from the University of Exeter Doctoral College! The podcast about careers and all the opportunities available to you... beyond your research degree! In this episode Kelly Preece, Researcher Development Manager talks to Dr. Ruth Gilligan, Senior Lecturer in Creative Writing at Birmingham University and author of The Butchers. Music from https://filmmusic.io ’Cheery Monday’ by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.com) License: CC BY (https://creativecommons.org/licenses Podcast transcript 100:00:10,910 --> 00:00:23,720Hello and welcome to the Beyond Your Research Degree podcast by the University of Exeter. 200:00:23,720 --> 00:00:26,600Hello and welcome back to Beyond Your Research Degree. 300:00:26,600 --> 00:00:33,830I'm really delighted to be back with you after our summer hiatus and to be bringing to you a conversation with Dr. Ruth Gilligan. 400:00:33,830 --> 00:00:38,810Ruth is a senior lecturer and academic, but also because she's in creative writing. 500:00:38,810 --> 00:00:46,010She is a published author. And so I thought it would be interesting for us to have a conversation with someone who is an 600:00:46,010 --> 00:00:52,820academic but maintains a professional profile and creative practise alongside their academic work. 700:00:52,820 --> 00:00:57,890So Ruth, happy to introduce herself, certainly. Well, firstly, thanks so much for having me. 800:00:57,890 --> 00:01:04,400It's lovely to be chatting to you and reminiscing a little bit about my time at Exeter. 900:01:04,400 --> 00:01:12,650I came to Exeter in two thousand and eleven to start my PhD in creative writing, 1000:01:12,650 --> 00:01:18,110and then I actually went straight for my PhD into my first academic job. 1100:01:18,110 --> 00:01:24,860I the first interview I went for my creative writing role had come up at the University of Birmingham. 1200:01:24,860 --> 00:01:31,010So despite the fact that I was still finishing my PhD, I was like, ah sure, I'll apply and see what happens. 1300:01:31,010 --> 00:01:40,790And anyway, I got offered a job. So I started as a lecturer in creative writing at the University of Birmingham in kind of August twenty fourteen, 1400:01:40,790 --> 00:01:44,690at which point I was still in the final two or three months of my PhD. 1500:01:44,690 --> 00:01:50,900So I was kind of trying to pretend that I was a lecturer and seem very grown up and important to my students, 1600:01:50,900 --> 00:01:58,880despite the fact that I was secretly still a student myself and trying furiously to dot all the T's and cross all the I's on my thesis. 1700:01:58,880 --> 00:02:07,040So yeah, it was a bit of a mad time, but yeah, then I started out at Birmingham and seven, maybe eight years later I'm still there. 1800:02:07,040 --> 00:02:16,610So I'm now a senior lecturer. Since that time, I've also published two more novels and I had published three novels before my PhD at Exeter, 1900:02:16,610 --> 00:02:23,660but I went on to publish two more, one of which was the novel that I wrote as part of my creative writing PhD. 2000:02:23,660 --> 00:02:26,960And then my most recent book The Butchers came out last year. 2100:02:26,960 --> 00:02:35,300So yes, I am now kind of fully fledged novelist, academic, creative writing lecturer and still very much in touch with Sam 2200:02:35,300 --> 00:02:41,090And Sinead my two wonderful supervisors and have very, very fond memories of working with them. 2300:02:41,090 --> 00:02:43,490There's a number of things I think I want to pick up on in that. 2400:02:43,490 --> 00:02:50,120And the first is something that comes up a surprising amount, actually, in talking to people for this podcast, 2500:02:50,120 --> 00:02:58,430which is about kind of seeing an opportunity when you've not actually finished the PhD and going for it and getting it, 2600:02:58,430 --> 00:03:05,060and then how you go about juggling, working and finishing up. 2700:03:05,060 --> 00:03:13,820Co