Thesis interrupted: Anisha's story
This year has been full of change, uncertainty and instability. For many research students, the COVID pandemic has significantly disrupted their professional and personal lives, as projects have to be reimagined, working habits are forced to evolve, and people are separated from their peers and families. While the current circumstances are quite unusual, they seem to reinforce that there is no typical or normal experience of the PhD. Research takes place in the context of a human life and its unique vicissitudes. Yet it's amazing how readily we assume things should go a particular way and that something is wrong when life happens. The piece below is written by a dear friend of mine, Anisha Gautam. Anisha and I met and became friends in a PhD lab many years ago - she started her thesis around the time I was finishing. We spent countless lunch hours together as part of a community of PhD students, sharing our woes and making each other laugh. Anisha recently returned to her thesis af