Kevan Manwaring

Teaching Fellow, University of Leicester

Teaching Fellow in Creative Writing at the University of Leicester

From the diary of a “Viva Ninja”

Undertaking a PhD is a long-haul and one of the key qualities you need is stamina. I’ve honed my stamina by running and long-distance walking. Each summer I’ve walked a long-distance path, and since the last walk happened to be right after I submitted my 80,000-word thesis, I view it as an extended metaphor of my PhD journey.

My viva was like a vortex of academic inquiry!

Yesterday, I underwent my Viva Voce at the University of Leicester in the dark tower of the Attenborough Building. I felt like Childe Harold, or Frodo approaching Mount Doom, as I walked across the chilly park with my partner, Chantelle. I spent the final hour getting ‘into the zone’ and trying to stay calm. But that barely helped.

The strange worlds of academe

Undertaking a PhD can feel sometimes like one of those impossible tasks set to unfortunate protagonists in fairy tales. You can never read every book, every article, or attend every lecture or every conference. You have to give it your best shot, of course, but it is an endless task.

The night of my mock mock-viva

Last night I had what I call a ‘Mock-Mock’ with friends. This was in essence a warm-up for the mock-viva next week with my supervisor at the University of Leicester. But it was an invaluable experience in its own right. Until that point, I had been practising answering viva questions by myself, but that’s not quite the same thing.