Last Friday I was mainly live-blogging the University of Lincoln Graduate School Conference 2011.

As you’ll see from the posts on the day and feedback left following the event, it was a great success. The range of topics covered in the student presentations was incredible: from critical art theory to fingerprint analysis, from the role of pubs in sustaining local communities to technology use in golf coaching. The day showcased the diversity of postgraduate research taking place at Lincoln.

The quality was high throughout and presenters did an impressive job of moulding their research to the theme of the conference: transitions, community and networking. Nicola Streeten was the deserving winner of an I-Pad for her entertaining and insightful presentation on “Making Friends” and networking in academia and beyond.

In the afternoon three parallel workshops tackled three different stages of postgraduate research: starting the journey, managing the supervisory relationship, and writing up and submission. I attended the latter and took part in stimulating debate which took in the highs and lows of finishing the PhD. Many of the points raised (e.g. difficulty knowing when it’s done; ownership of your work; preparing for the viva) were familiar from my own experiences of writing up in 2006.

In short, a fantastic conference well worth attending. Well done to the staff from the Graduate School for organising and running the event. I’m looking forward to next year!

Above are just a few of the photos taken on the day by Joss Winn and others. You can see more here.