In time for the new academic year, we bring to you our new blog! This blog is envisioned to be a resource for us as postgraduate students to share experiences, interact with each other and share knowledge about conferences or events. We want you to actively contribute to this, so please send us ideas, your research interests or any other topic that you would like to write about.
Frequently, we will also share advice and tips on the PhD process and how to make the PhD experience more enjoyable.
If you’re interested in being a part of the blog team, please send an email to Elaine McColl (elaine.mccoll@newcastle.ac.uk).
We hope that this blog will become a valuable resource for our PhD community and a way to connect to each other.
But first: Who are we?
Eftychia Kotronia (e.kotronia2@ncl.ac.uk)
I’m from Greece, I’m a 2nd year PhD student and rep for 2nd year PhD students of IH&S. For my PhD project, I study the associations of poor oral health with age-related health outcomes (e.g. disability, inflammation, nutrition) in older people in the UK and USA. I’m part of the Public Health, and Ageing themes. I’m also a dietician and I have a Master’s degree on Epidemiology and Public Health from Wageningen University, the Netherlands. I’m interested in translating research for policy making. I like yoga and barre, and going on roadtrips! In the process of improving my twitting skills. Twitter: @ekotronia
Arlind Reuter (a.reuter2@ncl.ac.uk)
I’m from Berlin, Germany and I’m now coming to the end of my first year of the PhD. Throughout the year, I volunteered to be an IH&S Postgraduate Rep together with Zoë. Being such an active part of our PhD community brought a lot of great interactions and I feel very lucky to be involved. For my PhD, I am based cross-disciplinary in Open Lab, a Human-Computer-Interaction lab in the school of Computing. I look at digital and community media as a pathway to civic participation in later life, working with communities of older people who create a lot of interesting content. Before that, I did the M.Sc. in Clinical and Health Psychology at Newcastle and an M.Res in Digital Civics.
Twitter: @arreut
Nadege Sandrine Uwamohoro (N.S.Uwamahoro2@ncl.ac.uk)I’m a native Rwandan and a Danish national who grew up in Zambia. I’m a 3rd year PhD student, 3rd year EDI rep, rep for international students and secretary of the Youth Stop AIDS student society which I founded in February 2019. The society won the best new society award at NUSU’s Cerebrating Success Awards under my presidency, which was exciting, especially because the society was only three months old. My PhD is focused on exploring barriers and facilitators to health services access by young people living with and at risk of contracting HIV in Malawi’s Thyolo District. I have a master’s degree in Public Health from Aarhus University in Denmark. My main research interest is applied health systems research, particularly in sub-Saharan and related to HIV. If I am not working on the PhD, you’ll find me at dance lessons or attending/hosting dinners for my hygge club.
Twitter: @nadege_sandrine
Congratulations, Eftychia, Arlind and Nadege ! I can only imagine the hard work and commitment that was involved from the inception of the idea of a IHS PG students blog to achieving its ‘birth’ online.
I think everyone will agree that the blog will prove to be a wonderful resource for all. Best wishes, Dave