My name is Alicia Wickert (She/ Her). I am a PGR at the University of Birmingham. I have an undergraduate degree in English Language and Linguistics and a master's degree in Intercultural Communication. I am currently in my first year of a PhD in English Language and Applied Linguistics. My research focuses on impoliteness and impoliteness reciprocity in interaction, specifically in political discourse. Follow me on Twitter: @_alicia__w

Being Gay in Academia: Unravelling Suffocating Contradictions

This article explores the experience of a gay man entering academia in an oppressive conservative culture, creating impossible contradictions between who they are and who academia wants them to be. Professional norms of academia clash with stereotypes of what ‘gay’ looks like to produce a suffocating costume that we often feel is necessary to survive. The article advocates for representation of minority groups in academia to expand ideas of who we can be – and for PhD students to care for one another and embrace our unique stories and identities.

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SciSpace Agent Review: The Most Powerful Research Tool?

In this blog post, I’ll show you four things you can do with the new SciSpace Agent: identifying research gaps, supporting your literature reviews, auto-generating posters, and finding the right journal for your paper. Instead of jumping between separate tools, the agent integrates 150+ research tools and databases (PubMed, Google Scholar, arXiv, grants.gov, and more) alongside SciSpace’s own features, including a database of 280M+ papers.

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