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Research reflections

The triumph of completing a PhD

By April 26, 2018June 2nd, 20197 Comments4 min read4,427 views

The Language-on-the-Move team proudly celebrate the graduation of Drs Alexandra Grey and Gary O’Neill

Editor’s note: This week the 20th and 21st PhD students I have supervised to completion graduated from their degrees. You can read the theses of Dr Alexandra Grey about language rights in China and of Dr Gary O’Neill about multilingualism in Dubai through our PhD Hall of Fame. Dr Alexandra Grey, who also received a Macquarie Vice-Chancellor’s Commendation for Academic Excellence and an Australian PhD Prize for Innovation in Linguistics for her thesis, delivered the graduation speech on behalf of the graduating group. It is with immense pride in her achievement and that of all our PhD students that we share her speech here on Language on the Move. Alternatively you can watch the ceremony here (Alex’ speech starts at 1:13:35).

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Chancellor, members of the University, guests, and especially my fellow graduates here in fantastic hats; hello! I am delighted and deeply honoured to give voice to the gratitude that I’m sure most of us feel towards our guests, and to reflect briefly on my own personal path towards today.

Today, I celebrate the completion of a PhD. Let me tell you a little about it. My own PhD is 100,000 of my very best words, four years of intense work and learning, and a childhood dream achieved.  The chancellor was right in saying that when you see a parent graduating it inspires you. I collected most of my PhD data in China, interviewing young adults and looking at how policy protections for one particular minority language work in practice. In preparation for the PhD I learnt Mandarin. The Linguistics Department supported me to go to China for fieldwork in four provinces. I remember one day in 2015 in South China, when I hopped onto smaller and smaller vehicles – trains, then buses, then minibuses – to get to a village in the rural, rice farming fields. Eventually, the bus conductor informed me:

Zài zhèlǐ xià chē. Shāo děng yī huǐ’er. Zhè liàng chē bù zuǒ zhuǎn…

He was saying I had to simply get off on this small winding road. His explained that his minibus was turning right at the fork in the road, but if I waited 20 minutes another minibus turning left would pass by. zhen de ma?! Had I understood that right? My little suitcase and I sat by this fork in the road, alone for once in such a populous country, and I remember thinking “I may not feel certain about where I am on a map right now, but I know for certain that I’m in the right place in my career.” I loved doing my PhD. Most days.

But doing a PhD involves a lot of independent work, which can feel lonely. And I felt even more alone when my husband fell seriously ill at the start of my final year. We passed a very difficult eight months juggling his health and my PhD. Luckily, I had a caring family, and my supervisor, Prof Ingrid Piller, had developed a great peer support group around me. Ingrid’s many years of experience has only strengthened her passion for supervision.

I am sure my success comes in part from having this bunch of boffins, this support network. Now, we can become the supporters! Isn’t it exciting for us graduates to know that, now we have this university experience under our belts, we can be sounding boards and sympathetic listeners for friends or siblings who undertake university studies, or perhaps one day even support our own students! Being able to give back to my research team, not just to take their willing support, has added so much meaning to my PhD journey.

Despite the scale of my project, and the personal pressures, I nevertheless finished my thesis within the four year limit, then won a Vice-Chancellor’s Commendation and a national thesis prize, and I’ve just started a job running my own exciting project at Sydney University. So it is with an unashamed sense of triumph that I am graduating today.

I hope very much that every graduate here at every degree level feels triumphant, too, as each has surely overcome their own obstacles. I couldn’t be more proud to represent us all in thanking the community here today who have fostered us in our achievements and, I hope, fostered in us a lifelong love of learning.

Alexandra Grey

Author Alexandra Grey

Alexandra is a Chancellor's Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the University of Technology Sydney, in the Faculty of Law. She researches governments' responses to linguistic diversity, including in relation to multilingual, urban Australia and Australian Aboriginal language renewal. Her first book, "Language Rights in a Changing China: A National Overview and Zhuang Case Study" (De Gruyter, 2021), builds from her PhD thesis in sociolinguistics, which was supervised by Professor Ingrid Piller. Alexandra also teaches law and was formerly a legal researcher and advocacy trainer at a Chinese not-for-profit organization in Beijing.

More posts by Alexandra Grey

Join the discussion 7 Comments

  • Brynn says:

    Oh this is lovely! Very inspiring for someone (read: me) who is considering their own daunting-feeling PhD journey in the near future.

  • Li Jia says:

    Congratulations Alex and Gary! After several years of devotion, you both have conquered the impossible mission with such marvelous achievment under the supervision of our great master.

    Congratulations Ingrid for helping the world produce two more professional sociolinguists full of passion and power to move on:-)

  • Laura says:

    Congratulations Gary and Alex. Alex – thanks for your lovely words, and an added congratulations for adding a very fabulous new hat to your impressive collection 😉

    We are so very lucky to have the support that we have, both from the incredible Ingrid, and the valuable network of peers she has brought together around us. I hope we are able to emulate this emphasis on community in our own careers.

  • Sadami says:

    Tons of Congrats, Gary and Alex! Hope both will more explore linguistics and enjoy it. Wow, Alex, if you bump someone sketching Sydney uni, please smile at her, te-he. Being an artist, too, is similar to academics, as it tends to be a lone work. Me, too, have learned the importance of having a wise mentor, a good rapport/support system, stress buster techniques and a healthy self-trust or positivism/optimism which eventually helps creativity and turns out good work. Take care and enjoy your journey in linguistics! Best wishes, Sadami

  • Pia says:

    Congratulations, Alex and Gary! You are both such an inspiration! Thanks, Alex, for your speech. It’s still a long road ahead for me, but I can already relate to the peer support and passionate supervision bit. Really grateful for those, too. ^_^ Best of luck on your next journey!

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