Spatiality, temporality and un/well-being: an ethnography of social science postgraduates during COVID-19

Postgraduate students experienced much of the pandemic in a myriad of ways which were not experienced by other sections of society in the United Kingdom or Republic of Ireland. Many postgraduates’ carefully prepared research plans were revised to comply with legislated COVID-19 social-distancing regulations, necessitating a move to online methods.

Revisions to a student’s PhD had temporal, spatial and (un)well-being consequences as their future-selves were questioned. Unexpected additional delays eroded students’ timelines to complete their PhD increasing their academic and personal anxieties. Focusing on postgraduates’ disrupted research and their lives during COVID-19, this thesis explores a unique opportunity to discuss varying aspects of their spatially constrained predicaments and the associated disruptions which were (un)successfully readapted to.This thesis investigates spatial, temporal and (un)well-being aspects of postgraduate lives during the pandemic, and examines how the pandemic affected them and their doctoral research projects.