How to tame your PhD

My name is Dr Inger Mewburn. I was born on Nuenonne country, which is now known as Tasmania, Australia (always was, always will be, Aboriginal land). I have a background as a designer and a researcher, which was nurtured at the University of Melbourne and RMIT University.Since 2006 I have worked exclusively with PhD students and early career academics. I help people finish complex research projects with (sometimes very) demanding stakeholders. I’m passionate about helping people reach their potential as researchers and helping to create a kinder, more inclusive academy. I strive to create spaces where people can do their best work and advance human knowledge for the good of all.

I am currently the Director of Researcher Development at The Australian National University where I run and curate professional development workshops and programs for all ANU researchers. Aside from creating the Thesis Whisperer, I write scholarly papers, books and book chapters about research student experiences, with a special interest in post PhD employability.

I am a regular guest speaker at other universities and do media interviews on request. I am available for keynotes and interviews: please email me on inger.mewburn@anu.edu.au. I do workshops on post PhD employability, publishing, writing, social media, communication and academic survival skills at other universities, for a fee. If you are interested in having me visit your university, see the Workshops page. I am the co-creator of an app to help PhD graduates find non academic jobs. You can find out more about this work on the PostAc page.

I supervise a small number of PhD and Masters students. I am interested in working with people who want to research graduate student issues, especially employability and social scientists wanting to explore machine learning methods in the social sciences (please read the ANU prospective student page before contacting me about study options).

For further information on my work, a selection from my resume is below. You can view my Linkedin profile, my Amazon author page, or contact me by email via the online form above. For more details on my scholarly work please visit my Google Scholar page or my OrcidID. If you need a high res photo of me, you can download from a collection here.