A community of scholars working together
FOR SUPPORT, ACCOUNTABILITY AND PRODUCTIVITY
MErry Christmas & Happy NEw YEar
Our last retreat of 2020 will be Friday 18th of December. Our first retreat of 2021 will be Monday 4th of January. Wishing all our members a happy time over the festivities. Please take time off & do something nice for yourself!
Gift Cards - show you care
Gift Cards for those who care about their research buddies!
For PI's who want to support their students!
For Institutions who care about their cohort's wellbeing.
Buy them the gift of support & community!
£3 - 1 day
£39 - 4 weeks
Pay it FORWARD
YES YOU CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE. Help tackle educational inequality by donating an online retreat to those with less resources.
Virtual Writing Retreat Team
VWR Founder - Catherine Aitken
Cat Aitken founded Virtual Writing Retreat (VWR), in September 2019 as a tool to hold her accountable to PhD. Through the management pathway at the University of Glasgow, Cat’s research is focused on social enterprise hybridity & the impact on sustainability. Funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), Cat aims to submit her PhD in the next 12 months.
Cat worked as a Research Assistant at Heriot-Watt University in 2018/2019. In this role she evaluated the scalability and replication of start-up social enterprises. This led to a teaching post where she taught on various modules on the International Business Management degrees, supervised UG dissertations and organised a global postgraduate module. Cat is now pursing a secondary piece of research alongside her PhD as part of an internship with InspirAlba.
Prior to pursuing an academic career Cat worked in community education & worked with young people from areas of deprivation. Cat has an interesting background as a first-generation graduate and young Mum. Her son Blain has been her primary focus in life & he studies Robotics Engineering at Heriot-Watt University.
Cats vision for VWR in a broader sense, is to highlight underrepresented groups in academia by promoting the heterogeneous profiles of scholars. Furthermore, she aims to tackle education inequality by offering free retreats to low income students.
In her spare time Cat likes to ride her motorcycle, walk her huge dogs & unsurprisingly, loves to write.
You can follow her on twitter: @cataitken
Facilitators
.jpg/:/rs=w:400,cg:true,m/qt=q:1)
Dr Maja Brandt Andreasen
Dr Maja Brandt Andreasen is a researcher of feminist media studies, specialising in social media, internet memes, rape culture, and humour. She finished her PhD in Gender Studies from the University of Strathclyde in March 2020 after successfully completing her Viva over Zoom. Her PhD thesis investigates rape culture in humorous internet memes about #MeToo. Next to her PhD, Maja has taught courses in Gender Studies, Media Studies and Journalism at the universities of Strathclyde and Stirling. She also supervises undergraduate and MLitt dissertations.
Maja currently works as a research associate on the CILIA LGBTQI+ project at Strathclyde: Comparing Intersectional Lifecourse (In)equlities Among LGBTQI+ people in Scotland.
Maja is originally from Denmark but lived in Amsterdam for five years before she moved to Glasgow to pursue her PhD. She is an enthusiastic home cook and foodie with a secret passion for crime shows and musicals.
"I joined VWR at a point where I was juggling a lot of different tasks. I was preparing for my Viva, teaching, supervising dissertations and writing endless job applications. At the same time, I was struggling to find time to write the first journal article based on my PhD research. VWR enabled me to focus on those few days I could dedicate to writing. Since then I have used the VWR as a community to help structure my days and find support from people who understand the struggles of a PhD and academic life. I decided to become a facilitator to give back to the community and because it’s honestly a pleasure".
You can follow Maja on twitter: @MajaBAndreasen1
Donate & Help us PRovide support
We are a not-for-profit service and rely on donations to deliver social good. Your contributions will enable us to keep providing support to those in need and widen our capacity during COVID-19. Your generous donation will fund our mission. Thank you.
