FAQs

Do I need to have done a degree or masters in sociology to do a PhD in Sociology or Visual Sociology?  No you don’t. But you will need to be familiar with sociological ideas and debates. If you don’t have a background in sociology, then, depending on the PhD topic, we may require you to sit additional courses in order that you become familiar with the discipline (at least how it is taught and understood at Goldsmiths).

Are there funded studentships?  Yes, for UK and EU students there are ESRC and AHRC studentships. Please see the details on this at the AHRC and ESRC pages.

Will I be able to get teaching experience as an MPhil/PhD student? Yes. Ideally we like all our students to have some experience of teaching. The department has Graduate Tutors and Post-Doctoral Teaching Fellows who do undergraduate teaching. But we also encourage our students to do some teaching at other institutions. However, we require that all students who wish to teach to have been successfully upgraded to PhD status before doing so. This is normally at the end of the first or in the middle of the second year of study.

Can I do my PhD overseas while being registered for a PhD at Goldsmiths? We don’t run a distance learning MPhil/PhD programme. We require our students to be resident in the UK near enough to Goldsmiths to engage in the regular activities. However, we do encourage our students to conduct research further afield or overseas if that is something required in order to do the PhD. We have students who have done fieldwork in Greece, Turkey, Taiwan, USA, Mexico and many other places.

Can I work while doing a PhD? Doing a PhD is a full-time activity. It takes up 9am-5pm five days a week at the very least. So, working while doing a PhD is not a good idea. If you need to do paid work while doing the PhD, then we would encourage you to do a part-time PhD. However, some of our PhD students do have as their object of study a particular work organisation and sometimes it makes sense for them to double up (in an ethnographic sense) the research and the work.

Will I find doing a PhD lonely? A PhD can be lonely work. You are working on something in a particular kind of way that makes what you’re doing unique. But the department has a very lively and supportive and friendly research culture. We have lots of discussions and a friendly ear and a cup of tea is always at hand.

Will a Goldsmiths Sociology PhD really change my life? Doing a PhD is an amazing discipline. It consumes what you do and who you are. It shapes you in terms of your career, but also personally in terms of how you think about the world and yourself. It also has the potential to make an impact on the world. In order to get a sense of how, then you should come to the department to meet us and some of the students. Please do book an appointment by e-mailing us HERE.