January Newsletter: New Connections

Photo by Ehimetalor Akhere Unuabona on Unsplash

We are  delighted you have signed up to our newsletter! We're looking forward to  getting to know you and supporting you any way we can this year. We set  up our network back in 2016 because a few of us (based at institutions  in the South West of England) felt a little isolated in our PhD studies  on military-related topics. Fast forward 6 Years and now we have  committee members in Australia, Brazil and Canada,  Amazing! We have each benefitted so much from connecting with fellow  early career researchers across such a broad range of fields, from  which spring writing collaborations and friendships. Our strength  remains the breadth of research interests and backgrounds that  people bring to this group and we really look forward to meeting more  of you this year, whether virtually or face to face. We thought we'd  share a few of our plans for the network in the year ahead...

We  spent the latter months of 2021 reaching out to different networks -  formal and informal - to make new connections and talk about ways we can  collaborate in the future. If you are involved in other  networks, whether they are subject or region specific and you think we  should be connected then please get in touch. We would love to  showcase your network in our newsletter and have a chat about ways we  can work together. We will be sharing more about our new connections in  the months to come so keep your eyes out!

We  have also been working hard to try and support early career researchers  in making the step to present at major conferences by coordinating  informal peer-to-peer workshops to prepare submissions and find fellow  panelists. So do check out 'What we've been up to' for more information about what we are planning next.

I know you will all want to join us in thanking Emily Clifford for her outstanding editorship of  our newsletter for the past two years - she has done a magnificent job  and we hear such lovely feedback about each jam-packed edition. Emily is  stepping back from this role to concentrate on her studies (good luck  for the final push!) but is thankfully staying involved in the  committee. For now we will be having a Guest Editor for each edition  with our usual committee contributions to the various sections.

Thanks also to Sorina Toltica who has been part of our Twitter Team for the last two years and has  been managing it single-handedly for the last few months. Sorina is also  reaching the final stages of her PHD and is stepping back from the  committee to concentrate on this but hopes to rejoin us on the other  side - good luck! We are delighted to be welcoming some new committee  members and welcoming back some old committee members who we look  forward to introducing you to.

We  hope you are all getting into the swing of 2022. We would love to hear  from you so do get in touch by email or on Twitter to let us know what  you are up to so we can share it in our next newsletter.

Hannah West and Jemma Humphries
Co-Chairs of the Defence Research Network

See the full newsletter here: New Connections

Visit the Newsletter Catalogue to catch up on all our past issues!