Recent content by Felicia

The Stanford piece about "true neutrality is impossible" is required reading for your topic . They argue that what seems neutral to one person is biased to another, and moderate positions are still political positions. That's a whole theoretical framework right there. You could build your...

Alicia, I'm a 4th year PhD student and I still feel this way sometimes. What helped me was mentoring undergrads. When I saw them look at ME like I knew things, I realized that my advisors probably see me the same way. We're always comparing our insides to other people's outsides. You see their...

What finally broke my paralysis was writing the methods section first. It's the easiest because it's just "I did X, then Y, then Z." No argument, no interpretation, just describing. Once I had 5 pages written, suddenly the introduction didn't seem so scary. Something about having words on the...

What's your field, Donald? Social science methodology looks very different from STEM. In social science, you need: Research paradigm (positivist? interpretivist?) Research design (case study? survey? ethnography?) Sampling strategy Data collection methods Analysis approach Ethics Limitations...

Academic this sounds like such a cool thesis topic!! 🙌 Threat intelligence is exploding right now. The "academic rigor" part is key — make sure you're not just doing industry stuff, you need theoretical framing too. Maybe look at TI sharing frameworks (TAXII/STIX) and analyze their...

Year 6, finally finishing. The voice never fully went away. But it changed. Year 1: "You shouldn't be here." Year 2: "Everyone else is smarter." Year 3: "You'll never pass comps." Year 4: "Your research is garbage." Year 5: "You'll never finish." Year 6: "Okay but... you're almost done. Maybe...

Stop hiding from your advisor. Seriously. The shame spiral gets worse the longer you avoid. I did this for 6 months and when I finally emailed back I literally lied about a family emergency cause I was too embarrassed to admit I'd just... not written. Don't be me. Send the embarrassing email...

here's a concrete methodology you could steal: Collect data from multiple OSINT feeds (AlienVault, Shodan, etc.) Normalize it using a common schema (like STIX) Apply it to a network defense tool (Snort, Suricata, whatever) Test it against known attack patterns (use something like Caldera or...

I've been stuck for months thinking I need to find the PERFECT topic. The one that lights me on fire and makes me excited to wake up every day. But reading this I realize... that's not how it works. The fire comes from DOING. From making progress. From seeing something take shape. A doable...

Dissertation Experts saved my literal academic life last spring 🙏 I'm an international student from Brazil and my English is... improving lol. But my research is solid! I just couldn't get the words right. My advisor kept marking up my papers with "awkward phrasing" and "this isn't clear" and I...

The US/Europe flip is so annoying and I wish everyone would just pick one 😭 But here's how I remember it: in the US, PhD = Doctor = Dissertation. They both start with D. Master's = Thesis = T. No D. Dumb but works for me. Also important: dissertations have a "defense" where you present to your...

Today in our meeting, my advisor said something that caught me completely off guard. She said: "Your writing has improved so much since you started. I'm really proud of how far you've come." I almost cried right there in her office. Not sad tears. Not stressed tears. Just... proud tears. For...

Random question that's been on my mind: I've lived in the US for five years. I speak English all day, every day. I teach in English. I write my dissertation in English. I think in English when I'm working. But I still dream in my native language. Every single night. My dreams are in the language...

I'm an international PhD candidate in my third year. My dissertation is on computational linguistics (ironic, right?). My English is... okay. I can have conversations, I can teach undergrads, I can read academic papers just fine. But WRITING a 200-page dissertation? In English? That's a whole...