A blog about finding my way through the beginnings of parenthood and a PhD.
My daughter was born in Autumn 2012. My son was born in December 2015. I started my PhD in Danish-English Translation Studies in Autumn 2013 – so I had one baby when I started, and now I have two! You can find me on Twitter: @nellefant
You can read more about me in this interview for the Mums Who Study blog (November 2014).
It goes without saying, but this blog is my personal experience and thoughts, nothing to do with my university or my funders or anyone else!
Edit (mid-2019) – I have temporarily made all blog posts private while I finish my PhD.
PhD, Baby, and Me! 
Hej Ellen!
I thought I’d say hello as I’ve been stalking you for a while…I came across the advert for the UCL PhD in the summer and thought if I were at a different place in my career not to mention geographically it would have been ideal for me : P
I’ve been living in Cph for eight years and am looking into literary translation as a sort of side step…I’ve been doing research into social media and also blog extensively – see http://about.me/annpriestley.
I was particularly struck by your tweet on exploring issues of Scandi fandom. As a long term expat I often find myself scratching my head at the UK’s ‘scandimania’. I’m hoping to do some linguistic analysis on this whole phenomenon.
On a lighter note we’ve lots of other things in common too. I’ve a BA in German and back in the mists of time I lived in Tooting! Hope we can share thoughts virtually and maybe IRL too at some point.
Hej Ann – how lovely to hear from you! Interesting that we have so many potential intersections in our lives but have never met!
Funny you mention the UK’s ‘Scandimania’ – that’s actually the name of a short TV series that has just started on Channel 4, celebrity chef Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall is profiling each of the three countries.
Your research sounds very interesting, I’m off to have a proper read of your blog 🙂 I’m in Copenhagen again later this month so maybe we should have coffee? I’ll DM you on Twitter.
See you on Twitter! Re your last post, makes me almost grateful I’ve ‘just’ got two beagles to exercise :O
Ellen , Good to talk to you on Twittwer and hear about your studies. Are you following our blog? http://nordicnoirblog.wordpress.com/
Thank you, I’ve been following you on Twitter for a while but I’ll be sure to follow the blog too – it looks very useful.
Great to make contact with you Ellen. Tak
I am also doing my PhD, in a foreign country, with a 4 year old son. I’m also a single parent so I hardly ever have any free time! But I’m on schedule to hand in my thesis, I think..
I look forward to reading about your successful defense!
Anyway, I am sure you can relate with these comics http://phdcomics.com/comics/archive.php?comicid=1808
http://phdcomics.com/comics/archive.php?comicid=1809
http://phdcomics.com/comics/archive.php?comicid=1810
God dag, Ellen. (I have done a bit of translating in my day.) It’s good to see the issue of baby-care and feeding raised so clearly in connection with the translating prize. At C O R E we welcome babies in arms at all our events, not that there are many, but we have got one coming up soon in Preston, Lancs. A US colleague has started copying the line ‘Babies in arms welcome at all OBRL events.’ Maybe it will catch on, if people start adding it to posters, websites, and adverts?