Industry Partnership for my PhD: Typeface Books

When I grow up, I want to be a writer: articles, books, chapters, more books. I also want the international guest speaking circuit and would love to curl up with both Brene Brown and Oprah for a chat about reading as an act of resistance.

My PhD is just part of my journey of growing up. I've waited 30 years to do this and throughout that time I have never waivered on wanting to write (which I have done - I was given the Domestic Excellence Scholar, Scholarship, based on my GPA and my published list). Study and writing are in my dash.

One thing I was not aware of going into the PhD program was the requirement of doing an internship of 60 days with an Industry Partner. I thought long and hard about what and who I wanted: I knew it would be something to do with publishing.

I dismissed many because of proximity - I literally live on an island in the middle of nowhere, the South Pacific Ocean, and relocation would cost way more than my meagre PhD budget.

Thanks to Charles Darwin University who offer a full digital PhD program, I am fortunate to be doing a digital internship with an independent bookseller based in Perth that specialises in Book Clubs: Typeface Books. Right up my alley, or what!

I share this with you ⤵️ because I had no idea what to put into my schedule of learning to help me achieve the most from my PhD while ensuring that the Industry Partner also gets a good deal from a Higher Degree by Research internship.

It has been approved today so this is what I will be doing part time for 60 FTE days starting at the end of January 2024:

• Facilitate either online or face-to-face book clubs using nine different Brene Brown books at weekly intervals (9 x book clubs);
• Book clubs are to be recorded and circulated to interested parties unable to attend live;
• Write and post book reviews on each of the nine books;
• Write a minimum of nine blog posts and/or social media posts including links to Typeface Books;
• Write project-related newsletter articles for Typeface books as directed;
• Facilitate a minimum of three digital book launches through Typeface;
• Publish a paper on the value of an Industry Partnership and internship with Typeface;
• Include acknowledgment/thanks to Typeface Books in the thesis and provide a digital copy of the PhD to Typeface Books.

Once my project has gone through the Ethics committee I will be calling for book club participants, and looking for authors to do a digital book launch (Anne Maree Taney agreed to do a digital launch of Emotional Storms following her successful book launch on Norfolk Island recently). If you are interested in a digital launch of your book, I'm interested in talking with you so drop me a note below.

Finally, many thanks to my principal supervisor, the enigmatic and wholly academically generous Professor Tara Brabazon, Dean of Graduate Studies and Professor of Cultural Studies at Charles Darwin University. I have the best ✅ and I love your guts, Tara.

👵🏼 Megan Bayliss

👩🏼‍🎓 PhD candidate: social and cultural resistance to the status quo.