All the best to Edinburgh Napier University PhD graduate Dr Iris Buunk, who has recently taken up a new position at the Service écoles-médias (SEM), DIP Etat de Genève. Iris’ new job title is Scientific Assistant and Project Manager. In her new role as a member of staff of the Département de l’instruction publique, de la formation de la jeunesse, Iris contributes to the development of digital technology, audiovisual, and documentation services for teaching staff working in primary and secondary schools in the Canton of Geneva, Switzerland. Iris’ new job also includes project management, research, and event organisation, as well as managing a team of around ten colleagues. Continue reading
Tag Archives: doctorate
Career information literacy and the decision-making behaviours of young people: PhD thesis now available
Dr Marina Milosheva’s full PhD thesis Career information literacy and the decision-making behaviours of young people is now available from the Edinburgh Napier repository.
On the basis of the ESRC/SDS-funded empirical work reported in the thesis, Marina presents three main contributions to theory:
- Articulation of career information seeking as a two-stage process.
- Identification of two distinct career decision-making styles: (1) fulfilment-based; (2) pragmatic.
- Demonstration of resilience as an information literacy skill.
Congratulations Dr Marina Milosheva!

Shakespeare’s pub on Lothian Road was transformed into the Napier Graduate last week
Congratulations to Dr Marina Milosheva, whose doctoral degree was conferred in absentia at the Edinburgh Napier graduation ceremony at the Usher Hall in Edinburgh last Friday 5th July. Although Marina did not attend the ceremony in person, this day was a significant milestone in her PhD journey. This is because it is only from the date of the graduation ceremony that new PhD graduates are permitted to place the term ‘Dr’ before their names. Continue reading
What can you do with a PhD? Ten answers from graduates who completed their doctoral studies between 2015 and 2023
One of the questions most often asked of doctoral students is What are you going to do when you finish your PhD? For some students it is also one of the most dreaded, especially when it comes from family members or friends who barely understand the title of the doctoral research in question. An obvious, and truthful, answer is ‘No longer work on my thesis’. However, this isn’t really a suitable response. The questioner is interested in hearing about ‘proper’ job ambitions, and the value of these to a successful future career. Continue reading
A new role at the University of Stirling for Marina Milosheva
Congratulations to Marina Milosheva on her appointment as post-doctoral researcher within the Faculty of Social Sciences (Sociology, Social Policy and Criminology division) at the University of Stirling. Marina joined the University of Stirling on Monday, five weeks after her PhD examiners recommended that Edinburgh Napier University award her doctorate unconditionally (i.e. with no corrections required to her thesis).
In her new role, Marina is working on the Bridge, youth, and mindsport education project. This research is affiliated with the non-profit organisation Bridge: a mindsport for all (BAMSA). This body was formed to support research into the sociology of the card game bridge. Continue reading
How do young people and careers advisers collaborate in their use of careers information? New publication in the Australian Journal of Career Development
The collaborative use of career information by young people and career advisers: a thematic content analysis of career counselling records has been published in the April 2024 issue of the Australian Journal of Career Development. I am one of the co-authors of this article alongside Marina Milosheva, Professor Pete Robertson, and Dr Peter Cruickshank.
In this work we discuss the information behaviours of young people and careers advisers. We highlight three modes of information seeking: (1) that prompted by careers advisers; (2) that undertaken by careers advisers on behalf of young people; and (3) that completed collaboratively by young people with their careers advisers. The patterns of the interactions, the language deployed over their duration, and the roles of each set of actors in the process of information seeking, point to ways in which career services may be improved, and career information, advice and guidance policies developed. Continue reading
Work over winter 2023/24

Marina Milosheva’s draft PhD thesis
I have been a little quiet on this blog over the past five months or so. The main reason for this is that I have taken on a further role in addition to that of Emeritus Professor. I am now Continue reading
Community validation in qualitative research: contribution to #asist23
The main programme of the 2023 Annual Meeting of the Association for Information Science and Technology opens today in London. Sadly I cannot be there in person with my (lucky) Edinburgh Napier University Social Informatics Research Group colleagues*. Continue reading
Community validation as a method to establish trustworthiness in qualitative LIS research: submission accepted for #asist2023
Community validation as a method to establish trustworthiness in qualitative LIS research has been accepted for the 86th Annual Meeting of the Association for Information Science and Technology. The conference takes place in London between 27th and 31st October this year.
This contribution to the conference poster session is an output from Dr Rachel Salzano‘s doctoral study. It was co-authored by Rachel and her supervision team members: Professor Hazel Hall, Dr Gemma Webster, and Dr David Brazier. Here we evaluate a novel means to determine trustworthiness in qualitative and mixed methods research, while making reference to Rachel’s doctoral study on the adoption and use of public library services by forced migrants. Continue reading
Trapped in the wrong job? Marina Milosheva offers advice in her latest contribution to ‘The Conversation’
What can you do when you feel like you are trapped in a job that leaves you feeling unfulfilled, or you find yourself in a role for which you are over-qualified and that does not allow you to use the full extent of your talents and skills?
Edinburgh Napier University Social Informatics PhD student Marina Milosheva addresses these questions in a new article for The Conversation entitled Why it’s so difficult to figure out what to do with your life – and three steps to take. The article is a contribution to The Conversation‘s Quarter Life series on issues that affect those in their twenties and thirties. Continue reading



