Ella is on the Communication & Media Pathway at the University of Leicester. Her research topic is: “Environmental communication and campaigning: The case of Greenpeace's Alternative Futures campaign”. Ella spent eight weeks at the University of Tasmania’s Media School between February and April this year.

She particularly valued the everyday conversations with other media school PhD students and staff, discussing additional literature, methods and methodological issues (including how to use NVivo, corpus linguistics and frame analysis) and talking through daily challenges when analysing her data. She presented at the School’s monthly seminar series, sparking much discussion and raising important and interesting questions on her data analysis. It was also a valuable opportunity for editing and developing her presentation for an international conference she is presenting at later in the year. The presentation led to an additional discussion session with all environmental communication researchers at the Media School. This provided an opportunity to get in depth feedback on her research and gain experience at answering questions about her research in preparation for her Viva.

Ella says about presenting at the School:

“The opportunity to present my research whilst out here has also given me more confidence for presenting at International Conferences in the summer and to address questions at my Viva”.

About the opportunities for networking she says:

“This visit has also given me the opportunity to meet and network with many other environmental communication researchers. I have established some strong relationships/friendships whilst out here which I will continue to maintain and nurture when back in the UK”.

And about how the visit has opened her eyes to new possibilities going forward:

“This visit has also given me time to consider future steps in my career. It has opened my eyes up to the possibility of conducting a Post Doctorate outside of the UK”.