Alex’s PhD examines sexual violence from the narratives of victims/survivors and offenders who identify as sexually and/or gendered minoritised men and/or non-binary individuals. It draws upon the singularised normality of masculinity and how this influences survivors when reporting, offenders when perpetrating, and the police’s responses to survivors and offenders within cases of sexual violence.

Introduction

This chapter will provide an overview of my experiences in applying for doctoral research funding. Initially, I will explore the necessity of reflective writing when discussing my experiences of attaining funds for my PhD research. I will also examine the competition I faced when applying for my PhD’s research funding. This will be complemented by discussions on applying for research funding and the importance of research proposals having both originality and innovation (Baptista et al, 2015). I will also discuss the process of constructing my research proposal, centrally around imposter syndrome and my identity as a gay man. This chapter hopes to reveal the three key processes to attaining doctoral research funding, including developing a personal statement, presenting research to a potential doctoral supervisory team, and how to hopefully obtain funding for the PhD itself. I will follow this with deliberations around how I secured a Visiting Lecturer role and the intrinsic conflicts I faced as a young academic. It is important to acknowledge that this chapter examines sensitive issues, where I expose my lived realities of bullying, sexual violence, victimisation, and dysphoria with both my sexuality and gender