the PhD project

I passed my masters and received a distinction for my dissertation, so the door was then open for me to go deeper into the field I had discovered in my dissertation. This time I can take up the theme of my 2006 text, and I can attempt the crazy adventure of finding a foundation for a new ethics! But who could be open enough to supervise this research?

Always pragmatic, I proposed the project to my dissertation supervisor, and he seemed to be interested. But, after a meeting with him and another professor as co-supervisor, the scope of my project had to be reduced to meet the expectation of the Anglo-Saxon thesis framework. I duly submitted the new version and received an offer to pursue the project in Lancaster.

At the same time, I selected several possible supervisors in French universities, and received one enthusiastic response from Professor Hüsch of Aix-Marseille University. He found the project promising and had suggested some changes of direction, but this time not a narrowing of the field, but a widening!

Now make a difficult choice. Financially, with the possibility of a government loan for a research PhD in the UK, Lancaster would be an obvious choice. But in terms of my attempt to say something that could be a valid and strong response to the climate emergency, the only project was Aix-Marseille. And when I thought about it, the brightest vision was around that of research in France. It is often said that if you have to choose between your heart and your reason you should follow your heart, even if it means taking a leap into the unknown and into a more precarious financial situation.

Below are the abstracts of the three project proposals, the original, the accepted version for Lancaster, the accepted version for Aix-Marseille. It’s up to you to decide if I’ve made the right choice, for me, I need to keep my mind moving towards the completion of the thesis.