My name is Alison Lawson and I’m an academic.

Wait, that sounds a bit as if I’m at an Academics Anonymous meeting. (Maybe I am.)

I worked in the book publishing industry for many years and absolutely loved it. While working I completed my MBA and it was there that my research journey started. I’ve always been inquisitive, have always asked questions and have always wanted to know the details. About everything. It drives my husband mad. I am a natural researcher – I just want to know things, find things out, investigate, discover.

Leaving publishing and joining academia, I was able to fan the flames of that research interest and embarked on a PhD. I completely loved doing my PhD and ever since I’ve been passionate about research. Now at the University of Derby, I’m managing a team of academics, supervising PhD students and doing some teaching and research of my own.

I often think about methodology, because I advise PhD students on their choices and because I want to ensure that there are no gaps in their justification for those choices. The right choices are different for each project and I make a conscious effort not to suggest what is the easiest, most comfortable route, but one that is right for the project. So I talk to the students a lot about it and I talk to my colleagues and sometimes I go too far and talk to my family while they glaze over. I’m bursting with things to say about methodology because research is so much fun.

So I thought I’d write about it and get it all off my chest every now and then. And my musings on methodology became a blog. I hope you like it! If you have any comments or suggestions, email me at a.lawson@derby.ac.uk.