Well… new phd graduate here. Graduate, as in I’ve got my degree, attended my ceremony and am no longer with my university.
But due to the bleak current situation in world academia right now (and I’m unluckily from a niche area), I haven’t found a *fancy* job.
Right now I’m working as a barista at a leading museum in my field to make ends meet.
The museum is hosting a conference, my paper got chosen. They are now asking for self-introduction and affiliation information.
If you were me, would you write the name of my university or the museum? Which makes sense? You see, I’m indeed no longer related to the university now, but I don’t think working as a barista counts as an affiliation either.
Although I do want to write ([my name], barista at [the museum]), that can be quite cool.
Comments
No Reference (PhD Nameless University)
Your affiliation is where you did the work.
if the work that you are going to talk about was done in large part at the university you graduated from, using the university affiliation is often what is done. you could also use both!
If the university supported work on this paper, you should list it as your affiliation. You could also list no affiliation but add a footnote to acknowledge that some of the work was supported by the university.
No harm in using independent researcher
You are getting advice to list your PhD institution, which I understand is usual in the sciences. In my discipline you would list your affiliation as “Independent Scholar” and mention any relevant funding as an acknowledgement in the talk itself.
Edit: I was thinking about this, and I think I know why the difference. In the experimental sciences, people generally are doing specific, discrete research projects that are centered on gathering and interpreting data. In the humanities we are accustomed to thinking of ourselves as building up a lifetime of experience. So we simply list our current affiliation, because an article I’m working on now might draw from MA work, my PhD work, a postdoc and then my current job. It’s not easy to separate them all.
I would go with “independent scholar.” It’s pretty common in my humanities field, even before the current administration’s scorched earth approach.
First off congrats on graduation!!
Even doing adjunct teaching for a university (business field), I won’t use them as the affiliated university unless they paid for the research, they don’t get credit for work I did on my time/dime. I simply put “independent researcher”, if anyone else contributes to a paper I author, they can put whatever they want as well. Fields of study may have thier own norms, but I don’t think anyone will think any less of you for doing whatever.
I actually think “independent researcher” could work in your favor here. If you present very well and people see you are unaffiliated, they might recognize you as someone of interest who is potentially on the job market / could possibly join their institution 🙂
You could even drop a hint in your presentation that you recently finished your PhD
Reach out to your department to see if you can get a temporary affiliation (visiting scholar) while you are still on the job market. Many institutions don’t mind as long as they give need to pay you or give you office space but it gives you access to your academic email account and journal articles and gives you a solid answer to this type of question
Who funded the research? That’s your affiliation.
If I were you, I’d honor both truth and tone, acknowledging the reality of your current role while also foregrounding your scholarly credentials and the prestige of your location. Here’s a tactful and confident way to write your affiliation:
[Your Name]
Independent Researcher (Phd, [University Name])
Currently based at [Museum Name], [City]
By introducing yourself as an “independent scholar” you are signaling that you’re still active in academia, just not institutionally employed. Additionally, Including the Phd (or other) and university ensures your credential is clear and verifiable. Lastly, mentioning the museam shows you’re embedded in a relevant, prestigious environment, even if you’re not in a traditional academic post.
And yes, there’s something genuinely cool and refreshingly honest about saying “barista at the [museum],” but whether to lean into that depends on the tone of the conference and how playful or formal they expect the bios to be.