What would you do for your PhD?

[Josquius]

Completely theoretically asking here. It matters not whether you actually have any interest in doing a PhD or think it at all remotely likely you'd be ever accepted to do this PhD....

But....assuming you were going to go off to university to do a PhD.
What would be your topic?

Is there an area of your field that really fascinates you and you think would be really interesting to study in depth for a few years? Perhaps something where you think you could do useful work, perhaps something ridiculous that it'd be nice to academically wank over for a spell. What would it be?

[celedhring]

Film studies, for sure. I actually debated it a couple times while at college.

My thesis would be something about psychological effects of montage and composition. That topic has always fascinated me.

[The Brain]

I don't know. I could have done nuclear physics but decided to get a "real job" instead, and I have never regretted this. History interests me, but I don't think a university would be at a level I want.

[Sheilbh]

It'd be in English - because that's what I studied.

I think it would be on something to do with the literary (or possibly just poetic) response to HIV/AIDS. I did a unit on elegy in undergrad which I loved and did very well in, especially writing about Thom Gunn's poetry. So Thom Gunn would be a big part of it with some special guests.

Edit: Or something on the interaction between literary modernists and the visual arts. I really wanted to do my undergrad dissertation on Ezra Pound and Henri Gaudier-Brzeska. There was often a unit available on ekphrasis (description of a piece of visual art as a literary device - Homer on the shield of Achilles, Byron on the dying Gaul etc). But unfortunately the professor who did that and I'd want as a supervisor was on research leave

[Admiral Yi]

I thought something combining behavioral economics, pyschology, and marketing would be cool.  But I'm too much of a dilettante for the grind of a  PhD.

[Eddie Teach]

Maybe something about apocalyptic fiction throughout history.

[Darth Wagtaros]

Apocalyptic fiction would be cool, but we're kind of already living in it.

I'd do something silly to take my mind off the rotting planet.  Like the evolution of swords

[The Brain]

Don't mention the s-word.

[mongers]

Something within geology, I've always had an interested but never did anything about it after getting a just an O-level in it at school. 

[Darth Wagtaros]

Don't mention the s-word.

Sodomy?

[Grey Fox]

I did not go to University but my professional life is about Machine vision. So, I guess something in that field.

[Gups]

I'd like to do a PHD when I retire. The Abercrombie plan would be my subject of choice. It was a hugely ambitous  plan for the complete redesign of London characterised by ring roads (the South Circular and the Westway are amongst the legacies), a complete disregard for heritage (Covent Garden and many historic buildings would have been demolished) and a utopian belief in the ability or architecture and town planning to solve all of society's ills. It would have made Robert Moses' redevelopment of NYC look conservative.

[The Larch]

I'd like to do a PHD when I retire. The Abercrombie plan would be my subject of choice. It was a hugely ambitous  plan for the complete redesign of London characterised by ring roads (the South Circular and the Westway are amongst the legacies), a complete disregard for heritage (Covent Garden and many historic buildings would have been demolished) and a utopian belief in the ability or architecture and town planning to solve all of society's ills. It would have made Robert Moses' redevelopment of NYC look conservative.

I loved Jay Foreman's "Unfinished London" episode on London's ring roads. In case anyone wants to check it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yUEHWhO_HdY

[Maladict]

Late Antiquity. I almost did, but I don't regret choosing not to seeing how my peers who did go on have struggled and still struggle.

[Oexmelin]

I'd like to do a PHD when I retire. The Abercrombie plan would be my subject of choice. It was a hugely ambitous  plan for the complete redesign of London characterised by ring roads (the South Circular and the Westway are amongst the legacies), a complete disregard for heritage (Covent Garden and many historic buildings would have been demolished) and a utopian belief in the ability or architecture and town planning to solve all of society's ills. It would have made Robert Moses' redevelopment of NYC look conservative.

I have taught so-called "mature students" and they are generally a blast to work with.