Eilian Richmond delivering his three minute thesis.
Eilian Richmond, a PhD student in Creative Writing, has won the 2023 Swansea University Three Minute Thesis (3MT) competition.
The competition took place as part of the Postgraduate Research (PGR) Festival, a month-long series of events which showcases the research being undertaken by students at Swansea University.
3MT challenges doctoral candidates to present a compelling spoken presentation on their research topic and its significance in just three minutes.
In his talk, Eilian, who studies in the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, spoke about making narrative sense of the Biblical story by superimposing a second, satirical narrative on top - his novel, Earthbound. His ability to communicate the key question: ‘How many of these narrative inconsistencies can be explained as the consequence of a wager made between God and Satan, as per the Book of Job?’ has been greatly improved as a result of taking part in the competition.
Eilian fought off competition from 14 other postgraduate research students across the three of the University’s faculties to win.
Established by the University of Queensland in 2008, the 3MT is an international competition held at over 200 universities worldwide.
Swansea University is one of around 70 UK-based institutions that now form part of a global 3MT network, encouraging postgraduate research students to promote their research and enthusiasm for their chosen topic to reach non-specialist audiences. 3MT is designed to showcase to a variety of audiences the excellent quality and diversity of research being undertaken by postgraduate research students at Swansea University, and its relevancy and impact upon the world in which we live.
Speaking about his success in the competition so far, Eilian said: “Everyone that took part did such an admirable job of presenting their very esoteric work in an engaging way for a lay audience, and the research on show was all so impressive that it’s especially flattering to be counted among them. I’d recommend the experience to anyone looking to better understand their own work”.
Professor Gert Aarts, Deputy Pro-Vice Chancellor for Postgraduate Research at Swansea University added: “It was a great pleasure to see the PGR Festival unfold over the past weeks, as a coordinated effort across the University and the Faculties. Postgraduate researchers are an integral part of the University’s research activity. As they are on their way to leave the student status behind, it is important to shine a spotlight on their achievements. The PGR Showcase and the 3MT competition did exactly that”.
Eilian will now progress to the 3MT UK quarter finals in July and will be in with the chance of presenting in the 3MT UK online final in September, hosted by Vitae the global leader in researcher development.