[Innovation Week] Professionalising your PhD – Arts and Humanities
Tuesday, September 29, 2026 at 1:00 PM – 2:30 PM (Europe/London)
Online
Are you a PhD student in the Arts and Humanities wondering how your research can shape a career beyond academia?
As part of innovation Week 2026, this special edition of Professionalising Your PhD is tailored specifically for researchers in the arts, humanities and creative disciplines. This session is designed to help you unlock new possibilities for your skills and expertise.
Through a combination of expert guidance, interactive discussion, and real-life insights from PhD graduates who have carved out impactful careers beyond their PhD, this event will equip you with the tools to begin shaping a professional future that reflects your passions, values and strengths.
You’ll hear from staff across the Entrepreneurship Centre, Careers Centre and the International Education and Lifelong Learning Institute (IELLI) and connect with graduates who have successfully transitioned into a variety of meaningful roles.
Why Attend?
- Learn how to articulate and apply your research strengths outside academia
- Explore diverse career routes in the arts, heritage, publishing, policy and more
- Gain confidence in your transferable skills and professional identity
- Discover University resources to support your development
Who Should Attend?
- Arts and Humanities PhD students at any stage, especially those considering non-academic careers or simply curious about the opportunities available beyond the University sector
Speaker Bios
Dr Flavia D’Avila
Dr Flavia D’Avila is a Brazilian-born theatre director and producer based in Edinburgh. She completed her PhD in Drama at the University of St Andrews and the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, where her research explored collaborative approaches to creating devised intercultural theatre. Alongside her freelance artistic practice, Flavia has built parallel careers spanning the tourism/heritage/hospitality sectors and currently works with a local authority in her first foray into civil service. Her theatre work has toured nationally and internationally, been published in multiple languages and is studied in higher education. Passionate about widening ideas of what a successful creative career can look like, she is particularly interested in the opportunities and challenges of building a professional practice across multiple sectors.
Elena Spinelli
Elena Spinelli is an Associate Managing Editor at Oxford University Press, where she manages the US National Academy of Sciences’ Open Access journal PNAS Nexus. In 2022, Elena completed her PhD in Renaissance drama at the University of St Andrews, supervised by Neil Rhodes and Harriet Archer from the School of English. Her thesis, “Women’s Dialogue in English Neoclassical Tragedy, 1550 to 1610”, examined how the portrayal of women in early modern English tragedies adapted from classical drama is affected by gender-specific dialogic exchanges. After she completed her doctoral studies, Elena worked at Durham University as a Teaching Fellow in Early Modern Literature, and as a tutor and lecturer in the School of English at St Andrews. She then pivoted towards academic publishing, working at first as a freelance publishing services professional with the editorial agency PA Editorial, and then taking up her current role at OUP.
Elena still tries to dedicate some time to research projects. Her research has been published in Renaissance Studies and Classical Receptions Journal, and by Routledge; she has a forthcoming chapter in an essay collection for EUP and is co-editing a critical edition of Jane Lumley’s The Tragedie of Iphigeneia for MHRA.