Mireia Vidal i Quintero

When I decided to study for a PhD, I was already very engaged in Christian Origins. There is an influential group of Spanish scholars working in this field, but I was keen to study in contexts other than Spanish to expose myself to other ways of approaching biblical studies. I contacted Prof Helen Bond, who was also interested in social memory theory, and we quickly hit it off.

A call for applications for a lecturing post at Universidad Iberoamericana (Mexico City) hit my desk the same week I submitted my thesis‒it was quite a frantic week! After submitting, I applied to several posts while also looking for jobs outside academia. I had several interviews and a few disappointments, but from the beginning, I had a good feeling about Iberoamericana. It was important for me to work in academia in the Spanish-speaking world, and Iberoamericana’s Department of Religious Studies (which is actually a theological faculty) had just started a process of renewal and internationalisation‒more calls for applications shall be published in the next year if you’re interested!

Though I had a teaching job in the past, I didn’t have the chance to lecture on biblical studies. I’m currently teaching an intensive summer course in intertestamental literature with an eye to Christian Origins. It’s exciting to have the chance to meet with students in the classroom and introduce them to biblical studies or present them with recent shifts in the field and see how these have an impact on their day-by-day experience‒all those readings for the thesis have now a second life! In addition to theological formation at the undergrad and postgrad levels, I’m involved in grassroots theological formation and challenged to translate similar concepts meaningfully to very different contexts‒contexts often very different from my previous experiences.

I’m certainly drawing from my PhD research in the course I’m currently lecturing on, and I’ll be lecturing on New Testament next term. While in Edinburgh, I participated with other PhD students in a reading group on Postcolonial and Minority Biblical Criticism. Many of our discussions back then come to my mind now, as I find myself directly involved in one of those postcolonial contexts. I’m also looking to launch a research project, so the workshops on how to secure grants come in quite helpful.

A workshop on how to get your way into academia was offered at a conference I attended shortly before my viva. I remember feeling so very depressed just by listening to the staggering “dos” and “don’ts”, offered no doubt with good intention. There were at least 70 young biblical scholars sitting there, and I couldn’t stop thinking you could have easily had your pick for four or five full biblical departments. Getting a job is sadly more the exception than the norm nowadays, even when you tick all the right boxes in that to-do list, which, by the way, I didn´t; I had published some but hadn’t attended many conferences, for instance. Looking back at these past months, I think what worked for me was being open to stepping out of my comfort zone‒coming to Edinburgh first and moving to Mexico afterwards. On the other hand, one of the hardest moments to manage for me was the administrative side once I got the job. Getting all the steps sorted out was a very rocky (and long!) road, sometimes incredibly frustrating. From this point of view, getting selected is just the starting point, so store lots of energy for what comes after, particularly when you’re changing continents. And if you move to Mexico, come with a supply of Pepto-Bismol!

I have a few of those (also a few funny ones: I hugged Prof Paul Foster, whom I hardly knew, during the first communion service I attended; he very stoically endured my Spaniard way of celebrating). I have a picture we took one day during lunch in Rainy Hall with some good friends. I love that picture; we all knew that most of us were moving far away when we finished our PhDs, but we shared similar experiences during our years in New College. That experience still connects us.

Enjoy your PhD more than expectations, and be open to stepping out of your comfort zone!