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Hello all, thank you so much for checking out my fundraising page; if you can make any donation, no matter the amount, I will be extremely and forever grateful.

I am a 27-year-old graduate from the University of Lincoln, obtaining a BA in Drama & Theatre Studies and an MRES in performing arts in 2020 and 2021, respectively. Earlier in life, I struggled with secondary school life, having undiagnosed (at the time) Dyslexia/Dyspraxia for which I received no support. During the same period, I also had a lot of issues in my personal life as my mother was diagnosed with cancer at the same time. Unfortunately, my education suffered as a result, and I received minimal GCSEs and could not complete A-Level Education.

However, I have always been interested in learning new things and knew that education was paramount for my future life. Therefore I enrolled on a foundation course with the Open University which, in turn, led me to transfer to the University of Lincoln. During the third year of my undergraduate studies I had an epiphany and realised that I would like to go into a career in Higher Education teaching/lecturing, therefore I enrolled in a masters course and knuckled down. Through hard work and dedication i achieved high upper second class honours in both my degrees and secured my place on a PhD course at the University of Nottingham.

My academic interests have always centred around my love of videogames and the intersection between the arts and digital technologies. For example, my undergraduate dissertation analysed video games in relation to narrative structures/themes in conjunction with postmodern theatre elements and my masters dissertation analysed feminine ècriture, meta proceduralism and semiotics within contemporary story-driven videogames – ultimately arguing for a blended ludological and narratological approach in videogame scholarship. Continuing on from this research my PhD thesis asks How does the representation, replacement and subversion of religion contribute to the construction of Video game narratives and gameplay?

Unfortunately, I have been unable to obtain funding for my PhD project as the arts is an historically underfunded academic field. There is a government loan, which I have applied for, but this barely covers my rent costs for the year and with the spiralling increase in living costs. Furthermore, at postgraduate study you are personally responsible for paying tuition fees yourself, from the same government loan provided for living costs, and therefore I have a deficit with income and expenditures.

Due to this deficit I am asking that if you are in a position to help in any way and wouldn't mind donating no matter how much then that would be very much appreciated. If this is something that you don't agree with or are not in a position to donate to i completely understand. I am setting the goal at £5000 to cover the costs of tuition fees for the first year of the PhD, in the hope that i could gain funding at a later date from a funding board. I would also like to make it completely clear that I am not asking others for the full cost of everything so that I don't have to work or help towards the costs at all. I am currently looking for full time work to take me up until the course starts in October and (once all bills come in and I am able to work out a budget) shall work part time whilst in studies to be able to fund the course in case no funding ever becomes available. All this 'fundraiser' is, is simply any help towards the PhD in any way. I wish that i didn't have to ask and that education was free for all, as i understand that many are struggling with living costs at the moment.

I thank you for taking to time to read through this fundraising page and thank you for any support.