The Doctoral Journey as an Emotional, Embodied, Political Experience

The Doctoral Journey as an Emotional, Embodied, Political Experience is the first text of its kind to capture stories of involvement in doctoral journeys from students, supervisors, and examiners. Drawing from experiences across a variety of disciplines in the social sciences, medical sciences, education and the humanities, these stories share a keenness to demonstrate the ways in which this journey is emotional (rather than detached), embodied (rather than separated), and political (rather than having no relationship to politics). The journey metaphor is often adopted to describe and explore the PhD process. However, this journey is usually only seen from the perspective of the doctoral candidate. This implies that it is only the student that learns, develops, and reflects. This is clearly not always (maybe never) the case. The suggestion that the candidate 'learns' whilst the supervisors 'teach' harks back to traditional masculinist educational approaches and neglects the reciprocal knowledge-sharing process between student and supervisor. Similarly, the prescription that relationships between all concerned remain 'professional' and removed, rather than in any way intimate, suggest an unrealistic acceptance of an scientific, detached objective agenda rather than an emotional, embodied, political, and holistic approach to research. The contributions to this book extend the journey metaphor to additionally consider the experiences of supervisors and examiners, including the joint, collaborative journey of the 'team' (the candidate, their supervisors, and their examiners). This provides a challenge to traditional understandings of the doctoral process and offers implications for future reflection and practice. This book is therefore an invaluable resource for doctoral students, supervisors, examiners, and readers interested in pedagogy and educational practice.

Rebecca (Bex) Twinley I am Senior Lecturer in the School of Health Sciences at the University of Brighton, UK. In my doctoral work, I challenged the lack of acknowledgement regarding woman-to-woman rape and sexual assault. In doing so, I challenged my own pre-existing barriers and assumptions regarding subjectivity and objectivity by choosing to work from a sociological auto/biographical approach, as valuably guided by Gayle. I enjoy thinking critically and challenging norms, assumptions, and unaddressed issues that impact upon people and their subjective experiences of occupations. For this reason, I developed the concept of the 'dark side of occupation' as a means to challenge occupational therapists and scientists to consider aspects of occupations that are hidden, poorly understood, unrecognised or inconsistent with their personal or professional values. Gayle Letherby I am Visiting Professor (Sociology) at the University of Plymouth, UK and the University of Greenwich, UK. In my own doctoral work, I adopted an auto/biographical approach to focus on the status and experience of 'infertility' and 'involuntary childlessness'. As a postgraduate student, I also began to write with others about methodological issues and about working and learning in Higher Education. For me, learning and working in higher education has always been an emotional, embodied, political act. In the 24 years since finishing my PhD in 1997, the people I feels I have learnt the most from are those I have met as supervisor and as examiner at doctoral level. I have learnt much about a great many topics and methodological approaches as well the different experiences and challenges faced by students.

1. An Introduction to the Doctoral Journey as an Emotional, Embodied, Political Experience Section I: Emotions, Embodiment, and Politics in Practice 2. Mind the gap! Concerning Multi/Interdisciplinary Issues 3. Moral Experience of Covenant Ethics in the Doctoral Journey 4. A Tent in the Mountains: Supporting Artistic Creativity 5. When the Student Dies 6. Navigating Mental Disability as a Doctoral Student 7. Exploring Different Examining Practices Section II: Auto/Biographical Reflections of the Doctoral Journey 8. Building a voice of influence: Supporting social science doctoral students with disabilities 9. Exploring the PhD Supervisor Self and Performance of Caring Work 10. The PhD Ritual: A Critical Auto/Biographical Account 11. The Importance of Supportive Supervisory Relationships to a Black Female Doctoral Researcher Working within African Caribbean Communities Chapter 12. Unanticipated Ethical Issues during Intergenerational Trauma Transmission Research 13. Experiencing Difference, Difficulties, Emotions, and Relationships 14. Reflections on Transitional Journeys to Academia 15. On the Emotions and Politics of Autoethnographic Supervision 16. Relational doctoral supervision: practitioner/researcher, insider/outsider and the value of reflexivity 17. Final Reflections