Research Journeys

A Collection of Narratives of the Doctoral Experience

Edited By: Chloe Blackmore, Elsa Lee, Emma Seal

£39.99

This book provides doctoral students and supervisors with candid narratives of the doctoral experience. Ten accounts offer valuable insight into the challenges that arise and how they might be overcome, ‘lifting the lid’ on concealed aspects of the process.

The aim of this book is to provide prospective and current doctoral students, and their supervisors, with a range of narratives of doctoral experiences. The…

The aim of this book is to provide prospective and current doctoral students, and their supervisors, with a range of narratives of doctoral experiences. The book is an outcome of a conference where both academic and professional doctorate students at different stages of their research shared their experiences of the process of completing a doctorate. The ten candid accounts included in the volume provide a valuable insight into the kinds of challenges that arise and the ways in which these might (or might not) be overcome. In so doing, this book ‘lifts the lid’ on some of the hitherto concealed aspects of the doctoral process. The book also includes a chapter from an established academic with a record of writing about the doctoral student experience, as well as inserts from a doctoral programme leader and an experienced academic supervisor. In the Introduction, the editors review some of the current literature on experiences of the doctoral research journey and the research process. The book concludes with the editors’ reflections on both the unique nature of doctoral research for each individual and the common stages that students experience on the journey.

The editors of this book, Emma Seal, Chloe Blackmore and Elsa Lee are a group of doctoral researchers in the Department of Education at the University of Bath. Their research interests span sport sociology, global citizenship education and environmental education, and they have experience in a range of qualitative research methods in these areas. This book stems from their joint effort, supported by the University of Bath, in organising a student conference on “Research Journeys” in 2012. As student representatives and co-organisers of the departmental student forum, they recognised the need for a space for doctoral researchers to discuss the experiences and challenges facing emerging researchers, and hence set up a conference around this theme. This book is an outcome of that conference.

Benjamin Bowman, Catherine DeLevay, Ana Douglas, Stuart Gallaghar, Elsa Lee, Shona MacIntosh, Harriet Marshall, Ciaran O’Sullivan, Jill Porter, Emma Seal, Naasirah Abdullah Teo, Chloe Blackmore