The entangled becoming in humanities doctoral education
Studies in Graduate and Postdoctoral Education
ISSN: 2398-4686
Article publication date: 7 December 2023
Issue publication date: 26 August 2024
Abstract
Purpose
Institutional framings of doctoral education mostly do not recognize the existential dimension of doctoral experience. This paper aims to offer an expanded understanding of experiences of doctoral researchers in the humanities with the concept of entangled becoming. This concept is developed through an existential lens by using Søren Kierkegaard’s philosophy – particularly his emphasis on emotions such as passion, anxiety and despair – and Denise Batchelor’s derived concept of vulnerable voices.
Design/methodology/approach
The conceptual framing is used for an empirical study based on ethnographic interviews with 10 doctoral researchers and supplementary observational notes from fieldwork at a university in Denmark. Two of the interview cases were selected to showcase variation across lived experiences and how doctoral researchers voice their entangled becoming.
Findings
Common experiences such as loneliness, insecurity(ies), vulnerability(ies) or passion for one’s research were identified across the interviews. On the other hand, this study shows that each doctoral journey in the humanities envelops a distinct web of entanglements, entailing distinct navigation, that makes each case a unique story and each doctoral voice a specific one.
Originality/value
Combining an existential philosophical perspective with a qualitative study, the paper offers an alternative perspective for doctoral education. It connects the humanities doctoral experience to the broader condition of human existence and the sophisticated uniqueness of each researcher’s becoming.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank the research team of the “Research for Impact” project, with a special acknowledgment to Barbara Grant, Andrew G. Gibson, Ronald Barnett, Denise Batchelor and Tessa Delaquil for their constructive feedback on the earlier versions of the paper.
Funding: The current paper arises from the project “Research for impact – integrating research and societal impact in the humanities PhD”, which is a Sapere Aude research project funded by the Independent Research Fund Denmark (DFF).
Declaration of conflicting interests: The authors declare no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.
Citation
Nuriler, H. and Bengtsen, S.S.E. (2024), "The entangled becoming in humanities doctoral education", Studies in Graduate and Postdoctoral Education, Vol. 15 No. 3, pp. 225-239. https://doi.org/10.1108/SGPE-08-2023-0074
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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