Traversing Doctoral Borderlands : Black doctoral students’ experiences of identity construction in South Africa

Doctoral studies are described as a process of formation and becoming. This is an in-between space between unknowing and knowing, within and without the ivory tower of academia. In this in-between space the doctoral candidate takes the role of a novice and apprentice unlearning the student/unknowing past and learning to become a professional in academia. This project utilises the borderlands theory to understand the experiences of doctoral students as they undergo the process of becoming and intellectual identity formation. Whilst ‘journey’ and other metaphors that have been used to understand doctoral student experiences capture the process of becoming as a progression through the liminal stages – proposal, literature review, context, writing, reading etc. These stages presuppose temporality of being leading to stasis/completion. I argue that such conceptualisation of doctoral studies, although useful, depict one side of the story and provide a limited, monolithic, and homogenising understanding of the spatial configurations of doctoral space and intellectual identity formation. The dominant discourses of doctoral conceived and perceived space, liminal stages and understanding of doctoral student experiences, mask the more latent and intimate liminal stages of intellectual identity formation. Drawing from borderlands theory, I firstly argue for a holistic approach to understanding the spatiality of doctorate studies. Secondly, I argue that liminality is an everyday process integral to human existence where one is always in a state of ideological transition. An important state of liminality is the awareness of ‘Self’ in perpetual motion, caught between two worlds dominated/dominator and two ideologies of oppression/resistance. If this side of liminality is not made visible, institutional spaces, such as the doctorate, privileged with the power to disseminate and position onto-epistemologies as universal can be used to reproduce and reinforce exclusionary onto-epistemologies that subsequently impact intellectual identity formation. Using Lefebvre’s (1991) rhythmanalysis method, I use student experiences not as mere data for analysis, but as an act of envisioning, reinventing and coknowledge production to propose borderlands as a new metaphor to study doctoral spatial realities and the experiences of the students that traverse through it.

Preparation for the Doctoral Defense: Methods and Relation to Defense Outcome and Perception

The doctoral defense is an important step towards obtaining the doctoral degree. As such, preparing for the event is necessary. Anecdotal evidence highlights that there is a wide variety of ways in which doctoral candidates prepare for the defense. In this work, I want to explore if there is a relation between the way in which a doctoral candidate prepares for the defense and two important aspects of the defense: the outcome of the defense, and the student perception during and after the defense. For this purpose, I first reviewed the literature on the topic of the preparation for the doctoral defense. Then, I carried out an international survey on the doctoral defense and analyzed the data of the 204 completed surveys with respect to the preparation for the defense using quantitative and qualitative methods. The methods I used included the statistical tests of the correlation between on one hand the preparation and on the other hand the defense outcome and student perception. I used inductive thematic analysis of the open-ended survey questions to gain deeper insight in the way candidates prepared for their defense. I found that candidates most often prepare by making their presentation, reading their thesis, and practicing. The most effective measure is the mock defense, followed by a preparatory course. Reading blogs, books, and chapters is a less effective preparation measure. The conclusion of this work is that doctoral candidates need to understand the format of their defense in order to be able to prepare properly, and that universities should explore either individual pathways to the defense or pilots using a mock defense and/or preparatory course to give their doctoral candidates the necessary tools to prepare for their doctoral defense.

New Vox in Poetic Inquiry

As a doctoral candidate ever-deepening my understandings of arts-based research methods, in general, and performative and poetic methods of inquiry in particular, this paper advances several new theories of Vox in poetic inquiry (Prendergast, 2009, 2015, 2020), playing with the generative possibilities found with/in such poeticizing as writing method, performative gesture, and reflexive praxis, while addressing intersections between the personal/public and poetry as political currency. Woven as a métissage of poetic offerings within theoretical exposition, this essay links theory, research methods, and personal explorations with/in poetic inquiry. Found poems and original compositions punctuate the proposal of several new Vox to help elucidate our myriad voices within a growing chorus of poetic inquirers singing to a variety of purposes. A journey through methodological praxis unfolds, poses further questions, and encourages ongoing exploration and practice of poetic research methodologies in diverse, rhizomatically fruiting tendrils and directions.

(Un)felt ferments: Limning liminal professional subjectivities with pragmatist–posthuman feminism and intimate scholarship

The purpose of this paper is to illuminate liminality as processual experiences and to disrupt (hetero)normative paradigms of organizational liminality identity work. I present an intimate inquiry of liminality from within lived liminal experience. My empirical focus is on personal liminal subjectivities as they unfold in specific, psychosocial time, and spaces—my situated, changing lives as a woman executive, mature doctoral candidate, and emergent academic. The posthuman calls for multi-directional, transdisciplinary openings, and experimental forms. In this paper I make four interweaving research contributions: (1) braiding philosophies, I conceptualize a pragmatist–posthuman organic theory of liminal subjectivity; (2) I illuminate my lived liminal experiences as affectual, conscious, and semi-conscious, where my identities are unbounded from self and recast as sociomaterial, entangled productions; (3) I innovate “methodologically” with an embrocation of Dewey’s experiential and esthetic philosophical methods, a flowing mixture of sensate scholarship and the adoption of radical–reflexivities; (4) I call for a community of inquiry into liminality as part of a quest to develop knowing democratically, in partnership with practitioners and all matter. My unfinished adventure is to perform scholarship useful to academics and practitioners, which can help make our practical lived experiences of liminality more bearable and fruitful.

L’accompagnement selon une démarche réflexive sur-dans-pour la pratique tel que vécu par trois types d’acteurs

Collective accompaniment, as per the reflexivity approach on-in-for practice, requires the adoption of different postures, whether one is placed in the role of the accompanying or accompanied person. This article presents the lived experiences of an accompaniment process fostering research and training within an individual and collective reflexivity approach. Three types of actors are interrelated: an accompanying research director, an accompanied and accompanying doctoral candidate, and accompanied and accompanying English as a second language teachers. Advocating for an action-research approach using the first-person point of view (“I”), each actor was invited to reflect on their practice from an on-in-for perspective. The discussion presents three dimensions: the role of ethical rules, the art of questioning, and the interdependence between involved actors.

Collecting Dissertation Data during COVID 19

This essay describes my personal experience as a doctoral candidate collecting data for my dissertation during the COVID-19 pandemic. After providing the context for my own study, I lay out three main ideas that emerged while collecting data. These main ideas involve including participants in the decision-making process, sharing one another’s challenging contexts to understand and connect, and the importance of teacher learning communities in times of isolation. My essay highlights some of the challenges and opportunities of collecting data during difficult circumstances and discusses the importance of professional learning communities to assist teachers with long-term coping within an unexpected context.

Condition of scientific research involvement of employees of the expert service of the ministry of internal affairs of ukraine to the pre-trial investigation

The author analyzes some scientific studies carried out in the form of doctoral, candidate dissertations, monographs, a number of scientific articles, teaching materials, which gives grounds to conclude that the interaction of experts with investigators, operatives, defenders, their use of special knowledge in Many domestic and foreign scientists and practitioners are of interest to their activities, as well as the involvement of employees of the Expert Service of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine in the pre-trial investigation in the context of modern adversarial criminal proceedings. In addition, the author states that the versatility of the issue, the breadth of user interests in the development of scientific thought and scientific and technological progress, the importance of tasks performed by employees of the Expert Service of the Ministry of Internal Affairs indicate the urgency of this problem and provide grounds for further research.