The Pernicious PhD Supervisor Audiobook By Tara Brabazon cover art

The Pernicious PhD Supervisor

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The Pernicious PhD Supervisor

By: Tara Brabazon
Narrated by: Tara Brabazon
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About this listen

The doctor of philosophy is a complex degree.

The space between students and supervisors is vexed and volatile.

It can be exploitative. The Pernicious PhD Supervisor enters this difficult space and provides both the models and the strategies to categorize and manage difficult supervisors and supervisory practices.

From the Flamingo to the Wizard, from the White Pointer Shark to the Bower Bird, ten models of supervision are revealed.

Part horror and part comedy, this book opens the weeping wound of doctoral education, to salve and heal the consequences of problematic research cultures.

©2024 Tara Brabazon (P)2024 Tara Brabazon Education
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I adore this book.

This book identifies and analyzes dangerous PhD supervisors. Each chapter begins by describing an animal or character which the supervisor is compared to. After, how such supervisors remain in academia, why students might choose them as supervisors, and how these supervisors impact the PhD are all explained in turn. The chapters end with practical advice PhD students under dangerous supervisors can deploy.

Each essence of a pernicious supervisor is captured in an animal or character, which can be noticed all around us. Rarely are descriptions as powerful.

The book empowers PhD candidates. Not only do candidates get a chance to reflect on their learning, but the practical advice is actionable and can be deployed right now. The various models and examples show the world outside their supervisor and program, widening student's perspective on academia. Indeed, Tara connects each model to the state of academia and graduate education to provide invaluable meta-commentary.

However, this book is not just for PhD candidates. Prospective PhD students will learn which prospective supervisors to look out for. Prospective and current supervisors can use this book to reflect upon their supervision.

The seriousness is not lost in the comedy, yet the comedy is never cynical.

I wonder how each pernicious supervisors interact with each other - can pernicious supervisors collaborate with each other to poison a program?

I also wonder about models of empowering supervisors.

Provocative, practical, and punchy

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