Living in Liminal Space

From a workmate: liminality

A random conversation with a new workmate yielded this: In a liminal space, you know you don't know, but you don't know what you need to know, so you don't understand how to get over the threshhold to leave.

Leaving the liminal space

I co-supervise a student, who surprised us at lunchtime last week by saying:

via thethesiswhisperer.wordpress.com

Post on completion

 

especially this.

 

 

Ouch!

 
This morning I saw this as I walked to my office. Nearby some young people explained to me that it was a robot sensor, that could be sent into areas that were unsafe for humans and would report on what was there, using a variety of sensors. Several branding markers on the robot indicated that this was a well-supported funded project.

I asked if they were PhD students. They laughed, and said that no, they were researchers (postdocs, I wonder?), but that they had an 'army of PhD students' working on the project. One of them added "Cheap labour", to general merriment.

30. You occupy a strange place in the world. - 100 Reasons NOT to Go to Graduate School

This blog is an attempt to offer those considering graduate school some good reasons to do something else. Its focus is on the humanities and social sciences. The full list of 100 reasons will be posted in time. Your comments and suggestions are welcome.

via 100rsns.blogspot.com

Liminality!

Getting back to the liminal space

I haven't posted here in a while. I was sick in the months before Christmas, which took a lot out of me, and then there was Chirstmas and I took a break. Consciously. I'd intended to work on the week between Chirstmas and New Years, but I didn't. And I feel better for it.

I've been thinking a lot more about the concept of liminality in relation to PhD candidature, and, of course, I'm seeing it everywhere. People feeling 'stuck' or 'in a rut' and not able to see a way out; people feeling uncertain of their status in academia, in their program, in a department or in a teaching role and, most interesting to me at the moment, people resisting or dreading leaving a PhD program, either 'giving up' or completing and moving on to 'real life'.

It's hard to 'give up' a PhD. I think that people commonly defer, and then sometimes don't re-enroll. Kind of leaving by default. People still in the US I think, although not in Australia or the UK, take many many years over their thesis, sometimes in an attempt not to have to leave the 'safety' of grad school. (Here places are government or industry supported and are time-limited to 3.5 years fulltime.) Jo vanEvery, a Canadian consultant on academic careers and work, has written on alternatives to PhD and about leaving here (and in other places).

But what has surprised me is how many people seem to feel dread and fear as they near the completion stages. Often there is a real and rational fear of not having an income once they leave a funded program, but there is often a more primal fear, I think, which may be related to imposter syndrome, of having to claim the identity of doctor. For me, who's been part-time now for 5.5 years, it can't come soon enough. But maybe people who've rushed through a three-year thesis under pressure around a completion date, and have been absorbed by their project and thesis to the extent that they haven't been able to reflect on the process, do need to make an adjustment when the pressure is released and they are suddenly another kind of person, expected to take another kind of role in the world. I remember being told years ago of PhD students being advised not to take a permanent role at the Uni they did their PhD at straight after graduation, as it may take them years to work their way into their new role as a staff member. I wonder if this is true? I do remember one friend having problems with her supervisor after she'd graduated; he still seemed to think he had a right to direct her research (she was a casual teaching staff member at that point and had no compulsion other than her own to do research at all).

Does anyone have any insights or memories about leaving or finishing a PhD? I've been told about 'thesis grief' that might kick in when you submit, although I can't imagine it myself.

The loneliness of the long distance thesis writer « The Thesis Whisperer

A friend of mine tells the story of her first day as a PhD student with equal parts amusement and horror. One day she had a busy life as an academic, working with a wide range of students and colleagues, the next she was a PhD student who just had to hand in a thesis in a couple of years. The lack of structure triggered something of an identity crisis.

via thethesiswhisperer.wordpress.com

Great post about liminality

Ambivalence – can it help you with your PhD? « The Thesis Whisperer

Early this week I read an interesting article by Shirley Wang in the Wall Street Journal on ambivalence. It got me thinking again about the personal qualities one needs to cultivate while doing a PhD. Apparently some people tend to ambivalent states of mind more easily than others. The central claim in Wang’s article, based on various bits of psychological research, is that a tendency towards high levels of ambivalence – the state of having mixed feelings – can have profound effects on your life and career path.

via thethesiswhisperer.wordpress.com

Excellent post on the way that doing a PhD can change who you are.

Liminal space inhabitant!

At a Learning and Teaching workshop last week a speaker who is both a PhD student and casual tutor referred to himself as 'inhabiting a liminal space'.

Annual Review

Its that time of the year again, apparently. This was the most business-like annual review I've had so far. Very professional and the academics had actually read my file, which made a first I think. It was exactly what it should have been - concerned interest and advice where it was asked for - and I really appreciated that.

This year, since I've been attending the methodological colloquia and being on the DDS committee, I am feeling much more like a part of the faculty than I ever have before.

New blog title and colours

If anyone's reading along (I know there is one regular person who shows up in my referrers!) you'll notice I've changed the title and some of the colours on the blog. I may do more later if I have time. This reflects the new focus of my thesis as described here.