Abstract
In this chapter we explore some of the ways in which power is experienced within the intersubjective relations between the doctoral research student and her supervisor(s). Taking a case-study approach, we will address some of the gaps in current accounts of those relationships and their place in the construction of academic subjectivities. Rather than keeping the individual separate from the social, as is customary in the social sciences, we assume that while it is impossible to conceive of entirely autonomous individuals who are beyond or outside the social, it is simultaneously the case that there is a sphere of personal subjectivity that is immensely powerful in the unfolding of institutional and interpersonal relations (Frosh, Phoenix and Pattman 2003). Our aim is to explore how the relationship(s) between research students and supervisors are constituted both psychically and socially, between personal lives, social structures and public institutions. Through a psychoanalytically inflected analysis, we will explore the less rational, more unconscious aspects of the researcher-supervisor dynamic to illuminate the pleasures and difficulties, satisfactions and frustrations, obstacles and resolutions that women have experienced in their student-supervisor relationships.
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© 2007 Helen Lucey and Chrissie Rogers
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Lucey, H., Rogers, C. (2007). Power and the Unconscious in Doctoral Student-Supervisor Relationships. In: Gillies, V., Lucey, H. (eds) Power, Knowledge and the Academy. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230287013_2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230287013_2
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
Print ISBN: 978-1-349-54676-3
Online ISBN: 978-0-230-28701-3
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