Description
The second time around: An international perspective on research higher degreesEuropean academics have, for decades, undertaken what is effectively a second higher degree – the habilitation – which follows the PhD and involves several years of focused research and the production of prestigious outputs. Elsewhere in Anglophone countries (and for our purposes, specifically in Australia, the UK and the USA), not only is there no convention of the habilitation, but the idea of doing a second major, examined research project is rarely considered. Among the reasons might be that it has not evidently been prized by employers or peers. To many students anxiously struggling to complete their first doctoral project, undertaking a second can seem nothing short of madness. Nonetheless, anecdotally at least, the second doctorate is becoming less rare among creative writing academics. The scholarly literature on second doctorates associates factors such as entrepreneurship, academic professionalism, or career changes as motivating features; however, there is no critical study of this shift, or scholarly engagement with why academics re-enrol for a second doctorate, what it affords them, what it costs, and what personal, disciplinary or national benefits might be accrued. Drawing on the rather sparse scholarly literature on the topic, and on our own experiences as 'second doctorate' candidates and supervisors, we explore this aspect of research training in the creative disciplines. We consider the challenges and pleasures for both candidates and supervisors of undertaking post-doctoral study when the researcher-writers are already professionals or retirees, and the possible impact on writing, writing studies and the teaching of writing.
| Period | 29 Nov 2022 |
|---|---|
| Event type | Conference |
| Conference number | 27 |
| Location | Mooloolaba, Australia, QueenslandShow on map |
| Degree of Recognition | Regional |