The three contributors to this article believe that a symbiotic relationship between creative and critical aspects of a project function most effectively. Research for the exegesiswhether conventional or experimental -can enhance the creative work's possibilities, raising more pertinent research questions or refining those already identified. In addition, the thesis as a coherent entity has the potential of making an original contribution to knowledge through the connection of the exegesis and creative work. The case study dissertations demonstrate this point of view, occupying two positions on Krauth's 'radical trajectory continuum' (2011). The first graduate, a filmmaker and academic, chose a conventional exegesis-novel split, as the subject itself, reverse adaptation of a film script to literary young adult novel, is an emerging research discipline. The second candidate chose a braided essay format (Krauth's 'plaited' structure) that reflects the research she undertook into theory of the Uncanny and the consequent destabilisation and fragmentation it encourages. The supervisor as fellow traveller of these doctoral journeys drew on her experience in order to help them to select the most effective thesis structure and to realise the potential of symbiosis. They discovered that in each case the resultant symbiosis did not silence their individual voices but enhanced their individuality.
In the twenty-first century, research higher degree students in Australia do more than simply research (DIISR 2011a:24, ACER 2011). They might teach or be employed as research assistants or administrators. These jobs prepare RHD (aka HDR) students for transition to the workforce; they inhabit, therefore, multiple identities. Supervisors in the twenty-first century also face the challenge of multiple identities. They act as employers as well as mentors to induct their cohort into a discipline’s professional life. Mentorship, we argue, is not the same as supervision. The mentorship role is especially important in emerging subject areas where the concept of research itself and appropriate methodologies are developing; both supervisor and student might be working as ‘reflective practitioners’ (Schön 1987), each helping the other to refine and theorise practice. This is particularly true of the flourishing but still relatively young discipline of Creative Writing (Brien 2004, Dibble & van Loon 2004, Woods 2007, Harper & Kroll 2008). Some supervisors have always performed a variety of roles, but aspects of the postgraduate experience have been increasingly professionalised, affecting an academic’s access to promotion and offering them another research area – the pedagogy of supervision. This paper explores the nature of these complex relationships focused on the Creative Writing doctoral experience and considers how they impact on the student overall.
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