The Doctor’s Dilemma

ESC at Birkbeck/ 3 April 2009

ptb@aber.ac.uk

Three discussion areas (1) Context of the PhD in English -

a profession at the crossroads

(2) The Creative Writing PhD –

another crossroads

(3) ‘Why become a doctor of something

that can’t be fixed?’ – pedagogical

crossroads

(1) a profession

at the

Crossroads

Two major forces in the discipline, pulling in opposite directions

AHRC – rhetoric of ‘impact’,

‘dissemination’, ‘knowledge-

transfer’

RAE/REF – rhetoric of

‘excellences’ and ‘esteem’

RAEAHRC

(2) The CW PhD

– another

crossroads

Are we training

people to be

published authors

or

reflective writers?

WriterAuthor

The ‘composite’ format of the CW PhD – weighting of the two components

Uni 1: 50,000 – 60,000 + 15,000 - 30,000 (4:1)

Uni 2: Up to 60,000 + 15,000 (4:1)

Uni 3: 100,000 total, 2/3 the work, 1/3 rest (2:1)

Uni 4: 40,000 + 40,000 (1: 1)

The ‘composite’ format of the CW PhD – nature of the 2nd component

Uni. 1: ‘self-reflective and evaluative analysis’/or theoretical

Uni. 2: ‘extended critical essay’/’supporting and reflecting on the work’

Uni. 3: either on related genres/topics/themes, or reflective on the work, or ‘more experimental’, e.g. in ‘different voices’

Uni, 4: on ‘some aspect of the creative work’, such as historical/cultural material, or on evolution of poetic form. [this is the only one not using some form of the word ‘reflect’]

PhD CW has wide variations in …

Length-ratio of the two components Ranges from 4:1 to 1:1

Nature of the 2nd component: These range in emphasis from ‘reflective’ to literary-historical, to

literary theoretical to ‘critical-creative’

Patterns of supervision Single supervisor or components separately supervised?

Patterns of work Do candidates write the novel first, then ‘reflect’, or do the two processes run simultaneously?

Overall aims To produce good writers or published writers? i.e. should we recognise that the PhD ‘novel’ isn’t a novel yet, just as the academic thesis isn’t a book yet?

(3) Pedagogical

Crossroads

Is there such a

thing as

(mono)disciplinarity?

English Arts & Hums

Another

Pedagogical

Crossroads

‘One reads eagerly,

chapter to chapter,

waiting to see what

happens next’

(reviewer’s comment on an

academic biography)

The Uni. The World

The End