Reflections on the afterlives of a PhD thesis
Authors
Publication Date
2022Journal Title
Area
ISSN
0004-0894
Publisher
Wiley
Language
en
Type
Article
This Version
AO
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Hulme, M. (2022). Reflections on the afterlives of a PhD thesis. Area https://doi.org/10.1111/area.12779
Abstract
Most readers of this essay will likely have written a PhD thesis, will be in
the throes of writing one or perhaps be aspiring to write one. There is a
huge literature on the practice and experience of PhD research: on
designing a thesis, on writing and research, on the student-supervisor
relationship, on the doctoral student experience, and so on. In this
essay, however, I reflect on a specific question less often asked: in what
ways does a PhD thesis live on beyond the time when it can only be
thought of as ‘work in progress’? I develop an answer to this question
along four dimensions: the material, instrumental, epistemic and
personal afterlives of a PhD thesis. For this reflection I use my own PhD
thesis, awarded in 1985, as the case study. While the essay is therefore
autobiographic, it is intended to provoke more general considerations
about the longevity of PhD theses and their formative role for their
authors and their authors’ subsequent careers. While a PhD thesis can
be understood as having a variety of afterlives, those that matter the
most are perhaps also those that are less easily recognised.
Keywords
ARTICLE, ARTICLES, academic careers, autobiography, life story, PhD theses, Sudan
Identifiers
area12779
External DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/area.12779
This record's URL: https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/333742
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Licence:
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
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