![Page 1: Ethnography, Liminality and the PhD in Australia Mary-Helen Ward CoCo, November 2008](https://reader035.vdocuments.us/reader035/viewer/2022081202/56649cf95503460f949cb2e5/html5/thumbnails/1.jpg)
Ethnography, Liminality and the PhD in Australia
Mary-Helen Ward
CoCo, November 2008
![Page 2: Ethnography, Liminality and the PhD in Australia Mary-Helen Ward CoCo, November 2008](https://reader035.vdocuments.us/reader035/viewer/2022081202/56649cf95503460f949cb2e5/html5/thumbnails/2.jpg)
Briefly…I am investigating the experience
of doing a PhD at a research intensive university in Australia
My thesis will be a reflexive ethnography
![Page 3: Ethnography, Liminality and the PhD in Australia Mary-Helen Ward CoCo, November 2008](https://reader035.vdocuments.us/reader035/viewer/2022081202/56649cf95503460f949cb2e5/html5/thumbnails/3.jpg)
What’s been done?Quality in Postgraduate Research
conferencesAlison Lee (identity; writing process)Angela Brew; Margot Pearson (supervision)Barbara Kamler; Pat Thomson (writing
process; supervision)Ruth Neumann – report to government in
2003 on student experienceARC linkage project between Deakin, ANU
and three postgraduate student associations (student experience) 2005
![Page 4: Ethnography, Liminality and the PhD in Australia Mary-Helen Ward CoCo, November 2008](https://reader035.vdocuments.us/reader035/viewer/2022081202/56649cf95503460f949cb2e5/html5/thumbnails/4.jpg)
My data sourcesGovernment documents and
reportsTheoretical perspectives on the
doctorateUniversity documentsUniversity staff (interviews)PhD candidates (blogs)My own experience
![Page 5: Ethnography, Liminality and the PhD in Australia Mary-Helen Ward CoCo, November 2008](https://reader035.vdocuments.us/reader035/viewer/2022081202/56649cf95503460f949cb2e5/html5/thumbnails/5.jpg)
Blogging projectAimBlog (technical details)How the blogs workedMy position in the project
![Page 6: Ethnography, Liminality and the PhD in Australia Mary-Helen Ward CoCo, November 2008](https://reader035.vdocuments.us/reader035/viewer/2022081202/56649cf95503460f949cb2e5/html5/thumbnails/6.jpg)
Issues relating to ethnographic theoryMy status as a ‘full-member
participant’The mediation of the method I
used to collect personal data (blogs)
The politically charged nature of my material (i.e. the ‘sub-versions’ my participants could potentially construct)
![Page 7: Ethnography, Liminality and the PhD in Australia Mary-Helen Ward CoCo, November 2008](https://reader035.vdocuments.us/reader035/viewer/2022081202/56649cf95503460f949cb2e5/html5/thumbnails/7.jpg)
Nature of ethnography…Norman Denzin points out that
“Ethnography, like art, is always political.”
![Page 8: Ethnography, Liminality and the PhD in Australia Mary-Helen Ward CoCo, November 2008](https://reader035.vdocuments.us/reader035/viewer/2022081202/56649cf95503460f949cb2e5/html5/thumbnails/8.jpg)
My ThesisOverarching metaphor of liminality
(Turner)◦Communitas
Candidates’ stories from their blogs, and my story as it happened will create a counterpoint to both official and theoretical accounts (sub-versions)
My reflections from a current perspective may also create, intrude into, trouble, obstruct or confirm these accounts
![Page 9: Ethnography, Liminality and the PhD in Australia Mary-Helen Ward CoCo, November 2008](https://reader035.vdocuments.us/reader035/viewer/2022081202/56649cf95503460f949cb2e5/html5/thumbnails/9.jpg)
ReferencesKamler, B., & Thomson, P. (2006). Helping Doctoral Students Write: Pedagogies for supervision. New York: Routledge.
Lee, A., & Williams, C. (1999). “'Forged in Fire': Narratives of trauma in PhD supervision pedagogy”. Southern Review, 32(1), 6-26.
![Page 10: Ethnography, Liminality and the PhD in Australia Mary-Helen Ward CoCo, November 2008](https://reader035.vdocuments.us/reader035/viewer/2022081202/56649cf95503460f949cb2e5/html5/thumbnails/10.jpg)
Aitchison, C., & Lee, A. (2006). Research writing: problems and pedagogies. Teaching in Higher Education, 11(3), 265-278.
Boud, D., & Lee, A. (2005). "Peer learning" as pedagogic discourse for research education. Studies in Higher Education, 30(5), 501-516.
Boud, D., & Lee, A. (2009). Changing practices of doctoral education. Oxford: Routledge.
Cerwonka, A., & Malkki, L. (2007). Improvising Theory: Process and Temporality in Ethnographic Fieldwork. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Cumming, J., & Ryland, P. (2004). Working Doctoral Students: Challenges and Opportunities. Paper presented at the AARE National Conference.
Denzin, N. K. (1999). Interpretive ethnography for the next century. Journal of Contemporary Ethnography, 28(5), 510-519.
Hine, C. (Ed.). (2005). Virtual Methods: Issues in Social Research on the Internet. Oxford: Berg.
Hine, C. (2000). Virtual ethnography. London: Sage. Kamler, B., & Thomson, P. (2006). Helping Doctoral Students Write: Pedagogies
for supervision. New York: Routledge. Lee, A., & Williams, C. (1999). 'Forged in Fire': Narratives of trauma in PhD
supervision pedagogy. Southern Review, 32(1), 6-26. Markham, A. (1998). Life Online: Researching real experience in virtual space.
Walnut Creek: AltaMira Press. Markham, A., & Baym, N. (2009). Internet Inquiry: Conversations about method.
Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Pearson, M., & Brew, A. (2002). Research training and supervision development.
Studies in Higher Education, 27(2), 135-150. Turner, V. W. (1974). Dramas, fields, and metaphors: symbolic action in human
society. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press.