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Caring for the Carers: Entangling Domestic and Doctoral Practices
Thu, September 5, 9:45 to 11:15am, Sheraton New Orleans Hotel, Floor: Four, Bayside CAbstract
Casualised academic labour challenges the work-life balance of many junior academics, particularly those with caring responsibilities (Bataille et al, 2017; Gill & Donaghue). Maternity leave, childcare and career breaks can all interrupt progress towards secure, senior posts, leaving academic culture seeming unconducive to family life (Locke et al, 2018).
These challenges also affect doctoral study. Historically, attrition from doctoral programmes was viewed as the responsibility of student ‘dropouts’, not the institution (Lovitts, 2002). Reconciling the ‘fractured subjectivity’ of students’ developing doctoral identity with personal, family or professional lives is challenging (Barnacle & Mewburn, 2010) – but withdrawal may reflect exclusion from institutional research cultures, not personal failings (Bagaka’s et al, 2015).
This experience was explored through two institutionally funded and ethically approved projects. One gathered drawings by students on an online MPhil/PhD programme depicting where doctoral work took place; interviews then explored how study practices were assembled and sustained as sociomaterial achievements. The other elaborated this using focus groups and survey data from full- and part-time doctoral students.
The politics of care (Martin et al, 2015) were visible in the ways that domestic responsibilities shaped doctoral work, particularly for part-time or online study. Ingenious sociomaterial accommodations enabled individuals to reconcile domestic care with care for their own studies. However, does the institution care adequately about these challenges, or the exclusion of domestic work? Arguably, when doctoral work takes place in kitchens and car parks, institutions need to rethink how to engage constructively with students as they assemble and sustain their work.