Undoing Supervision

Lead Partner: Academy of Fine Arts Vienna

“Undoing Supervision” will bring together all of the key issues that have been identified in the course of the project in an open-access e-book presenting and reflecting on the developed project tool box publication.

It will thus as comprehensive publication contribute to:

• sharpening the definition of doctoral supervision in relation to other models of teacher student support (like mentoring, coaching, etc.);
• discussing the dimensions of ethics in connection to doctoral supervision in arts-based research;
• shaping the role of the supervisor and providing an in-depth portfolio of competencies necessary for supervising arts-based research doctorates;
• conceiving of a training strategy for supervisors, in a short (1.5 days) and a longer (5 days) format;
• dealing with the question of how feedback should be provided when supervising arts-based research doctorates.

The publication will take the format of a non-normative (hence the title ‘Undoing Supervision’) guide, which will not only provide a ‘how to’ but will also focus on a critical reflection of the how-to nature of such guidance. One theme that will run through the publication is the triangular nature of the supervision process, namely involving the doctoral candidate, the supervisor, and the institution for differing means.

‘Undoing Supervision’ will be highly innovative in its form of making, a collaborative book sprint format that in itself reflects upon situated co-working, which lies at the core of each supervision process. The creation of communal content in a collaborative way is also the most appropriate way to come to the final product of a strategic partnership. Rather than each partner writing one chapter on their own and sending it in to an assigned editor, the book sprint will enable everybody to contribute knowledge they have gained.

We expect the publication to have great impact on all stakeholders in higher education within the art and design sector. What we develop and identify and draw out as key issues of doctoral supervision will be immediately available to the community of institution leaders, higher education teachers, supervisors, doctoral/PhD candidates, policy makers, research support agency leaders and staff, RTI agents of all kinds, and politicians, both on a national and on a European level. The strategic partnerships formed through our project will be reflected by the final publication, in both its making and its format and content.