Call for abstracts for our doctoral journeys book!

Authors: Xiaofang Lainie Shang, Mandy Salisbury, and Lynette Pretorius

We are seeking chapter contributions for a forthcoming edited book titled Was It Worth It? A Journey to the West: Becoming a PhD Graduate and Beyond. This book aims to explore how doctoral graduates understand the meaning and value of their doctoral journeys. The book will be co-edited by Dr Xiaofang Lainie Shang, Dr Mandy Salisbury, and Dr Lynette Pretorius.

One question seems to follow many doctoral graduates: Was undertaking a PhD worth it? For some, the answer is immediate and unequivocal. For others, it is far more complex. Looking back after graduation or after several years, many doctoral graduates continue to reflect on what the journey meant, what it changed, and whether they would make the same decision again.

This book uses one of the most celebrated works of Chinese literature, Journey to the West (西游记, Xīyóujì), as its overarching framework for conceptualising doctoral education. For more than four centuries, Journey to the West has inspired readers through its enduring story of pilgrimage, perseverance, transformation, the pursuit of wisdom and return. At its centre is Tang Seng, a monk who embarks on a perilous journey to obtain the sacred scriptures accompanied by his three disciples: Sun Wukong, Zhu Bajie, and Sha Wujing. He overcomes eighty-one trials that test not only his determination but also his character. When the pilgrimage is complete, Tang Seng returns home transformed. The journey has changed not only what he knows, but who he has become.

We believe the doctoral journey shares many of these characteristics. Like Tang Seng, doctoral candidates embark on a journey in search of knowledge, purpose, and personal growth. Along the way, they encounter uncertainty, setbacks, competing responsibilities, changing identities, and unexpected opportunities. Completion depends not only on intellectual ability but also on the dispositions they cultivate throughout the journey. Curiosity, courage, vulnerability, humanity, perseverance, and discipline all become essential companions in completing a doctorate. Tang Seng represents the doctoral candidate embarking upon the journey, while his three disciples symbolise the dispositions that support doctoral completion:

• Sun Wukong represents intellectual curiosity, creativity, critical thinking, courage, confidence, and scholarly independence.
• Zhu Bajie represents the human dimensions of doctoral life, including vulnerability, competing responsibilities, wellbeing, relationships, and the tensions between personal and academic life.
• Sha Wujing represents perseverance, patience, discipline, resilience, consistency, and the quiet determination required to continue when progress is slow.

These dispositions provide a shared framework for understanding the diverse ways doctoral graduates experience, interpret, and make sense of their journeys.

The book will bring together reflective, analytically rich narratives from doctoral graduates. Contributors are not expected to have prior knowledge of Journey to the West. Instead, the editorial team will use the literature as a conceptual framework to connect the individual chapters into a coherent exploration of the doctoral journey. Collectively, the chapters will illuminate the diverse ways in which doctoral graduates understand the question “Was it worth it?”

We invite expressions of interest from doctoral graduates who:

• Have completed a PhD (or equivalent doctorate with a research component) in any discipline or professional field in or after 2021.
• Are willing to reflect critically on their doctoral journey and how they now understand its value and meaning.
• Can write an engaging, reflective, and analytically informed chapter that connects personal experience with broader issues in doctoral education.
• Are interested in contributing to a collaborative volume that brings together diverse voices and experiences from across higher education.
• Can commit to peer reviewing two chapters during the manuscript development process.

We welcome contributions from doctoral graduates across all disciplines, countries, cultures, languages, and career stages. We particularly encourage chapters from graduates with diverse experiences, including domestic and international, First Nations, part-time and full-time, professionals undertaking doctorates, PhD parents, and graduates working within and/or beyond academia. Collaborative or co-authored chapters are also most welcome.

Chapter Guidelines

Chapters should be approximately 5,000–6,000 words, written in an engaging, thoughtful, and accessible style. References should follow APA 7th edition. The chapters will need to use autoethnography as a methodology. For those unfamiliar with this research approach, you can refer to this list of resources. Each chapter will follow a shared reflective scaffold:

• The Call to the Journey (Tang Seng): Reflect on why you decided to undertake a PhD.
• Developing Your Dispositions (The Three Disciples): Reflect on the qualities that sustained your doctoral journey.
• The Eighty-one Trials: Reflect on and analyse the obstacles
• Transformation: Reflect on how your doctoral journey transformed you.
• The Return: Reflect on your return after completing the doctorate.
• Looking Back: Consider the meaning of your doctoral journey as a whole.

More structural guidance will be provided if your abstract is accepted.

Key Dates

Abstracts due: 30 August 2026
Notification of acceptance: 30 September 2026
Full chapters due: 30 January 2027

How to Submit

Please submit your abstract using the button below.

If you have any questions, please direct them to Dr Lynette Pretorius (Contact details).