Category: Academic Identity

Learning how academia really works: what doctoral students discover beyond the PhD handbook

Authors: Sandeep Khattri and Lynette Pretorius. Most doctoral students begin their PhD expecting to learn how to conduct research. They read the literature, design a study, collect and analyse data, and aim to contribute new knowledge to their field. On paper, the path to becoming a scholar appears relatively clear: map the literature, master the
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Becoming a scholar together: why doctoral writing groups matter

Authors: Abdul Qawi Noori, Michael J. Henderson, and Lynette Pretorius. We often imagine doctoral writing as a solitary endeavour. The image of a PhD candidate working alone, a lone ‘genius’ wrestling with literature, writing drafts, chasing deadlines, and decoding reviewer comments, still dominates academic and public culture. When writing stalls or publications don’t succeed, we
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The questions that keep me up at night and what I plan to do about them in 2026

Author: Lynette Pretorius. Hi everyone, and welcome to The Scholar’s Way for 2026! As I start the year back at work, I thought it would be a good time to reflect on what I do. A nice introduction to my new subscribers and a reminder of why you are here if you’ve subscribed for a
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Seeing myself in pixels: What happens when GenAI becomes a co-researcher?

Author: Lynette Pretorius. I didn’t set out to write an essay about academic identity, generative AI, and publishing politics. But, as with so many qualitative journeys, the story found me first. What started as a playful experiment with image generation soon became a critical turning point in how I understand knowledge, creativity, and resistance within
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Reclaiming our words: how generative AI helps multilingual scholars find their voice

Authors: Lynette Pretorius and Redi Pudyanti. Acknowledgement: This blog post extends our presentation at the Higher Education Research and Development Society of Australasia (HERDSA) Conference 2025. We acknowledge the other co-authors of our paper, as it was a truly collaborative project: Huy-Hoang Huynh, Ziqi Li, Abdul Qawi Noori, and Zhiheng Zhou. As the South African
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Call for abstracts for our book on positionality and reflexivity in research!

Author: Lynette Pretorius. We are seeking expressions of interest for our new book provisionally titled Positionality & Reflexivity in Research (Editors: Sun Yee Yip and Lynette Pretorius from Monash University). Whose research is it? Who owns it? Whose interests does it serve? Who benefits from it? Who has designed its questions and framed its scope?
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The power of collaborative writing and peer feedback in doctoral writing groups

Authors: Basil Cahusac de Caux and Lynette Pretorius. Have you ever wondered how doctoral students can navigate the challenging journey of academic writing? For many, the answer lies in the strength of community and the power of collaborative feedback. Our recent paper explores this very subject, examining how doctoral writing groups can transform the academic
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Benefits of doctoral writing groups

Author: Lynette Pretorius. For many years now, I have been working to improve the experiences of PhD students. One practice I’ve found particularly useful is incorporating collaborative and peer-based learning through doctoral writing groups. My work with writing groups started way back in 2013 and, over more than a decade, I have further refined my
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Trauma, anxiety, depression, solitude: The impact of COVID-19 on academic identity

Authors: Basil Cahusac de Caux, Lynette Pretorius, and Luke Macaulay. Credit: Text and images have been republished from an article in the Monash Lens, https://lens.monash.edu/@education/2023/04/28/1385557/trauma-anxiety-depression-solitude-the-impact-of-covid-19-on-academic-indentity COVID-19 brought about unprecedented changes to society, causing widespread disruption to many aspects of our lives. The pandemic has impacted people from all walks of life, but particularly hard-hit have been
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How the pandemic shaped academic identity: Stories of resilience and struggle

Authors: Basil Cahusac de Caux, Lynette Pretorius, and Luke Macaulay. Credit: Text has been republished from an article in Monash News https://www.monash.edu/news/articles/how-the-pandemic-shaped-academic-identity-stories-of-resilience-and-struggle A new book shares the stories of PhD students, early-career researchers, and established academics during the COVID-19 pandemic to shed light on the struggles faced by those in the industry. The COVID-19 pandemic impacted
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