In Search of the Resilient Academic Experience: Dealing with Concerns in Artistic Doctoral Programs

Design and Art PhDs are widely spread across Art Schools around Europe and the world. Doing a PhD in the arts however contains tensions between artistic research approaches, and overall academic setting and requirements. Students, and supervisors, are not always well prepared for the challenges that arise from these tensions. This raises the question: How supervision of artistic research at doctoral level can foster unorthodox approaches and multimedia outcomes, while simultaneously enable doctoral students to navigate academic frameworks? Based on data from a doctoral preparation course, this article outlines typical tensions and, highlights strategies to help navigate them. After a general introduction and the methodology section the article reviews existing approaches in PhD programs in Art and Design that help reflecting our case study. Chapter five presents the case study results and chapter six involves discussion and conclusion on future needs in PhD supervision in the arts.