How can supervisors support postgraduate students researching confronting, sensitive, or dangerous topics? Towards frameworks for practice

About this opportunity

Are you passionate about supporting postgraduate students who engage with emotionally demanding or high-risk research topics? This fully funded PhD scholarship offers the opportunity to explore how supervisors can best support postgraduate research students working in complex, sensitive, or dangerous research spaces. The successful candidate’s research project will aim to produce practical guidelines and tools that those supervising postgraduate research can use to promote and oversee wellbeing and safety for students researching topics that may involve:
• Trauma (e.g. acute, complex, vicarious, intergenerational ...) or emotional distress
• Dangerous fieldwork or ethically complex environments
• Intersectional identities and marginalised communities

The project will involve developing and piloting tools for practice that can be used in the context of postgraduate supervision to enact a duty of care and promote postgraduate researcher wellbeing. The project will preferably take the form of a PhD with publication and will be designed accordingly. The project will be supervised by Dr Katrina McChesney (chief supervisor), Dr Kelly Glubb-Smith, and Prof Claire McLachlan.

Scholarship Value

This PhD is funded through a University of Waikato Seeker Doctoral Scholarship, with up to NZD $30,000 per year for up to 36 months + domestic tuition fees and Student Services Fee.

The ideal candidate for this project will bring excellent academic skills (written and oral communication; literature work; empirical research experience; academic publishing experience) and will be well prepared to undertake a qualitative research project.

You will also have relevant academic and/or professional background, which may be in any of:
• Higher education studies
• Social work, counselling, or another person-centred profession
• Community development
• Adult learning

The general Higher Degrees admission criteria also apply.