On the emotions and politics of autoethnographic supervision

In this chapter we collaboratively consider some doubts, tensions, and anxieties around Marton’s PhD research that was supervised by Sarah and Martin. Instead of a teleological journey, we begin by discussing the PhD process using the metaphors of ‘the Zone’, ‘dancing in the shadows’, and ‘reflections in a dark mirror’ to highlight the feelings we each most vividly recall. In the second part of the chapter, we respond to each other’s opening metaphors. Finally, we settle on three themes that may be relevant to readers: the role of the institutional context in cultivating ‘dangerous’ and engaged PhD topics, the complexity of roles and identities during the supervision of such projects, and the problem with linear representations of multivocal realities.