Publication Details

Milech, B., & McGann, S. (2016). Shared differences: Creativity in graduate research. Knowledge Cultures, 4 (1), 112-121.

Abstract

In this article, we talk about the centrality of something that “feels creative” in the research process. We talk across shared differences ‒ different but cognate disciplines, different but cognate migrant histories, and the shared difference of a (past) supervisor/supervisee relationship. And we talk about that “something” as it relates to three important dimensions of graduate research: the nature of a creative-production thesis; the process of making/writing such a thesis; and the potential of a supervisory relationship pertaining to such making/writing. We want to think about graduate research from these perspectives in order to finesse any seductive opposition between “traditional” and “creative” research; to imagine ways in which doctoral research students go about developing elegant theses, especially the strategies that work for creative-production researchers; and also to imagine how the supervisory relationship, albeit structurally hierarchical, can be collegial and productive – can be creative. We do all this in aid of thinking about what is transformative in higher degree research for students, for supervisors, for universities.