Carving Out Qualifications: Mastering Ph.D. Problems in Post-graduate Gender & Sexuality Study

This book chapter considers the difficulties of studying gender and sexualities to gain qualifications. It recalls eight individuals’ current and past experiences as higher degree research (HDR) students—including honours, Masters and Ph.D. candidates and other academics. It first reviews the literature on working in this area and second provides a series of individuals’ most difficult experiences of being an HDR in gender and sexuality (G&S) research, and how they creatively overcame key obstacles. The chapter concludes by drawing together key learning from the literature and the HDR learning experiences, which can be applied when studying gender and sexuality topics.