Supervising Practices for Postgraduate Research in Art, Architecture and Design

Supervising Practices for Postgraduate Research in Art, Architecture and Design offers insights into supervisory practices in creative and design-based research by academics at Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT) University, Australia. The book focuses on practices of supervising candidates who are undertaking postgraduate research in art, architecture, design and creative writing. It addresses a decisive shift in the academy towards an emphasis on applied practice-led research undertaken through project-based investigations. This model articulates an effective means to conduct research on knowledge both embodied in, and discovered through creative and design practices. Such knowledge can be understood in the context of broad socio-cultural changes in which creative and applied practice is defining and leading cultural, scientific, technological and creative economies. The contributors to this book investigate a range of supervisory strategies and wider concerns to do with knowledge and its formations. They focus on diverse pedagogical models and methodologies of supervising practices through applied practice-led research, exhibitions, ethics, writing, theory and practice, language and design. The authors are experienced supervisors of creative and practice-led research who have engaged in scholarly reflections on selective aspects of their supervisory practices with the aim of providing insight to others regarding what they do, and how and why they do it. The overall aim of this collection is to open up dialogue and debate around emerging modes of postgraduate research and supervisory practice in universities of the twenty-first century. This is a very astute and valuable contribution to the literature on supervision in the applied arena with a series of excellent discussions on creative practice-based research, pedagogical practices of supervision, creative writing and the creative work in process, generative praxis, distance supervision,doctoral exhibitions, supervision of designers, and a range of related issues and concerns. It is a path-breaking, path-finding book that will be of great assistance to all kinds of professionals and students across a wide range of disciplines and with important lessons for all doctoral supervision. It is an exciting and accessible book and a great achievement for a group of colleagues in a leading institution. Michael A. Peters Emeritus Professor, University.