Dysfunctional PhDs in a dysfunctional university

If one’s experience as a PhD student is dominated by hierarchy, perhaps that also says something about the changes occurring in academia more generally. What academia is becoming, as a whole, sometimes shines in the way that one experiences it through the PhD. So that, if one’s experience as a PhD student is dominated by hierarchical, authoritarian relationships, perhaps that also says something about the direction of change inside the wider world of higher education.  Similarly, when hierarchical forms of relating are allowed inside the university, for instance, by failing to take a stand in solidarity with cleaners and caterers (under the assumption that what happens to them is something academics are immune to) the university becomes less of a breeding place for freedom, and more of a feudal structure — one where, inadvertently, people begin to turn to the wrong God.

Read