The Future of Institutional Ethnographic Research: Mentoring Doctoral and Early Career Research across Institutions

Friday, 11 July 2025: 11:00-12:45
Location: FSE011 (Faculty of Education Sciences (FSE))
WG06 Institutional Ethnography (host committee)

Language: English

Doctoral and early career research increasingly takes place in institutions where neoliberal and managerial concerns leave limited time and space for deep conversations about research projects. For candidates engaging with institutional ethnography (IE), this can mean there are few opportunities within the institution about IE concepts, readings, and their analytic work. Members of WG06, the Institutional Ethnography Working Group, have worked to create networks that transcend university boundaries by holding regular online mentoring sessions that allow students to connect with more experienced researchers, and each other. This session invites PhD candidates (and other doctoral candidates such as those enrolled in an EdD) and early career researchers to submit abstracts that discuss perspectives on mentoring and doctoral supervision, and how this has shaped their institutional ethnographic research. Discussion of research mentorship may be woven into a presentation about IE projects. Mentors or doctoral supervisors are also invited to present on their experiences of organising and facilitating research mentoring, outlining the challenges and possibilities for supporting the work of research students, novice institutional ethnographers and early career academics.
Session Organizer:
Nerida SPINA, Queensland University of Technology, Australia
Chair:
Janet RANKIN, University of Calgary, Canada
Oral Presentations
Comprehensive Support for Institutional Ethnography Dissertations
Laura PARSON, North Dakota State University, USA
IE and Theory – a Perspective from the Nordic Region
Ann Christin NILSEN, University of Agder, Norway