Different places, different specialisms: similar questions of doctoral identities under construction

We share a common interest in researching the experiences of doctoral students. Over time, as we conducted our independent studies, we became increasingly interested in the varied ways in which doctoral students constructed their identities in relation to their past experiences, present and shifting intentions and affect, personal and social resources and more general life contexts. In this paper we analyze a subset of data from two studies of doctoral students in the social sciences in two different research universities. Using the notion of identity-trajectory, we view doctoral student identity as under construction as students explore ways of thinking and interacting in their academic work within the fullness of their overall lives.