Your Scholarly Letter October 1st 2026
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The Education of a Researcher
— Written by San Choudury
There is a widely held, yet often implicit, belief in and around the academic research community that the surest route to learning how to become an academic researcher (from here, simply researcher) is to enrol into a PhD program. This belief comes from the assumption that the carefully structured stages of the PhD, together with its built-in mentorship, contributes to the proper and thorough development of the individual into a researcher. And not just any researcher, but one that can be trusted to do high quality, rigorous research, and therefore produces knowledge imbued with a high degree of veracity.
Having gone through a formal PhD program, I hesitate at such a belief, which tells us that going through a PhD program is the most reliable way of learning the ropes of academic research. I hesitate precisely because I underwent a PhD program, and now having stepped outside of its formal structures, and into the world of independent academic research, I have come to realise that some of the most important developmental moments of my academic-researcher-becoming have come not from my PhD formal program, but beyond it.
In taking this position, I am not refusing to recognise all that I have been able to gain from my formal training. For the most part, I had a decent pair of supervisors. The acknowledgements to my thesis will tell you as much. Thanking my first supervisor, I wrote,
“[Supervisor 1], you have been more than just a supervisor, you have played a friend, a father, and your kindness has never gone unnoticed. You have given me space to think, to develop my own intellectual style, and above all, nurtured rather than suppressed my creativity. The reading groups you organised in the early years with all your supervisees provided an invaluable space for learning to question and think critically. Thank you for always being there, and for providing me with all the reassurance I have needed throughout the last four years.”
Read between the lines, and you might see that what I’m thanking them for really is a more general mentorship. They gave me the space to think, meaning they were very hands off – which truth be told, I didn’t mind. They encouraged me to fuck the system, to be a scholar, rather than an academic. It is for this reason that they always nurtured my creativity and unruly intellectual processes, rather than suppressing it. They also never failed to hype me up and remind me that I was a boss in my own right, therefore reassuring me consistently through the four years. And in playing all the roles beyond that of a supervisor, they also patiently handled all the drama that comes with being a doctoral candidate, which obviously involved the idea of quitting my PhD. The pastoral support that I received from them was like no other. I didn’t need to go to therapy during my PhD precisely because of them.
My second supervisor was equally hands off. But she played a big role in teaching me the art of writing. However, this was not writing for academic research but writing for thinking. I wrote in my acknowledgements,
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