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Becoming Researchers: Making Academic Kin in the Chthulucene

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 April 2018

Blanche Verlie ,
Sherridan Emery ,
Maia Osborn ,
Kim Beasy ,
Bianca Coleman ,
Kevin Kezabu ,
Jennifer Nicholls  and
#aaeeer
Blanche Verlie
Affiliation:
Monash University, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
Sherridan Emery
Affiliation:
University of Tasmania, Launceston, Tasmania, Australia
Maia Osborn*
Affiliation:
Southern Cross University, Bilinga, Queensland, Australia
Kim Beasy
Affiliation:
University of Tasmania, Launceston, Tasmania, Australia
Bianca Coleman
Affiliation:
University of Tasmania, Launceston, Tasmania, Australia
Kevin Kezabu
Affiliation:
University of Tasmania, Launceston, Tasmania, Australia
Jennifer Nicholls
Affiliation:
James Cook University, Cairns, Queensland, Australia
#aaeeer
Affiliation:
#aaeeer is a supportive collective of PhD candidates and early career researchers
*
Address for correspondence: Maia Osborn, Southern Cross University, School of Education, Southern Cross Drive, Bilinga QLD 4225, Australia. Email: m.osborn.10@student.scu.edu.au
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Abstract

Graduate students are often plagued by stress and anxiety in their journeys of becoming researchers. Concerned by the prevalence of poor graduate student wellbeing in Australia, we share our experiences of kin-making and collaboration within #aaeeer (Australasian Association for Environmental Education Emerging Researchers), a collective of graduate students and early career researchers formed in response to the Australian Association for Environmental Education (AAEE) conference in Hobart, Tasmania, in 2014. In this article, we begin to address the shortage of research into graduate student wellbeing, led by graduate students. Inspired by Donna Haraway's work on making kin in the Chthulucene, we present an exploration that draws together stories from the authors about the positive experiences our kin-making collective enables, and how it has supported our wellbeing and allowed us to work collaboratively. Specifically, we find that #aaeeer offers us a form of refuge from academic stressors, creating spaces for ‘composting together’ through processes of ‘decomposing’ and ‘recomposing’. Our rejection of neoliberal norms has gifted us experiences of joyful collective pleasures. We share our experiences here in the hope of supporting and inspiring other emerging and established researchers to ‘make kin’ and challenge the potentially isolating processes of becoming researchers.

Keywords

communityqualitativehigher educationexperiencestorynarrative
Type
Feature Articles
Information
Australian Journal of Environmental Education , Volume 33 , Special Issue 3: 2016 Australian Association for Environmental Education Conference: ‘Tomorrow Making – Our Present to the Future’ , November 2017 , pp. 145 - 159
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s) 2018 

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