Corporeity in PhD Thesis Writing. Rituals and 'Writing Gestures'

Elsa Chachkine (1) , Anne Jorro (1)

1 FoAP - Formation et apprentissages professionnels

In this chapter, we explore the role played by the body in thesis writing for professionals involved in doctoral studies at the Conservatoire national des arts et métiers (Cnam). Our hypothesis is that writing a PhD thesis is not just an intellectual engagement, but also an emotional as well as a bodily engagement. Thus, in this research we refer to the "writing gesture" when undertaking the writing of a PhD thesis. The theoretical underpinnings of this research are Mauss's ethnographic works (Mauss, 1950, 1947), for whom the body is "man's first and most natural technical object, and at the same time technical means". It is also rooted in anthropological studies around "the rites of passage" (Van Genep, 1987), re-explored for the writing activity of adult learners by Delamotte et al. (2000). The first section of our research tries to understand the role played by the body at the various stages of writing the PhD thesis. The second section identifies five "writing gestures" that PhD supervisors and PhD candidates should be aware of.

Mots clés: bodily engagement - PhD thesis - research posture - liminality - coporeity - gesture; bodily engagement - PhD thesis - research posture - liminality - coporeity - gesture

Domaines: Education

Elsa Chachkine, Anne Jorro. Corporeity in PhD Thesis Writing. Rituals and 'Writing Gestures'. Michael Cross; Caroline Long; Sibonokuhle Ndlovu; Phefumula Nyoni. Transformative Curricula, Pedagogies and Epistemologies, 11, Brill, pp.149-167, 2021, 978-90-04-46843-6. ⟨10.1163/9789004468443_009⟩. ⟨halshs-03320967⟩