Between disconcertment and joy: using emotions to navigate academia as PhD researchers

Molyneux, L ORCID: 0009-0005-7641-1249, Moore, A ORCID: 0000-0001-9884-0427 and Maclachlan, L ORCID: 0009-0007-4365-4927 (2026) Between disconcertment and joy: using emotions to navigate academia as PhD researchers. Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education. pp. 1-10. ISSN 0159-6306

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Abstract

Higher Education in the UK is facing sector-wide cuts, redundancies and uncertainty. It is a fearful landscape to enter as PhD researchers. As we contend with the instability of a sector which we hoped to make our career home, we reflect on the challenges and emotions that arose during our doctoral training. This timely article draws upon the PhD experience of three women working within Sociology in the UK, utilising ‘gut feelings’ to explore the conditions and processes that constitute the neoliberal academy. Specifically, we focus on the emotions of disconcertment and joy to examine our ‘emotional voices’ as PhD researchers (Askins & Blazek, Citation2017, p. 1093). On the surface, these emotions seem to reflect an affective binary of our experiences. We–the three authors of this article–argue that through embracing and being attuned to disconcertment, we were free to engage in joy as active resistance within the neoliberal academy. In writing this article about our collective affective experiences we hope to encourage other PhD researchers and members of Higher Education to take emotions seriously as a resource for navigating and understanding neoliberal life.

Item Type:	Article
Uncontrolled Keywords:	13 Education; 16 Studies in Human Society; Education; 39 Education; 44 Human society
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > H Social Sciences (General) L Education > LB Theory and practice of education
Divisions:	Humanities and Social Science
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Date of acceptance:	15 May 2026
Date of first compliant Open Access:	8 June 2026
Date Deposited:	08 Jun 2026 08:18
Last Modified:	08 Jun 2026 11:16
DOI or ID number:	10.1080/01596306.2026.2683433
URI:	https://researchonline.ljmu.ac.uk/id/eprint/28758

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