Into the Unknown Towards a Monster Pedagogy for Supervision

Abstract

In this article, I explore the dynamics of the supervision process in academia through the figure of the monster. Drawing on Monster Studies, an emerging interdisciplinary field that applies the monster as a means to think critically and creatively about the ethics and politics of difference, I approach what I see as a dilemma in the teaching and supervision situation: both wanting the student to succeed in academia, by being recognizably ‘academic’ enough, while also wanting to make space for the student’s difference and otherness. Academia has some strict rules and categories for what can be accepted and judged as ‘proper’ research, which means that all teaching and supervision becomes a ‘domestication process’, where the otherness of the student is polished so they may fit in. How can the monstrousness of the student be nurtured by the supervisor while they also ensure the student passes their exams? I suggest that a monster pedagogy can be one way to approach – but ultimately never solve – this tension.