The Internal Pathway of the Self: Supervisory Implications of Autobiographical, Practice-led PhD Design Theses

This paper draws on case studies undertaken in doctoral research at AUT University. It seeks to address a number of issues related to inquiries employed by graphic design students who use autobiographic approaches when developing research-based theses. When employed as a framework, autobiographic inquiries offer a rewarding yet challenging system for connecting investigation with the researcher’s personal experience. This paper provides a discussion of the nature, advantages and challenges of autobiographic research in relation to three recent PhD theses in graphic design. Through this, it seeks to provide a useful reflection on cautions and opportunities inherent in the methodology.