Communications
Research Studentsast
Tomorrow's Academics in Obsolete
Worlds? An International Perspective
Katharine Sarikakis
Today is the time for shaping tomorrows. This chapter is about time, knowledge, and education, and, of course, people. The majority of people hardly ever see the gates of higher education, the place of intellectual inquiry. Despite social reforms, higher education is still struggling to achieve equity for historically excluded groups, such as women and minorities. The environment within which doctoral students make the first steps to their academic careers is the focus of this chapter, as graduate programs can be regarded as the places and stages of socialization to the academy (Austin, 2002). This space (communications graduate1 programs) is examined as a location where attitudes and experiences common to the global students are constructed as gender specific. PhD students are one breed of academics that will fill universities, colleges, and research institutions in the future. Not all of them will follow an academic career, nor does the academy consist only of intellectual workers who have earned PhDs. However, a signifi
____________________-331-