Doctor of Vulnerability and Resilience

Abstract

This chapter explores the all too familiar crises of belonging and confidence that characterize graduate school through the author’s personal reflection on her doctoral student experience. The author proposes that we move beyond our culturally accepted, dismissive attitudes toward the inevitability of graduate school struggles with self-worth and perfectionism. She suggests that institutions encourage students to approach doctoral programs as both intellectual and socioemotional challenges. In her account, the author reflects on her earliest inclinations toward a life of the mind and grounds herself in Dr. Brené Brown’s work on vulnerability, shame, and resilience to understand said life.