Performing prodigals and dissident acolytes: supporting queer postgraduates in the visual arts

Supervisors supporting queer individuals engaged in postgraduate research in Visual Arts face a number of issues. Beyond concerns with balancing the autobiographical and the scholarly, a supervisor may also encounter questions relating to safety, identity, tokenism, exoticisation and the pressure candidates feel to develop work that has credibility both within the academy and the queer community with which they identify. With reference to five self-declaring queer Visual Arts graduates, this article unpacks some of the complexities such students face as they navigate the uneven territory of the queer-oriented thesis developed inside the academy.