Many of the variables speak to power relations. So gender, race, age and status have all manifested as power relations for me. What is critical is to develop a supervision relationship that is more of a partnership or co-investigation and to constantly remind your postdocs of that in subtle and sometimes more explicit ways. They are not ‘doing corrections’ but ‘responding to critical feedback’ – you do not dictate their path – but make suggestions – some of which MAY NOT work. Socio-economic class is critical as it dictates the conditions under which postdocs are working – availability of technology, data, time and space are all elements that affect the academic project. As supervisors we need to be sensitive to these contexts. Nationality, religion and language are fascinating challenges and the biggest challenge they pose for me is enabling sufficient freedom to embrace the possibilities that these differences enable without compromising the quality of the study – and to be able to KNOW what is an issue of quality (such as logic, coherence, depth) and what is simply an opportunity offered by difference.
