Hmm... What is your PhD all about?

A writer doesn't need to have a PhD, they don't have to have a Masters either. You can train to be a writer by writing, and reading other writers. But I have found writing courses useful in my writing journey. When I did my Masters in Writing and Literature a number of years ago, I loved thinking and writing my way through the features and issues of writing for children and young adults. In my research thesis, I analysed how Christian spirituality is depicted in texts for young adults. I found it both fascinating and inspiring. But there were more questions, and I was keen to try my hand at writing creatively in this research space. So... I embarked on my PhD/Doctorate journey.  But what exactly am I researching? 

I'm doing a creative writing PhD, which means the majority of my final research thesis will be a creative artifact. This creative piece will be accompanied by a critical component. My topic is 'Spiritual questioning in young adult literature', which sounds confusing but isn't really. Basically, what I'm interested in is the role of spiritual questions in fiction for teens. This is an age group where young people are often thinking about their faith, they are questioning their beliefs, the beliefs of others and their community. These questions influence their sense of purpose, their identity and how they made decisions on the path to 'growing up'. 
The interesting thing is that these types of questions (spiritual questions about belief, faith, God, eternity, etc) are not so common in YA fiction. So my research is doing a couple of things. ​

Firstly, I'm looking at when and how these spiritual questions have appeared in YA texts. What do these questions do? How do they influence characterisation? Do they encourage or stifle spirituality and faith? Do they influence plot and narrative in meaningful ways? 
Secondly, I'm looking at what such questions could do and whether there is a place for spiritual questions in wholistic character development. This involves understanding the genre and the role of religion/spirituality in literature. 

Thirdly, I'm writing a suite of short stories for teens in which characters think about, wonder, raise, ask, consider all kinds of spiritual questions. I'm doing this as creative writing research to see what can happen when we include spiritual questions in YA short fiction. Some of these short stories I worked on as part of my ADM Fellowship in 2022.

So, that's what my PhD is all about. I'm still in the early stages and will be working in this space for a while yet. But it's interesting, exciting and challenging too. It's stretching me as a writer and I'm learning a lot. I'm thankful for this opportunity. ​