This paper analyzes the ambivalent affect that doctoral students in South Korea have on the academic field and examines the possibility of changes in the field, based on the data from the 2022 Focus Group Interview (FGI) of domestic doctoral students....
This paper analyzes the ambivalent affect that doctoral students in South Korea have on the academic field and examines the possibility of changes in the field, based on the data from the 2022 Focus Group Interview (FGI) of domestic doctoral students. Through this, the paper proposes ways to improve the research fund support and evaluation methods of the National Research Foundation of Korea, with a specific focus on the interests of doctoral students in the humanities and social sciences in South Korea. Rather than devaluing the knowledge produced within the academic field and internalizing ridicule and pity towards doctoral students in the humanities and social sciences, FGI participants trusted and affirmed their value as researchers and thus contributed to the reproduction of the academic field by temporarily denying some of the things that did not conform to academic values. The ambivalent affect was evident when doctoral students felt pleasure from participating in cooperation and competition within the academic field, but at the same time felt displeasure in their relationships with some of the older generation, which fueled predictions of changes within the domestic academic field. Doctoral students felt pleasure in the interests of knowledge within the domestic academic field and expressed critical opinions to gain recognition for the value of researchers working in the field that is not included in the academic world centered on professors. Doctoral students felt displeasure due to the lack of recognition for mutual evaluation among researchers in Korea. FGI participants called for academic policies that support and evaluate not only the publication of papers, but also the collection and organization of data, and various gatherings and activities based on academic research, to increase the pleasure and decrease the displeasure they felt in competing and collaborating with established researchers when producing new knowledge in the domestic academic field.