Ph.D. Students? experiences and emotions in neoliberal tourism academia

Situated within the emerging social science literature contesting the diffusion of neoliberal ideologies into academia, this study explores the effects of neoliberalism (in the face of Covid-19 as well) on doctoral students. It employs a qualitative arts-based approach amalgamating aspects of autoethnography, ethnography, ethnodrama, and qualitative interviews to co-construct empirical material on Ph.D. students' experiences and emotions. In general, the discussions with the doctoral students portray a rather hostile tourism academy, characterized by unhealthy levels of competition, questionable supervisory practices, and quantitative measurements of output that discourage intellectual engagement and creativity. As such, tourism doctoral students often experience negative emotional experiences, such as fear and anxiety, which in some instances also lead to high levels of stress and depression. Overall, this work contributes to our understanding of the effects of neoliberalism on tourism academia by unveiling the multiple power structures tourism doctoral students have to face throughout their Ph.D. journeys.