The graduate grind

by Patricia H. Hinchey

"The Graduate Grind examines the culture of graduate school and investigates the frequency of depression, illness, divorce, and even suicide and murder among graduate students. What elements provoke the sense of powerlessness and hopelessness felt by so many students? Rather than accepting student suffering and failure as an integral part of a system based appropriately on "survival of the fittest," Drs. Hinchey and Kimmel argue that too much student suffering comes from widespread and sanctioned abuse of power. Examining common assumptions and routines through the lens of critical theory, the authors question several aspects of graduate education, including the conception of graduate students as institutional capital; institutionalized prejudice based on age, gender, sexual orientation, race and class; and competing power and value systems. The authors allow students to tell their own stories, thus humanizing the results of abuses generated by a flawed system. Finding current exploita