One of my panel members has no MA or PhD but has experience in her field of museum curating. However after two years my work has taken a theoretical path and I feel that although some of her advice has been useful, she is maybe not the best person to be having an input into my PhD assessment process as she has no prior experience of this. She has been very negative throughout all my panels, and I would say verging into bullying and harrasment at some points. I've stuck with it but I feel that she may jeopardise me being able to submit because what I am doing is not what she wants me to do or expects me to do or is from her perspective on the subject. She does seem to have her own agenda. Should I just put up with it or should I try to get someone with more experience of sitting on panels and working with PhD students. And how difficult or easy would this be - if anyone has had any experience of it.
I am aware that I may come across her in the future and she may have colleagues who I might want to work with so I have to decide how much my future career might be affected by me trying to get rid of her.

Hi Pamw,
Sorry to hear about the unfortunate situation. It will only benefit you to get someone with a strong theoretical knowledge as part of the team. Speak to your postgrad research tutor. Better still, approach someone you know who might help, informally.

I'm wary of advising on this because trying to remove a panel member, perse, could cause offence. But then I can absolutely see the benfits of doing so. However, maybe by taking a positive approach, if you have someone who you would like to be on the panel (is there anyone like that in your uni?) you could try raising that with your sup if they are sympathetic/nice. If you succeeded you'd still have to watch for the externals - be mindful of their sympathies and tastes.

It sounds like you're in a similar field to me.... in which case theoretical differences can make things very difficult...
I think you definitely need to get someone on board in some capacity (either officially or unofficially) to help advise you more appropriately. If you take the attempting to remove someone tack then you'll need to emphasize how your research has gone in an unexpected direction......and someone else is now more relevant for this part of it, but I'm sure you know that already!
xxx

Hi - I think from some other things you said that we may be at the same institution. I changed a panel member about a year and a half into my PhD. In my case, he was actually officially my joint supervisor. He wasn't hostile to me but was almost ridiculously disinterested in me or my work. He just didn't care. I talked to my other supervisor about how he had stood me up at meetings (about 4 or 5 times!), not replied to e-mails, etc. Luckily, my other supervisor agreed with me and he is the more powerful in the institution (and is in my subject area, the other was from another arts discipline), so he approached somebody else who had shown real interest in my work to take over. We both told the ousted supervisor/panel member that we thought that my work was going in a different direction and that there was another person whose expertise seemed more suited to the project. He still says hello in the corridor - which is more than I ever got when he was supervising me!

Anyway, the moral of this is speak to your supervisor. Maybe don't say that you want to get rid off this woman off your panel yet, but that you have found the nature of her criticism difficult/puzzling, and ask what she thinks of it? Maybe you could come to an agreement about it.

Of course, if we are in the same place, your third panel member is only your third panel member. They may criticise you till kingdom come, but they won't (unless in special circumstances) be your internal examiner, and they don't hold sway as to whether you should submit or not. Heck, when it comes to it, neither officially do your supervisors - but you would be stupid to submit without their go-ahead. But I don't think that applies to the third panel member, who works only in an advisory capacity - especially if your supervisors are happy. Of course, they're the ones who have PhDs and understand the process more than this woman.

Good luck!

Thanks for the replies guys. There is someone whose opinion I respect who I have asked to read a chapter of my work, with my supervisor's approval, and even encouragement. I know she is very critical so I'm not looking for an easy option. She is on quite a few panels so I'm not sure she would have the time to join another one. However if I know I have the support of others then it might not be so difficult to deal with the one panel member when she is negative. As regards external examiners, my supervisor has said we need to get someone who is as far from this person in their outlook as possible! We both actually thought of someone who might be suitable who is a theorist in my general area, although not an expert on the historical period. But I'm arguing that we should use some theoretical ideas from this area and apply them to the historical period I'm looking at which no-one seems to have done. (I'm also trying to get into the mindset of the people of this period so trying to avoid the trap of just applying modern theory from a 20th/21st century perspective to a different period).

That seems to be a good way of explaining it without upsetting them too much. I was concerned that they would stop me submitting but from what you say, if my supervisor is happy then it should be OK. To be honest I don't think my supervisor rates this woman very much, and although she never says anything directly we both talk about her in a certain way so we both know what the other really means. When I 've written something we both think has been done well we always laugh and say - but let's see what XXXX says!

Personally I would be wary of upsetting this person, you never know who this person knows, or when you may need their help in the future. The person to approach her should be your supervisor who can take the wrap for the change. If you feel you must approach her, then make the process as positive as you can, say how much you have appreciated her input, how much it has made you think about your work and how important it has been to have someone who looks at your work from a different angle from your own (you may even be able to cite a couple of points.. when you asked about x it made me consider y which has improved my comments about z and so on). You could then add something about the change of direction and that although you would still appreciate her input, you feel that someone else might be able to stretch your work in the direction it has now taken (add something about how you appreciate that her obvious expertise was really useful, just as this new person's expertise will bring further rigour to your research.) As long as you get the outcome you want there is no problem in bringing every positive thing you can into getting her out graciously, but there could be problems if she feels pushed. -In my case my present super was keen to take on the role and edged my unproductive person out and I had to do nothing to get him in, other than confirm I would like him on board, but the original one still remains on the team, something I'm quite grateful for in a way, as I wouldn't have wanted him as an examiner as our ideas are worlds apart. You know what they say 'speak softly and carry a big stick' :-)

Just thought I would update this. At my last meeting with my supervisor she suggested that we do replace the panel member I am not happy with. She is going to put the wheels in motion to replace her with someone who will be more sympathetic to the direction my PhD is now taking. I had a really positive meeting with my supervisor and she agrees with all the concerns I had about this panel member. So hopefully I can now move forward without the constant criticism and negativity she brought to the proceedings.

(up) It's good to read that you've received some good news and I hope things continue to pick up.

Wehhhay!!!!! that's great news, thanks for letting us know.(up)8-)

Congratulations Pamw. That's excellent news.

Pam, that's great to hear - I'm sure it will make a huge difference to how you feel about everything. When I replaced a dodgy sup early on in mine, it got me excited again about the whole project, which also made all the financial sacrifices worth it. Hope you manage to take a break over Easter too, even just a few days rest. (up)

I had a meeting yesterday with the person who I want to come on to my panel and hurrah, she had no problems with it. She has read some of my work and is really interested and wants to work with me. I now have her and my supervisor supporting me and one other panel member who is OK. The negative one is gone!
The new member's experience and knowledge will be really helpful for the direction I want to go in. I've got nine months left till I offically finish but I only just feel as if I am getting somewhere now. I'm glad I persevered as I know what I am doing is valid. I could have easily just accepted all the negativity and done the boring old-fashioned stuff which I was being steered towards.