Thanks to both of you for the response. It's valuable to to have that objective perspective.

Although in all honesty Bonzo, you mentioned Rome, and it made me realize that there was an outlet for procrastination that I had overlooked. Thanks a lot... :p

continued:

too many obligations to participate in this class. This is frustrating because it sends the message that any conversation with me needs to go through her. That I am incapable of managing my own time.

Finally, I recently found out that she has a personal stake in my academic success given her track record of supervision, and the fact that she's only the second woman to supervise someone in the history of this department. I therefore think that my success may be more about her than me. Hence the heavy hand she's taking.

So my dilemma is this:

Do I change supervisors, thereby alienating myself from her and her allies and setting back my project by a semester? Do I do this despite the work she's done to secure me funding, and the fact that I could end up with a supervisor who is entirely uninterested in my project?

Any serious suggestions would be appreciated.

Cheers

I'd appreciate any feedback on my current dilemma.

I've only recently started my PhD. I selected my university based on availability of source material, and seeming enthusiasm of my prospective supervisor for my proposed project.

In the last few months a few things have changed regarding my relationship to my supervisor and my project.

Alarm bells started to ring around the time of funding applications. I was instructed to ignore all other aspects of my program and focus just on this. While in the end it produced a solid proposal, it turned out to be a needlessly drawn out endeavour that involved two months of continuous nit-picking revisions that left me scrambling to complete my papers towards the end of the semester.

Towards the end of this funding exercise, another professor stepped in, on her recommendation, and overhauled most of her changes - returning the proposal to a format that I had previously employed. In the end, the two months of revisions were an almost complete waste of time.

Therein lies the crux of the problem. My supervisor is very attentive - perhaps too attentive. She insists on weekly meetings, and attempts to have a hand in all my obligations. The positive side to this of course is that I have a supervisor who is accessible and has my interests at heart.

I recognize that she has done a lot for me already - she's secured funding and research contracts, has recommended important sources to me that have kept me on top of the literature, and has kept in constant contact with me. That said, there are sticking points.

First, I've learned that she's something of a pariah in the department. She's very antagonistic with a number of professors, including the graduate coordinator. To heighten this problem, she's cc'd me on some rather pointed emails to other professors, and has made me privy to discussions that have gone on behind closed doors. (That are supposed to be private to avoid drawing students into office politics)

Second, she's taken a heavy hand in the evolution of my project. My thesis is supposed to be supervised by a committee, and in this matter she's dismissed the possibility of certain professors from sitting on it, despite their considerable expertise in subjects that are closely related to my interests. Instead, she's stacked my committee with her allies - one of them, while a very insightful expert, studies a field that is at best peripheral to my project.

Related to this, she wants to have a deciding voice in all my commitments, despite my clear requests to her to let me handle situations. For example, I was invited to sit in on an MA level class that I thought would help me in my writing of my next major paper. She was opposed to this. I told her that I was fine with the idea, and that I could handle the extra obligation. She has since informed me that she will be writing to the professor in question (her enemy the grad coordinator) and informing him that I have too many obligations to