Tsolidis provides an overview of some of the ways in which doctoral supervision is carried out. She also describes some of the contention surrounding supervision ‘training’ that highlights dissenting views on the purpose of research degrees. There is an exploration of desire and subjectivity, with reference to the work of Butler. Supervision is explored using this theoretical framework. A major focus is the ambivalent power held by the supervisor and the need to challenge this in order for research agency to be developed by the doctoral student. A summary is provided of the chapters written by the contributing authors.