Building an effective graduate student and supervisor relationship | GRTC18

As a student, it is important to understand how to make the most out of building an effective relationship with your supervisor. Building a positive relationship with your supervisor enhances your experience in graduate school by providing you with a sounding board; helping you build your professional and academic network; and most importantly, guiding you through your program as smoothly as possible.

In this workshop, students will learn about the different roles students and supervisors have; university policies around supervision; how to deal with potential conflicts; and practical tips for building and maintaining an effective relationship with your supervisor.

• Define the supervisory relationship;
• Identify the roles and responsibilities of students and supervisors;
• Apply goal setting and communication strategies to their supervision relationship;
• Identify common challenges in the supervision relationship;

Althea Thompson (she/her) is a PhD candidate in the Department of History; an Academic Workshop Facilitator for GradProSkills; and the Team Lead for Concordia’s Writing Centre. Her doctoral research focuses on the ways popular audiences set out to learn history in non-“traditional” ways, using the Romanovs, social media, and museums as a case study as well as investigating what role content creators and museum staff see themselves having in this process.