The doctor of philosophy is a complex degree. The space between students and supervisors is vexed and volatile. It can be exploitative. The Pernicious PhD Supervisor enters this difficult space and provides both the models and the strategies to categorize and manage difficult supervisors and supervisory practices. From the Flamingo to the Wizard, from the White Pointer Shark to the Bower Bird, ten models of supervision are revealed. Part horror and part comedy, this book opens the weeping wound of doctoral education, to salve and heal the consequences of problematic research cultures.