ABSTRACT
A little more than a year after I had arrived at my New Zealand university, my first master’s student arranged to attend her graduation ceremony. She told me how very much she was looking forward to having both of her supervisors sitting on stage, being there for her. Suddenly I realised that I had to face up to the topic of wearing a gown. I had gained my highest degree from Georg-August University of Göttingen in Germany; but in Germany, gowns had been relegated to back-room wardrobes during the 1960s student uprisings. Gowns were very much seen as a symbol of the old autocratic system and somehow connected to patriotism and even National Socialism. Gowns were neither seen nor discussed in my student days, but I knew they were somehow bad. Now I needed one and simply hiring the New Zealand version seemed pointless.
