I have a long story with PhD programs. I started one some years ago, but then after the courses were done, I did not get enough support from senior professors to actually defend a proposal, and was stopped with a Masters Degree conferred to me. I was then forced to move to another country (I was there on a student status), and right at the moment I was getting disappointed about academia and searching for a job, I found a professor in a top university that taught the exact topic I was interested in. I took his course, I discussed with him and I started another doctoral program, this time in a much higher-ranked university.
My advisor is considered an expert on topic A and most his publications are on topic A. He has an interest in topic B as well, and has a chair in topic B. All his students, though, including the one that graduated last year, are all publishing with him on topic A, and I picked him for his expertise on topic A. During the first interview he asked about my interests and I responded A. He asked me whether I was interested in B as well, and I responded that I wouldn't refuse categorically, but that I didn't really have much of an idea about it.
On the second year, and as I was approaching the end of the coursework once again, I had started two projects, one on A and one between A and B. My advisor had started digging for data access on a B-related project, and I was pretty excited to be a part of that, but then things came abruptly to an end when his co-investigator moved away. Meanwhile I obtained data on A, and worked on it through the third year. I presented the outcomes as my second-year research paper and also made some conference proceedings out of it. Eventually he asked me to be on board with the project, and I gladly accepted. At the end of the third year he suddenly got annoyed that I spent so much time on a project that he did not "own", but then he calmed down when I showed him how much my project drew on his line of work, and he filled a progress report mentioning my efforts. We also talked about an eventual upcoming project, but I notified him that any hypothetical new project would have to result in some submission by November 2014 for me to be able to pick it up.
He obtained a grant and started a new project in September 2014, and he asked me to be on board. I accepted conditionally, and told him I was jumping in just for a trial, as I was already pretty late on my schedule. Given that the project is very exploratory and qualitative in nature, in November nothing had come out of it yet, so I launched a discussion with my professor and I told him that if I wanted to finish on the fifth year, and have a paper on the job market, I needed to work on my A-related project as a thesis or else I would be doomed. I suggested also to push the two projects (his and mine) side-by-side as a compromise. He didn't accept but he did not make further comments either. Last week he suddenly called me to his office and asked me to drop all my projects and focus on his project as the main topic of my thesis because "he would never sign" on my project. Now, this is happening in the middle of the 4th year...
So, after years of being trained in the art of dealing with unstable personalities, inflated egos and insecure supervisors, I finally come to this point where seemingly I don't have any right to defend myself and my prospects are taken hostage by someone at the last moment. I have perfect grades, perfect progress reports, conference submissions (both on topic A and B), a government grant of my own (he is not spending much on me), and am pushing for a journal revision before I get to the job market. But what is sure, I need his support to get anywhere.
I find his project very interesting, but being a qualitative and inductive project, it is suicidal to start it on the fourth year. Moreover, I am not a native english speaker and it takes me double the normal time to compose a good text. He keeps telling me that my project is not a good fit for me (70-80% of the job offers this year were related to topic A, and I am pretty comfortable with it), and that I am a theoretician not a statistician, but he fails to tell me how to make it to the job market within a reasonable time with his project which is literally still all over the place and needs at least a year and half to come to fruition. He is also aware that for personal reasons I can't delay my studies further than the 5th year.
I am devastated. I still like the professor and I don't understand why he is being so hostile, given that he doesn't even have a replacement for me and dismissing me will be in his detriment as well... But he seems to be, and rightly so, interested only in his project and definitely not in my prospects (who will hold him responsible anyway?). What do you suggest that I do? Is he in his rights to do so? By the way, he is the director of our program as well...
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