Scholars such as Kamler and Thompson argue that identity formation has a key role to play in doctoral learning, particularly the process of thesis writing. This article builds on these insights to address other sites in which scholarly identity is performed within doctoral candidature. Drawing on actor-network theory, the authors examine the role of material things, what Latour calls "the missing masses", in the process of "becoming doctor", with the aim of unpacking the implications of this for doctoral learning and the journey of becoming a researcher or scholar. Through this approach the authors demonstrate that scholarly identity is distributed and comes to be performed through both traditional and non-traditional sites of learning. The article concludes by addressing the implications of this for efforts to support candidates in the process of becoming researchers. (Contains 2 figures.)