Comments on: Dissertation Week

By: Sharon

Sharon — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Do piccies of documents count? If so, I already started at Early Modern Notes yesterday and there’s more to come… (Trouble is, I’m not writing much about the research lately because of a lack of enthusiasm. Or ideas. Looking at my original project proposal tends to induce hysterical laughter followed by mild depression.)

Like the diss! Looking forward to hearing more about it. And when do we get more from the subaltern?

By: sepoy

sepoy — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Sharon: They count indeed. subaltern writes tomorrow. And don’t say anything about hysterical laughter…I been doing that all day…I had my first academic year meeting with the diss. chair.

By: Sharon

Sharon — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

I can never get over all these people in the US PhD system. Advisors, committees, chairs. What do they all do? The only person who matters over here during the course of doing the PhD – who you have to talk to – is your supervisor (well, some people might have two; that’s considered complicated). And there’s an external examiner for the viva at the very end.

By: sepoy

sepoy — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

They do squat. The chair of your committee (equivalent to the supervisor) is the only one involved with “advising”. The rest get to read the chapters (if nothing is on the telly, they are trapped under a heavy couch and the dissertation chapter is the only thing within eyesight) and vote at the defense.
The viva is not at the end but at the beginning. Before you can “propose” a thesis, you have to take the orals which are with your committee members (not exclusively). After the orals, come the diss. proposal, after which comes the diss. defense. and then, ah, cushy post-doc in wales :)

By: Sharon

Sharon — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Yes, it does often sound as though the hardest part of an American PhD is getting to the point where you write your diss (those orals sound a particular nightmare)… But I suspect that means that American students tend to be a lot better prepared for it than their British counterparts. It’s possible here (though extremely rare) to get right to the end and have it rejected by the external examiner as misconceived/insufficient/executed badly, because if your supervisor really lets you down there just aren’t those other checks (however unwilling and cursory) – unless you take the initiative and show work to other people informally (hoping they have time to read it). And although that’s the doomsday scenario which happens to very few, I think it haunts everyone going into the viva, which is simply an oral defence of the diss and usually takes about an hour or so.

(I learnt a couple of weeks ago that another recent PhD from our department has got one of the same post-docs in this year’s competition (although she’s going to do it at Oxford). I’m wondering who I might push into applying this year to see if we can get three in a row… That’d look pretty cool in the department’s publicity, now wouldn’t it?)

By: Sharon

Sharon — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Check this post!
(I tried to trackback, but I’m not sure it’s worked…)

By: Caleb

Caleb — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

I just got them up before the Week was over, but I've tried to participate here and here. They fall more in the realm of "analysis of the secondary literature" than in the "nitty-gritty," but thanks for encouraging us to write about our work at all!

By: Early Modern Notes

Early Modern Notes — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

I research, therefore I am

Sepoy at Chapati Mystery is holding Dissertation Week

I will post various bits and pieces of my dissertation. I urge my readers who are in the academy, writing, researching their dissertations or major papers to have at least one post on their mater…

By: Siris

Siris — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Dissertation Week

I learn from Sharon at Early Modern Notes that it’s Dissertation Week at Chapati Mystery, and I thought I’d join in the fun.