Dissing the Dissertation
January 9, 2012 - 3:00am
SEATTLE -- The average humanities doctoral student takes nine years to earn a Ph.D. That fact was cited frequently here (and not with pride) at the annual meeting of the Modern Language Association. Richard E. Miller, an English professor at Rutgers University's main campus in New Brunswick, said that the nine-year period means that those finishing dissertations today started them before Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Kindles, iPads or streaming video had been invented.
So much has changed, he said, but dissertation norms haven't, to the detriment of English and other language programs. "Are we writing books for the 19th century or preparing people to work in the 21st?" he asked.
Leaders of the MLA -- in several sessions and discussions here -- indicated that they are afraid that too many dissertations are indeed governed by out-of-date conventions, leading to the production of "proto-books" that may do little to promote scholarship and may not even be advancing the careers of graduate students. During the process, the graduate students accumulate debt and frustrations. Russell A. Berman, a professor of comparative literature and German studies at Stanford University, used his presidential address at the MLA to call for departments to find ways to cut "time to degree" for doctorates in half.
And at a standing-room-only session, leaders of a task force studying possible changes in dissertation requirements discussed some of the ideas under consideration. There was a strong sense that the traditional model of producing a several-hundred-page literary analysis dominates English and other language doctoral programs -- even though many people feel that the genre is overused and frequently ineffective. People also talked about the value of digital projects, of a series of essays, or public scholarship. Others talked about ways to change the student-committee dynamic in ways that might expedite dissertation completion.
"We are at a defining moment in higher education," said Kathleen Woodward, director of the Simpson Center for the Humanities at the University of Washington. "We absolutely have to think outside the box that the dissertation is a book or a book-in-progress."
The MLA's discussion of the dissertation is in some ways an outgrowth of a much-discussed report issued by the association in 2006 about tenure and promotion practices. That report questioned the idea that producing monographs should be the determining factor in tenure decisions. When the report was released, many MLA leaders said that the ideas the association was endorsing also called for reconsideration of graduate education, and especially of the dissertation.
As part of the process of encouraging change, the MLA recently conducted a survey of its doctoral-granting departments. Among the findings:
Sidonie Smith, professor of English at the University of Michigan and a past president of the MLA, said that the survey results demonstrated the potential for change. She said, for example, that many department leaders have in the past said that they would consider changes in dissertation requirements but for the rules of their graduate schools. In fact, there are very few graduate schools that would block change, she said.
Further, she noted that while the percentage of departments that have explicitly authorized nontraditional dissertations is small, they provide evidence that such alternatives are possible. Finally, she said that the survey showed that relatively few departments provide explicit information to graduate students on what is and is not possible. That lack of information, she said, "is disturbing."
While much of the talk here was about digital formats of scholarship, some of the possible changes in the dissertation process could also be helpful to graduate students pursuing a traditional, 250-page work of literary analysis.
David Damrosch, chair of comparative literature at Harvard University, described a reform recently instituted there that grad students in the audience seemed to find ideal. The department has started requiring that every single chapter of a dissertation be discussed, as they are produced, in a meeting attended by the author and all three committee members. Further, the department staff -- not the student -- sets up the meeting. (This is in contrast to grad students sending off copies, and receiving suggestions or silence from committee members individually.)
Damrosch said that many graduate students are delayed when some committee members don't read chapters in a timely way, and then go on to offer "totally contradictory advice, months after a draft has come in." Forcing everyone on the committee to meet in person, Damrosch said, shames them into reading the chapter on time, and to working out a common set of recommendations for the grad student.
"People are forced to focus," he said, and doctoral students "get coherent advice." The resulting revisions are much more likely to solve any problems, so that the student can keep moving forward
So much has changed, he said, but dissertation norms haven't, to the detriment of English and other language programs. "Are we writing books for the 19th century or preparing people to work in the 21st?" he asked.
Leaders of the MLA -- in several sessions and discussions here -- indicated that they are afraid that too many dissertations are indeed governed by out-of-date conventions, leading to the production of "proto-books" that may do little to promote scholarship and may not even be advancing the careers of graduate students. During the process, the graduate students accumulate debt and frustrations. Russell A. Berman, a professor of comparative literature and German studies at Stanford University, used his presidential address at the MLA to call for departments to find ways to cut "time to degree" for doctorates in half.
And at a standing-room-only session, leaders of a task force studying possible changes in dissertation requirements discussed some of the ideas under consideration. There was a strong sense that the traditional model of producing a several-hundred-page literary analysis dominates English and other language doctoral programs -- even though many people feel that the genre is overused and frequently ineffective. People also talked about the value of digital projects, of a series of essays, or public scholarship. Others talked about ways to change the student-committee dynamic in ways that might expedite dissertation completion.
"We are at a defining moment in higher education," said Kathleen Woodward, director of the Simpson Center for the Humanities at the University of Washington. "We absolutely have to think outside the box that the dissertation is a book or a book-in-progress."
The MLA's discussion of the dissertation is in some ways an outgrowth of a much-discussed report issued by the association in 2006 about tenure and promotion practices. That report questioned the idea that producing monographs should be the determining factor in tenure decisions. When the report was released, many MLA leaders said that the ideas the association was endorsing also called for reconsideration of graduate education, and especially of the dissertation.
As part of the process of encouraging change, the MLA recently conducted a survey of its doctoral-granting departments. Among the findings:
- 62 percent of departments reported that their graduate schools have guidelines for dissertations, but most of those guidelines are general, dealing with issues such as timelines, composition of committees and so forth, and not dictating the form of a dissertation.
- 33 percent of departments have written descriptions of what kind of dissertation is expected of graduate students.
- Minorities of departments have specific rules authorizing nontraditional formats for dissertations, and even smaller minorities of departments have approved a dissertation using one of those formats.
- Of those with traditional dissertation length requirements, the range of minimums was 150 to 400 pages. Most maximums were 400 to 500 pages.
| Format | Policy Permitting Its Use | Format Approved in Last 5 Years |
| Digital project | 10.4% | 3.4% |
| Creative nonfiction | 8.8% | 6.8% |
| Suite of essays | 8.8% | 5.7% |
| Fiction or poetry | 7.7% | 6.8% |
| Translation | 7.7% | 3.4% |
| Public scholarship | 4.4% | 3.4% |
| Portfolio | 2.2% | 2.3% |
| Collaborative work | 1.1% | 0.6% |
Further, she noted that while the percentage of departments that have explicitly authorized nontraditional dissertations is small, they provide evidence that such alternatives are possible. Finally, she said that the survey showed that relatively few departments provide explicit information to graduate students on what is and is not possible. That lack of information, she said, "is disturbing."
While much of the talk here was about digital formats of scholarship, some of the possible changes in the dissertation process could also be helpful to graduate students pursuing a traditional, 250-page work of literary analysis.
David Damrosch, chair of comparative literature at Harvard University, described a reform recently instituted there that grad students in the audience seemed to find ideal. The department has started requiring that every single chapter of a dissertation be discussed, as they are produced, in a meeting attended by the author and all three committee members. Further, the department staff -- not the student -- sets up the meeting. (This is in contrast to grad students sending off copies, and receiving suggestions or silence from committee members individually.)
Damrosch said that many graduate students are delayed when some committee members don't read chapters in a timely way, and then go on to offer "totally contradictory advice, months after a draft has come in." Forcing everyone on the committee to meet in person, Damrosch said, shames them into reading the chapter on time, and to working out a common set of recommendations for the grad student.
"People are forced to focus," he said, and doctoral students "get coherent advice." The resulting revisions are much more likely to solve any problems, so that the student can keep moving forward
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