When I imagine average graduate students writing massive, book-length dissertations, I see tired figures, slumped over desks with dark circles under their eyes and piles of books scattered beside them.
With this in mind, it is easy to conceive of the dissertation as an unnecessarily stressful process.
In a recent article in the Chronicle of Higher Education, the dissertation was criticized as a stringent, isolationist practice that takes too long and prepares students poorly for work outside of academia.
However, with a little reworking, UCLA graduate schools can ensure dissertations remain a rigorous and relevant undertaking.
By reevaluating campus-wide dissertation policies, UCLA can realign the traditional dissertation with today’s multimedia age. And by rethinking what constitutes a dissertation – a practice that should ultimately show mastery of specialized material, regardless of the medium – UCLA can allow its graduate program more flexibility and creativity in the long-standing practice.
Currently, UCLA’s campus-wide policies are such that the entire graduate division follows a strict set of guidelines for filing dissertations. These include minutiae that establish uniform page numbers, font sizes, special characters and formatting. Intended to streamline the process, this micromanagement leaves little room for creative interpretation of materials in non-print mediums.
UCLA implemented an electronic dissertation filing method last year, said Claire McCluskey, policy and project coordinator of academic services in the graduate division. Students can now upload dissertations online and include supplemental materials, which allows for greater, if limited, flexibility.
However, graduate students in departments such as the School of Theater, Film and Television, whose projects can easily lend themselves to mediums other than print, are still confined to producing a traditional written dissertation.
Humanities departments less inclined to art- or performance-based alternatives could still modify their dissertation process by looking to their science-based counterparts. Several graduate departments in the sciences allow students to either include previously published articles as part of their dissertations or allow dissertations to be compilations of article-length works.
While students in the sciences are expected to publish shorter articles while getting their degree, humanities students would do well to adopt a new mindset in which they, too, seek alternatives to writing a single manuscript. The traditional dissertation has become so institutionalized in the humanities that alternatives or modifications – even minor ones – are rarely considered.
But, ultimately, the motive behind the dissertation is an important one.
Fourth-year English doctoral student Daniel Couch defended the traditional print dissertation as a valuable practice.
“It is an interesting and good way to construct a long and sustained intellectual argument,” Couch said.
While Couch said that juggling several responsibilities – teaching assistant positions, personal obligations and staying on top of your dissertation – is by no means an easy task, he did not advocate for an overhaul of the present system.
Completing a dissertation proves that you were able to conduct research on an innovative topic, analyze it in a new and interesting way, and ultimately leave your mark on your field of study.
But small steps can be taken. Campus-wide policies should be updated to include more detail. This could start with a department-by-department evaluation of whether non-print dissertations would be a valuable alternative to the traditional practice. While the dissertation should certainly adjust to the multitude of mediums that pervade society, the rigorous process that invokes passion and intellect among those who partake in it should remain the fundamental motivation.
daniel couch is right!!! always.