The Magic of a Local Academic Community for Online Adult Learners in Completing the Doctoral Journey

The dissertation journey from student to scholar is filled with hurdles that can be difficult to navigate alone, especially as online students. Many adult students who have stepped foot onto the path to earning a doctoral degree did so in a non-traditional environment that included a mix of work and family obligations, and the need to prove that they have earned the right to be called “doctor.” In 2017, the Jersey City Campus of University of Phoenix launched the Research Club, a monthly gathering of doctoral students, faculty, and alumni in the New York-New Jersey area. The initiative was designed to bring together a team to help doctoral students succeed through an in-person informal structure of conversation and peer-to-peer support to supplement the work of the dissertation committee. This chapter chronicles the first three years and affirms the need for innovative in-person strategies for providing doctoral support through informal communities of practice.

Avances de los investigadores españoles de Dirección de Operaciones en el año 2019: el caso de los miembros de ACEDEDOT

Are you a member of an organization that needs to contact a researcher who works on a topic you are interested in? Are you a PhD supervisor trying to identify experts of an specific topic for the Dissertation Committee? Are you thinking about a research / publication project and want to find some new partners to collaborate with? If you answered yes to any of these questions (or similar questions), this work may be of interest to you. The objective of this article is to summarize the research published in 2019 by Spanish researchers in the area of operations management, who are ACEDEDOT members. This will allow us to identify themes that are considered relevant in the context of a country and a specific organizational or social framework. At the same time, it will make it possible to identify groups of experts by subject area, which may lead to future research, teaching or participation in doctoral thesis committees. In the same way, it can be used so that managers and practitioners can detect lines of work related to their needs. This could help to reduce the gap between business and university, promoting mutual collaboration. Finally, if this work is replicated in the coming years, we will have a quick approximation of how the priority interests evolve for a group of national researchers.

Being a Doctoral Student: The Dissertation Stage

This chapter addresses being a doctoral student in the dissertation stage of the doctoral program. The advice begins by pointing out that in most programs you will not have an approved topic and research questions until the dissertation stage. It is in the proposal/prospectus stage that you first fully commit to specific research questions. Advice is given on working with the dissertation committee and especially the committee chair. The chapter finishes with general advice about the proposal, the research, the writing, and the final defense.

In Memoriam: Edward Branigan

Teacher. Mentor. Dissertation committee member. Advocate. Colleague. Friend. These are the many roles that Ed Branigan filled in my life over the eleven-plus years I was privileged to know him. However, merely listing these roles does not really do justice to his impact on me, because it leaves out the kindness, generosity, wit, and enthusiasm that he always had in store for me in all of our interactions, be they post-lecture dinners together in Santa Barbara, movie marathons at his house in Oak Park, California, or, as was more and more common over the last few years, e-mail messages.

Cavell as Mentor

I was a Grad student in English at Harvard in the mid-90s, but physically there for just three years, anxious to move to Brooklyn for a relationship as soon as I became ABD. In that brief but intense period of time, I tried to take as many courses offered by Stanley Cavell as possible. In my last year, I asked him to be a member of my dissertation committee. Looking back I’m still flooded with gratitude (and astonishment) by the fact that he said yes.

Tradition and Innovation Dialectics in Russian Dissertation Culture

Today in Russia the system of the state scientific certification undergoes significant changes: the powers of federal executive authorities are delegated to the educational and scientific organizations. As a result, independence in the choice of mechanisms, orders and procedures of formation of dissertation committees and criteria of awarding academic degrees is allowed. At the same time reinterpretation of axiological bases of dissertation culture through overcoming the problems connected with authenticity and quality of dissertation researches, by increase in reputation responsibility of the organizations and scientists takes place. On May 31, 2019 it will be a year to the moment of transition of the MGIMO University to a new model of the state scientific certification. According to the model developed by the MGIMO University, awarding an academic degree comes by the results of the defense of a thesis at a meeting of the dissertation committee of 5 doctors of science, three of which are employees of the MGIMO University, and two are invited scientists from other organizations. Two of five are experts with publications in the scope of the research combining the role of a member of the dissertation committee and an official opponent. The result of the defense is politically variable: alongside with the possibility of taking the negative decision awarding an academic degree without completions of the text and also under the condition of insignificant and considerable completions of the text of a research is allowed. The lack of such opportunities in the practice of awarding academic degrees existing in the domestic dissertation culture excluding modification of the manuscript submitted to defence after holding a meeting of dissertation committees, as well as other defects of the historically developed model of awarding academic degrees, defined the fastest transition of the MGIMO University to a new model of certification. «MGIMO Review of International Relations» discussed the main milestones of formation and key problems of development of the domestic dissertation culture with P. Kasatkin and E. Antyukhova.

Library and information sciences in 2017–2018: The focuses and findings of theses research

The author reviews and analyzes theses in the disciplines 05.25.03 – Library science, bibliography and bibliology, and 05.25.05 – Information systems and processes, defended at Moscow State Institute of Culture, Dissertation Committee D 210.010.01 in support of candidature and doctorate for a degree in pedagogy and engineering. The dissertations by A. V. Trusov, E. V. Russkikh, O. O. Kondratenko, K. E. Sokolinsky, D. A. Bashirov, I. A. Vaganova and M. A. Kharintseva are discussed. The bibliographic data, information on supervisors, official opponents and organization, research findings, and issues discussed at a viva voce, are cited for each of the theses.The process of the dissertation discussion by scientific community and the members of the dissertation committee is reviewed. The Dissertation Committee offered several practical applications for the solutions as suggested by the candidates. The prospects for further studies are revealed, prospective scientific problems are set up.The publication activities of the applicants are analyzed; the open sites (conferences, professional forums) where theses findings are tested are defined. The journals interested in the publications of new masters and doctors are named.