The most important project of a student’s intellectual career is the PhD dissertation. It is an expanded report and discussion of an original and integrative research program, initiated and carried out by the student in consultation with his or her dissertation committee. In HDSP, the dissertation offers the best opportunity to bring together the different strands of inquiry in human development and social policy within an empirical study or series of studies that addresses an important intellectual issue. The dissertation is the capstone of the graduate-school experience and serves as the student’s entrée into a professional career. Examples of past dissertations are:
- On the Margins of Family and Work: Life course trajectories of low income, single fathers in an African American community
- Generativity and Social Involvement
- Negotiating Change: Dilemmas of Collaboration and Consensus in Human Services
- Redeeming One’s Self: How Reformed Ex-offenders Make Sense of Their Lives
- Listening to Children: Three Studies Toward Developing, Evaluating and Replicating A New Approach to Parent Education, Support and Empowerment
Dissertation Timeline
- By the third year: Choose a dissertation committee.
- Three weeks before proposing the dissertation: Complete "Recommendation for PhD Qualifying Examination Committee."
- After successful proposal defense: Complete "Application for Candidacy" and register for 599 Postcandidacy Research for at least three quarters.
- Three weeks before defending the dissertation: Complete "Recommendation for PhD Final Examination Committee, and send final dissertation draft to committee members.
- After successful dissertation defense, complete:
- Committee report on Examination of Candidate for Degree
- Certificate of Careful Editing
- Application for a degree