Doctoral Students Memo

Current research in library and information science.

The definitive career guide for grad students, adjuncts, post-docs and anyone else eager to get tenure or turn their Ph.D. into their ideal job Each year tens of thousands of students will, after years of hard work and enormous amounts of money, earn their Ph.D. And each year only a small percentage of them will land a job that justifies and rewards their investment. For every comfortably tenured professor or well-paid former academic, there are countless underpaid and overworked adjuncts, and many more who simply give up in frustration. Those who do make it share an important asset that separates them from the pack: they have a plan. They understand exactly what they need to do to set themselves up for success. They know what really moves the needle in academic job searches, how to avoid the all-too-common mistakes that sink so many of their peers, and how to decide when to point their Ph.D. toward other, non-academic options. Karen Kelsky has made it her mission to help readers join the select few who get the most out of their Ph.D. As a former tenured professor and department head who oversaw numerous academic job searches, she knows from experience exactly what gets an academic applicant a job. And as the creator of the popular and widely respected advice site The Professor is In, she has helped countless Ph.D.’s turn themselves into stronger applicants and land their dream careers. Now, for the first time ever, Karen has poured all her best advice into a single handy guide that addresses the most important issues facing any Ph.D., including: -When, where, and what to publish -Writing a foolproof grant application -Cultivating references and crafting the perfect CV -Acing the job talk and campus interview -Avoiding the adjunct trap -Making the leap to nonacademic work, when the time is right The Professor Is In addresses all of these issues, and many more.

This book focuses on first-generation graduate students in the US and the graduate or post-baccalaureate programs that house and educate these students. The several voices in this book, including first-generation graduate students, address the phenomena of graduate students’ experiences and related university practices, with the practices connected to traditional academic and Western values and to academic and neoliberal institutional logics. First-generation graduate students’ narratives, or testimonies, serve as the foundation of the analysis of students’ pathways to graduate school and their experiences within graduate school. The conditions for first-generation graduate students in their programs require remedies that will facilitate student well-being, peer community attachment, and persistence, and will educate and train students for achievement in graduate school and for employment after graduate school.

The path of a doctoral student can feel challenging and isolating. This guide provides doctoral students with key ideas and support to kick-start a doctoral journey, inspire progress and complete their thesis or dissertation. Featuring observations from experienced supervisors, as well as the reflections of current and recent postgraduate researchers, this intimate and entertaining book offers vital insights into the critical moments in any doctoral experience.

Different from traditional dissertation writing books, Challenges in Writing Your Dissertation: Coping With the Emotional, Interpersonal, and Spiritual Struggles addresses doctoral students’ often overlooked but crucial issues that can delay dissertation completion. In a straightforward, colloquial style, Dr. Sterne offers discussions, anecdotes, questions, exercises, checklists, role play scripts, and affirmative spiritual statements. In Part One, Sneaking Up on the Dissertation, Dr. Sterne directs readers to explore their academic dreams. In Part Two, Really Doing It, Dr. Sterne assists students to set priorities, begin actually writing, and access many avenues of support. In Part Three, Your Near, Dear, and Despairing Significant Others, Dr. Sterne shows readers how to handle nonsupportive family and friends with strategies to recover their allegiance. In Part Four, Good University Cops and Bad, Dr. Sterne advises students how to choose and live with chairs and committees and utilize other university associates. In Part Five, Graduation: It’s Only a Walk Away, Dr. Sterne counsels almost-doctors to take all necessary steps to graduation and helps them re-enter life ABD—After and Beyond the Dissertation.

“This very readable book is what every graduate student needs as they start their program. I wish my own MA and PhD students, during my 40 years of supervising, could have been demystified by having Casanave's ‘textual mentor' as a companion." --Merrill Swain, Professor Emerita, OISE, University of Toronto “Before the Dissertation is an insightful, relevant, and accessible resource for doctoral students at any stage. Full of reflections and advice not found in other books, it serves as an indispensable guide for students and their supervisors. And the dispelling of myths is a superb idea!” --Robert Kohls, PhD candidate, University of Toronto Unlike other books on doctoral dissertation writing, Before the Dissertation is designed for students in the social sciences who are still in the early stages of doctoral study or for master's-level students considering entering doctoral programs. It addresses concerns pertinent to both first and second language users of English. It focuses on purposes for doctoral dissertation writing, topic choice and development, choosing and working with advisers, reading and informal writing, and quality-of-life issues. Faculty advisers who wish to reduce student attrition are also urged to read this book and to work with students at early stages of dissertation projects. Each of the nine chapters begins with a common myth about advanced academic work that is then dispelled. The chapters also pose questions that connect issues directly with individual readers so as to help them make sensible decisions about their doctoral work. The book could be used in graduate classes on issues in doctoral study or dissertation planning, and it can be a companion (textual mentor) to individual students who wish to reflect on their decision to pursue doctoral study/doctoral project. This book may also help instructors and advisers understand the kinds of obstacles faced by students that tend to impede or halt progress.

Doctoral Student Perspectives on Motivation and Persistence is written by the graduate students in the Education Doctorate program at Winona State University. The student cohort began its work in the summer of 2019.