All But Defense?

If you’ve followed this blog for some time or are otherwise in-the-know, then you are aware that the ‘ABD’ in the title stands for “All But Dissertation.” This glorious designation is conferred on doctoral students who have completed their preliminary requirements and “only” have to finish the dissertation in order to earn that much better-recognized triplet of letters—PhD.

Welp, a few weeks ago I finished a draft of the dissertation and sent it to my committee, but there’s still no new magical set of letters to bask in. Here’s a road-map of what’s to come. First, I have to “defend” my dissertation next week. Of course, the hard work (actually writing the dissertation) is already done, but I still need to meet with my committee (by Zoom) to convince them that it’s up to snuff, get their suggestions for edits to make for the final version, and talk about the future of the project as a book manuscript.

After the defense, I’ll have a few weeks before I need to file the dissertation with our university’s Dissertation Office. (This week they reviewed my draft to check for formatting issues.) What I file should be the final, final version. Since I won’t have much time between the defense and our department’s filing deadline (and world affairs are not exactly conducive to any kind of productivity at the moment), I’ve already started working on some of the edits I’d like to include in the final version. These are, in the grand scheme of things relatively small changes, mainly focused on sharpening language, addressing a few out-standing comments from my adviser, making sure I’m citing  as much relevant scholarship as possible, etc. I won’t tear apart large sections of the dissertation without the committee telling me I should at the defense. Ideally, I’d have a bit longer between the defense and the filing deadline, but I feel pretty good about where I am, especially given the circumstances. Also, different parts of the dissertation have already gone through various rounds of revisions over the last several years. I’ll also have a lot more time to make substantive changes (and a need to do so) as I work towards turning the dissertation into a book in the coming years.

All along, this blog has been about how being an advanced graduate student is a lot more complicated than the moniker “all but dissertation” suggests. It turns out that’s true up to the very end. Fittingly, then, the blog won’t quite be finished once the dissertation is turned in. Over the next couple months I’ll tie things together with a few broader reflective posts and write a bit about what the future looks like for me as a soon-to-be-PhD ABD.

Meanwhile, I wish the very best for all of you, whether you are doing your part as an essential worker or sheltering in place.

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