Academic Dissertations in the News

Holly Michelle Wood, 27, a graduate student studying sociology at Harvard’s school of Arts and Sciences, is writing her dissertation on “the modern trials of being single” in the city with an aim at cracking into what people emotionally experience in the dating scene when trying to find the perfect match.

Read more at bostonmagazine.com

Tiina Näsi, a researcher of biomedical engineering at Aalto University, studied in her doctoral thesis the use of light in measuring the brain's blood circulation. This optical measurement may in the future help discover the cause of sleep disorders as well as their close connection with cardiovascular diseases. The method is currently being tested in a hospital.

Read more at: http://medicalxpress.com

For graduate students, after years of work and research toward their dissertation, scheduling their dissertation defense just got a little easier by ideoconferencing, teleconferencing and using other technologies to get the necessary people in the room.

Read more at http://www.dailytexanonline.com/news/2013/04/15/graduate-school-allows-video-conferencing-for-dissertation-defenses

Baker Institute drug policy fellow Nathan Jones has won the Western Political Science Association (WPSA) Best Dissertation Award for 2012. His paper reconstructs the business models of two factions of the Arellano Felix drug cartel (also known as the Tijuana cartel). His conclusion: Cartels that focus on moving drugs survive longer than those that largely engage in kidnapping and extortion. What’s more, he asserts, “states and territorial profit-seeking illicit networks are enemies, because they are so much alike. They are both territorial, hierarchical, resilient and prone to violence.”

Read more at http://blog.chron.com/bakerblog/2013/04/postdoctoral-fellow-nathan-jones-wins-best-dissertation-award/

(The Guardian by Stella Klein) Don't underestimate the time required to review and revise your dissertation. In this third and final part of our series, we look at how to do a good job of editing.

Read more at http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2013/apr/01/how-to-review-and-revise-your-dissertation

(Stanford University) Nick Sousanis, an interdisciplinary doctoral candidate at Teachers College, Columbia University will discuss his dissertation – the first undertaken entirely in comic book format – which argues through its very form for the importance of visual thinking in teaching and learning. This visual-verbal work expands the possibilities for engaging comics within academia while ultimately challenging and reimagining what scholarship can be.

Read more at http://www.ktvu.com/events/detail/3408726/

(The New Yorker by Masha Lipman) Using specially designed software, the dissertation muckrakers spotted a source for Igoshin's academic work. It was a dissertation defended two years earlier by a certain Natalia Orlova (who is not a lawmaker). Hers is titled “The competitive strength ...

Read more at http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/newsdesk/2013/03/russias-dissertation-fraud-muckrakers.html

(The Guardian by Stella Klein) How to communicate your ideas effectively: Stick to your outline – and pay attention to details.

Once you have your outline sorted and you've got a pile of research notes together, it's time to knuckle down and start writing. You need not necessarily start at the beginning – in fact, introductions are often easier to write at the end when you know how your argument has developed.

Get going on the bits you know you'll find easy, then use your outline to put them together in the right order. You'll find areas that need further research, so be prepared to revisit the library as you're going along.

Read more at http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2013/mar/25/how-to-write-your-dissertation

(The Guardian by Stella Klein) Having a clear goal and a structure for your work means you won't be fazed when your research doesn't go quite the way you thought it would. Starting out with a robust plan will focus your research, use your time efficiently and keep the task manageable. . . .

First things first: what topics have you most enjoyed on your course? Investigating a subject you genuinely enjoy will make dissertation research less overwhelming.

Do as much preliminary reading around the subject area as you can to make sure there is plenty of literature out there to support your initial ideas.

Take a good look at the most recent writings in your areas of interest. They will help you to identify the best angle to take and could highlight the gaps in current inquiry that you can address.

Read more at http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2013/mar/21/how-to-plan-your-dissertation

(The Chronicle of Higher Education by Julie Miller Vick and Jennifer S. Furlong) The transition from coursework to dissertation writing is tricky regardless of when it happens in a doctoral program. The familiar rhythm of reading lists, paper submissions, and semester-long deadlines gives way to a more ambiguous challenge—developing an original research project that meets the standards for scholarship in an academic discipline.

Read more at http://chronicle.com/article/A-Common-Time-to-Get-Stuck/137851/