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Description The
Workshop intends to give students a forum in which they can present
drafts of their dissertation proposal for critique. By receiving
feedback from their peers and a faculty member not necessarily from
their field of study, the student can refine their dissertation project
while implementing organizational, methodological, and theoretical
feedback. This course prepares the student to apply to grant
competitions.
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Details The
Workshop, normally taken a semester before or during the prelim
process, is required and presided over by a faculty member. Meeting
once a week for two hours, two students present each session and get
concrete feedback on their proposals. Often students have the
opportunity to give their papers more than once, implementing critiques
and further fine-tuning their argumentation and organization. The
course is graded S (satisfactory) or U (unsatisfactory) and may be
counted towards the required units of coursework for the degree.
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Educational Purpose This
course allows graduate students to get feedback from faculty and peers
in a more casual, judgment-free environment. By discussing their work
with colleagues from outside their field, students learn the format,
structure, and elements of a proper dissertation proposal as well as
understand how to pitch their proposals to a wider audience.
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Data or Evidence Anecdotal
evidence from students and faculty indicate that proposals show
significant improvement after the Workshop. Proposals are better
written, structured, more methodologically and theoretically sound, and
adapted to an audience wider than the student's immediate field of
study.
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Faculty Reflection "Leading
the proposal writing workshop is a great experience for a faculty
member. First, you get a chance to have a series of conversations with
students about research questions and the presentation of research
proposals. The sessions are collegial rather than didactic. The
workshop format communicates that the professor doesn't have to hold
all the answers or have a monopoly on historical wisdom. Second, you
get to witness the process of assertion, questioning and revision which
is foundational to any significant research effort. The workshop
encourages collaborative thinking and offers proof that 'great topics'
don't fall out of the air; they emerge from study, reflection,
conversation and endless revision. For this process to unfold
successfully, everyone has to be at a level of both knowledge and
confidence where they can contribute and everyone has to share the
assumption that historians are better off when they are thinking out
loud. If the workshop goes well--which it has this term--everyone joins
in the process and everyone benefits, even the leader." --Fred Hoxie, Swunland Professor of History
Fred Hoxie Homepage
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Student Reflection "The
workshop has been a constructive aspect of my experience in the history
department at UIUC. I have had the opportunity to get feedback on my
dissertation proposal from students who I normally don't interact with
in classes. They have been helpful in making my proposal more
accessible to people outside my field--eliminating unnecessary jargon,
making obscure historical points more understandable, streamlining and
clarifying my argument, and improving the overall structure. The
faculty have helped me be more aware on what funding committees look
for in a proposal, as well as how to make my project more appealing to
a cross-disciplinary audience. The workshop has also been interesting
in that I can see what my colleagues (many whom I came into the program
with) have settled on for a dissertation project and how our work
intersects. The environment of the Workshop, casual and collegial, has
also been really positive. It has provided a 'safe-zone' in which grad
students can present their work to a group of people who have their
best interests at heart." --Lauren Heckler, Fourth Year
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