Hello students and graduates!
Welcome to PhD Lounge, the podcast of late-night interviews where PhD students have a drink and talk about their research topics.
I am your host Luis, and I hope that you have spent with your family and friends an excellent Christmas, New Year’s eve and the 1st of January under a period that is still not favorable for huge grouping celebrations across the world. At Swansea where I live, I celebrated Christmas with a bicycle ride to a location called Caswell and spent the new year’s eve at one of my friend’s house with his family. I can say that I had a good time despite the fact that I would love to have both festivities alongside my parents and my brother since they are far away from me, but well, that is the life of a student that I am used to.
Anyway, happy new year 2022, hoping that you manage to pass all your exams of the 1st term in January, which I know and understand that they are hard to study and pass all modules through final exams in just one month! If you have not passed one or two exams, do not worry, there is another opportunity to retake them wherever the country you are studying your BA and/or MA, and where you also have time to check on some mistakes you may have done during these exams so that you can improve them and later pass those modules you have failed. I can say to you as well that I also failed to pass some 1st term modules when I was a BA student, but sorted to approve afterwards whilst passing the modules of the 2nd semester by knowing those I had thought they were easy to pass, leaving others for the next academic year that required a bit more studying, which I did when I was living and studying in Spain during my Erasmus abroad period. I wish now all the best and success to all students for this 2nd term.
I welcome you too to the first 2022 session of the PhD Lounge Podcast, and I shall start with a solo one, and if you have tuned in to the reflections session this past December, I said that I would like to record an episode about the history of the doctoral dissertation. And it is exactly the topic I want to talk about. As we are familiar or better, starting to familiarize ourselves with a written Ph.D. thesis that is known as a hefty research with thousands of words to be orally presented before a panel of specialists, I think it could be important as well to know first about how this concept of dissertation originated throughout history, just as like the foundation and official consolidation of the Ph.D. in the XIX century. This goes through its foundation, emergence, the bureaucratic aspects that delayed its official announcement as important feature of the PhD, what were the first obligations of a PGR student to write a doctoral thesis back then to obtain the Doctor of Philosophy degree, before each university having their own system nowadays, the first dissertations in Europe and the rest of the world, examples of famous PhD dissertations, and some final thoughts of the feeling of a PhD student writing a thesis. Before I start the session, let me tell you that this topic was not easy to find sources as I only found a few literary references that explain small details about the emergence of the doctoral thesis, but nonetheless I will give my best to share what I researched throughout the session. I appreciate your understanding.
So therefore, let’s travel once again in history to dissect this time the emergence of the PhD dissertation.
To kick off this session, I should ask the basic question that many students obviously know: What is a Ph.D. dissertation? Straightforward, it is a document with limited word count where you develop a research theory using case studies or scientific experimentations to create and defend your arguments for a comprehensive audience, those being the specialists within your topic. For example, my research is around hybrid and third space Hellenistic and Roman urbanism and identity where I have to defend at the viva voce my theory about hybridity and third space concepts as key components of unifying Near Eastern peoples with Greeks, Parthians and Romans towards a panel of experts in Hellenistic and Roman studies in the Near East.
However, what does a dissertation really consist of? Fundamentally, dissertation is just the written document where you reproduce your thesis so that it can be read by the experts of your field. The word thesis is the formation of an oral thought or argument developed through new and fresh ideas over a topic that either has been developed but with new approaches, or something that has not been widely researched, that can contribute to the extending scientific knowledge. In Ancient Greece, Plato and Aristotle are said to be the developers of this conception and when writing was possible within academic contexts, then the thesis, i.e. the research idea, would be possible to be shown, defended and then judged whether or not it would contribute to the existing knowledge. Nowadays, thesis and dissertation are often interchangeable which both turn to have the same meaning, but in practice they are rather different. In the end though, we tend to call dissertation and thesis into a piece of written paper after all.
Traveling back in time, developing an academic idea or the thesis was around the concept and foundation of university during the MIddle Ages when the magister of arts was the top degree, later being widely developed during the Renaissance, specifically during the Protestant Reformation alongside with the suggestion of a reform of the educational system regarding degrees in Europe by Germanic scholars, and then throughout the 16th and 17th centuries. The concept of thesis at that time was through a dissertatio which means a discussion or presentation of ideas, followed by a disputatio or disputation; a ceremonial scholarly debate between arguments to reach conclusions and understandings between the involved parties. This system of theses were made orally and it was a common practice during these times because on one hand the obtention of a degree was a disputation itself where students were disputing against each other as respondents or candidates at a lower podium, and those who were successful during the debate, then they would elevate to the upper podium, becoming masters or doctors. On the other hand, students who wanted to become teachers at university, their disputation of their theses or academic ideas could take days or months to obtain a place within academia, even if they were awarded with the title doctor or master at the upper podium.
During the 16th century, the theses were an academic accessory for graduation and disputation ceremonies, just like what we see today when BA’s, MA’s and PhD’s are celebrating graduation ceremonies with huge events given by their respective universities. And those ceremonies were presided over by a panel of professors who organized and promoted the disputatio where the panel was at the upper podium while the students or candidates were on a lower podium to discuss their theses with them, and around the graduation room were academic officers, academic members from an academic society, and nobility individuals watching and listening the discussion. If you have attended a thesis oral presentation, you might have seen the experts panel holding the dissertation of the student while the latter was presenting his arguments subsequently followed by a debate between both parties, where the student had to defend his claims so that the experts could approve his graduation.
At the end of this century and throughout the 17th and 18th centuries, the theses had a wind of change as they started to be reproduced on papers, and from here comes the famous word “dissertation”. We do not know where and how the idea came from, but from that century onwards the theses printed on documents became a customary practice that spread across other universities in Europe first and in the rest of the world second. However, printed dissertations of disputations would have been passed first by the professors/presiders as it is said that they would write the theses of the candidates or respondents and then circulated in advance before the day of the disputation ceremony. In other words, the student/candidate that was part of the graduate ceremony, would formulate his idea while the professor/presider wrote it before the respondent having his debate at the graduation ceremony.
The upper and lower podiums system set at the disputatio ceremony would as well be reflected on the printed version of the theses. That is, the title was at the top and very obvious, and then below was the name of the professor in bold letters, in which that professor would be the presider and promoter of the disputation, followed by the announcement that the written thesis was due to oral presentation, the name of the candidate, the university where the disputatio was about to be held, and finally the date. Arguably, the dissertation at that time had also a biased academic hierarchy just as when presenting it orally, as the order that the written thesis was set, gives the meaning that the professor had the academic authority over the student for being at the upper podium and the respondent at the lower podium who would climb the academic ladder to obtain his place at the former after the disputatio and subsequent graduation approval. Furthermore, it was also evident that the name of the professor/presider written in bold with huge caps being above the candidate’s name gives the sense that the author was rather the presider with full authorship of the theses and the student being only the speaker since the professor would promote the dissertation for oral presentation and he also was the one who wrote the respondent’s idea. This became a standard practice during the 18th century as according to Prussian scholar Johannes Michaelis, there were probably factories of dissertations who published the candidates’ theses prescribed by the professors/presiders’ names as their authors over the names of the respondents/candidates, because in the view of a presider, the theses were regarded as “specimen of erudition'' printed by the dissertation industry to be purchased by academic officials, members or even nobles without an academic title, and therefore those “specimens'' were not considered yet works of doctors of philosophy. However, there were students who were admitted as authors of their academic ideas by some universities without having the burden of a professor presiding and promoting over them as a sort of establishing an academic fairness regarding authorship, if the disputatio for graduation was required of course. Universities who had this system were German and we have examples of universities such as Jena, Gõttingen and Bützow promoting students’ authorship of writing their dissertations if there were graduation disputations, while the universities of Leipzig, Halle and Tübingen only let the student writing their ideas on paper.
Moving to the 19th century, where the University of Berlin was founded in 1810 by Humboldt and the degree Doctor of Philosophy became officially the top one, the concept of the doctoral dissertation was shaping differently, with less bureaucracy and a better structure within the university’s statutes. German scholar Johann Fichte who was the dean of this university between 1811 and 1812 alongside with his chair colleagues reformed the PhD dissertation claiming that the doctor of philosophy degree attribution via dissertation was a writing specimen from whose students had full academic authorship or authorial academic persona and the original writer of their thesis. Fichte believed that students were capable of producing an outstanding written thesis to be orally presented at a lower podium, examined and published to the satisfaction of their teachers without having an empowered professor/presider/promoter to write for him, and without being considered as a specimen of erudition or industry over the last three centuries. Furthermore, Fichte based the doctoral dissertation on two qualities the student had to show to be awarded: Eigentümlichkeit, meaning peculiarity; and Erfindungsvermögen, meaning creativity. In short, the PhD dissertation along with these new conditions should therefore be a written work of research to serve and educate Prussia which was facing an educational crisis due to a lack of new academic knowledge and qualifications amongst the Prussian population
Despite those enlightening reforms and innovations by Fichte and his colleagues that spread across other German universities, a complex issue still arose between their academic ideals and the German states. On one hand, the academic ideas suggested to be exercised were rather romantic and enlightening ideologies since the ages of Romanticism and Enlightenment (the radical one) were based on the authors’ emotions, individual liberty, geniality, and a return to the past. The German police state regarded that these ideas were not concrete and did not have a practical manner since they were against modernity and rationalization. On the other hand, the Imperial Ordinance decree of 1731 was still in exercise within Prussia where all academic Guilds in each German state were forbidden by the ministerial police powers to write and publish specimens of erudition. This created an academic conflict between German Romantic and enlightenment academics and the German modern thinking of pragmatism and rationalization in which many thesis in arts and science written with an erudite vocabulary and a creative genius became useless and discarded by the German modern spirit of the doctoral thesis as work of research based on the imperial ordinance ideas. This problem lasted until the late 1820s, where the useless specimens of erudition dissertations written by academics with odd backgrounds and writing styles were being replaced by credited works of research made by academia students. Giving the doctor of philosophy degree via dissertation became systematic, some German universities required the PhD award through written thesis while others awarded under other conditions such as sympathy for a student in exchange of tuition funds or through attending lectures.
At the Universities of Berlin and Bonn for example, dissertations were mandatory and should have a brief biography of the candidate, written in Latin and printed by doctoral students at their expense unless they were funded with scholarships. Berlin in particular, doctoral dissertations would have three individuals on the title page for the disputation spoken in Latin; the doctoral candidate or candidates and a Dr. Phil specialist. We can see from here that the modern spirit of rationalized work of research was having its seriousness in the 19th century, as German universities and specifically Berlin, had many dissertations placed for public theses defense in a day where most of them were in arts and science, mainly philosophy, history, maths, physics, and classics. Linguistics or natural sciences also existed but were very rare in the 1830s.
The choice of a topic for the dissertation became also a conflict of interest between candidate and the professor because for the former, his choice of the topic and subsequent views of their advisors or supervisors matter the most while for the professor, who ran seminars, was the interest of peer-review within his specialization. At the University of Berlin, for instance, German philologist August Böckh had a bias for cultural history and since he coordinated seminars, he rather gave preference to Greek and Roman Ph.D. topics as for him they were the bricks in the foundation of knowledge of antiquity, which were yet being discussed by the candidates’ advisors before being written. This was a common thing back then as professors used to persuade students to choose a topic that would encounter their research interests, making the popularity of German universities grow. This was called prosopography which means many doctoral dissertations were written with topics based on ancient academics from the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries who made peer-reviews of those topics that were written before. Ironically, it was a silent return to the romantic and enlightenment ideas of creativity and originality in the individual’s academic freedom.
Regardless of this, the German view of the dissertation as work of research based on technical and rational models kept emerging, becoming the compulsory professional model for every university of the world. Doctoral candidates writing their theses via dissertation by themselves and disputing them at the standard oral presentation. All these complex and bureaucratic systems around PhD dissertations lasting between the 16th century until the early 19th century would finally be taken out of the equation, giving space for the authorial academic persona to prosper and solidify the academic system and contribution of knowledge for good and to be carried out today.
But what about the models of the first PhD dissertations? Were they similar as they are today? The first PhD dissertation model was typically structured in four patterns of organization which still continue to be the traditional style: Introduction, Methods, Results, Discussion. These four sections reported more than a single-study in which the introduction was a stand-alone chapter, then the body contained various chapters based on sub-topics of the topic under investigation focusing on research articles conducted years prior and dissertations that were submitted only for examination at the researcher’s own university. Along the years, other forms of PhD dissertations appeared such as dissertation by publication, meaning sharing conventional versions of the thesis project with features based on the topic under investigation in research articles whilst writing the traditional thesis dissertation. As for pages, it varied just like today, as there could be 20 pages, 50 pages or over a 100 pages, depending on the range of the chosen topic. Just an example, a PhD thesis written by Dr. William Arthur Parks at the University of Toronto in Canada had 35 pages in six sections explaining a theory about the Huronian of the basin of the Moose.
Same as the PhD concept, the German style of the doctoral dissertation as work of research was spread across Europe and in the United States. In England and Scotland, the first PhD written dissertations appeared in the 1900’s. At Cambridge university, Dr. Charles G. L. Wolf wrote the first PhD dissertation in animal nutrition in 1909, then the University of Oxford in 1914 whose first dissertation was written by Dr. Lakshman Sarup in Sanskrit Philology, University of Edinburgh where Dr. Douglas Alexander wrote the first dissertation in Geology at this institution in 1923, and in Glasgow, 1921, Dr. Lucy Agnes Carter wrote the first dissertation in Protozoology, becoming the first woman in this university to write the first written thesis and the PhD award.
In the United States, the first PhD written dissertation began at Yale University in 1861 where three PhD students received their doctor of Philosophy title. Only one dissertation is known and it was written in Latin with the title: Brevis Vita, Ars Longa (Life is short, Art is Long), written by Dr. Arthur Williams Wright. Yale’s archives also show that between the first PhD dissertation and 1927, over a 1000 dissertations were written there where Classical Languages and Literatures was the most researched topic. After Yale came Harvard University where the first PhD dissertation was written in 1873 by Dr. William E. Byerly in Mathematics. Then was Columbia University in 1875 where Dr. Elwyn Waller wrote about Disinfections and Disinfectants, John Hopkins University in 1878, whose first dissertation was on the history of taxation in the United States, 1789-1816, by Dr. Henry Carter Adams, Princeton University with the first PhD dissertation in 1879 written by two doctorates: Drs. William Liddley Jr. and W. M. MacDonald about the contributions for the Museum of Geology and Archeology of Princeton College, Rutgers University in 1884, Dartmouth College in 1885, Pennsylvania and Brown Universities in 1889, Chicago University in 1890, and many other American Universities between 1870s and 1900s.
And in the 21st century, how is the PhD dissertation treated? According to Times Higher Education editor Paul Jump, PhD dissertations on the eyes of academics have become a demoralizing conveyor belt with students convincing themselves that writing a conventional thesis with different research methodologies and conclusions will be sufficient for an award at the viva voce. However, many of the teachers who supervise their doctoral students rather want PhD dissertations through publications which tends to be easier for them to evaluate original works of research and their contribution to knowledge. This system though does not favour PhD students in general as many candidates specializing in different fields do not have to follow this new system of PhD per research publications whilst writing the traditional written thesis, as the latter itself is already a contribution to knowledge. According to a pie chart from the UK Council for Graduate Education, 45% of PhD projects rarely incorporate published papers, 38% allude to students that never do this, 12% of candidates often do and 5% of them consider it a normal procedure. Either this new “hybrid” system or the traditional one, a PhD dissertation based on the German style work of research will remain the gemstone of any university in the world.
Before wrapping up this session, here are some examples of famous PhD dissertations that contributed for worldwide knowledge: Marie Curie in 1903 whose dissertation was about research on radioactive substances, which led to her Nobel Prize awards in Physics and in Chemistry later in 1911, Albert Einstein’s thesis A New Determination on Molecular Dimensions in 1906, Kim Eric Drexler and his project Molecular Machinery and Manufacturing with Applications to Computation in 1991 which led him to invent the field of molecular nanotechnology, Lev Vygotsky and his The Psychology of Art dissertation which was written in 1925 but published later in 1960, Queen’s guitarist Brian May and his thesis about a survey of radial velocities in the zodiacal dust cloud started in 1970, but completed 38 years later because of obvious reasons, Kate Millet and her PhD thesis entitled Sexual Politics which became published as a book in 1970 and the impulsionator of radical feminism, and many others.
And with this I finish this session. Once again I say to you that finding key moments in different sources about the history of the PhD dissertation was not easy to find as some of the information I used comes from blogs, websites, two books that I managed to find online, and one article. But in the end writing this script was challenging and also I learned something that the current system of the PhD dissertation has only been over 200 years!, therefore being “young”, but will continue for more years or even centuries! In my opinion, I think any student should be encouraged to go for a PhD and write a dissertation that, in fact, takes years of dedication and time to write a project, but remarkable and helpful at same time if you want to go further in your future careers and becoming doctors, whichever the field you are studying or has been graduated.
If you enjoyed hearing this session and want me to continue to explore more content about PhD studies alongside future late-night interviews, consider leaving your feedback by writing an email at: luisphdlounge@gmail.com, or on my Discord server: phdloungepodcast where you can find the channel #podcast feedback. You can check my website too: phdlounge-podcast.com where other sessions and late-night interviews at different podcast platforms, Spotify, Anchor FM, Soundcloud, and others are there, as well as my socials: FB: @phdpodlounge, Instagram: @phdlmf, and Twitter: @phdloungecast
Thank you all for tuning in, it has been a pleasure!
References:
Clark, W. (2006). Academic Charisma and the Origins of the Research University (Reprint ed.) [E-book]. University of Chicago Press.
Jump, P. (2016, November 29). PhD: is the doctoral thesis obsolete? Times Higher Education (THE). https://www.timeshighereducation.com/features/phd-is-the-doctoral-thesis-obsolete/2020255.article
MALONE, T. L. (1981). A History Of The Doctor Of Philosophy Dissertation In The United States 1861-1930 . Retrieved from https://www.proquest.com/dissertations-theses/history-doctor-philosophy-dissertation-united/docview/303183103/se-2?accountid=14680
Michaelis, Johann David (1768): Raisonnement über die protestantischen Universitäten in Deutschland. Retrieved form https://www.digitale-sammlungen.de/en/view/bsb10734507?page=,1
OEDITOR. (2020, October 7). 60 Famous Ph.D. Theses In History. Online PhD Degrees. https://www.online-phd-degrees.com/famous-ph-d-theses-history/
Origin of the thesis-degree procedure. (2014, May 9). Academia Stack Exchange. https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/20542/origin-of-the-thesis-degree-procedure
Paltridge, B., & Starfield, S. (2020). Change and continuity in thesis and dissertation writing: The evolution of an academic genre. Journal of English for Academic Purposes, 48, 100910. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jeap.2020.100910
Rektoren und Präsidenten bzw. Präsidentinnen der Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin seit 1810 — Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin. (n.d.). www.hu-berlin.de. Retrieved February 4, 2022, from https://www.hu-berlin.de/de/ueberblick/geschichte/rektoren_html
Taylor, B. (2022, February 4). The PhD Thesis | FindAPhD.com [PhD Content]. www.FindAPhD.com. https://www.findaphd.com/advice/doing/phd-thesis.aspx
What is a Ph.D. Dissertation? (2003). Spaf.Cerias.Purdue.Edu. Retrieved February 4, 2022, from https://spaf.cerias.purdue.edu/StudentInfo/spaf.html
