PhD Mentoring: Building a Committee
General Questions and Recommendations
Forming a committee takes more work than just filling out the forms and required documents. It is actually a deeply rhetorical process where you assess yourself, the faculty, your work, what you have learned about the field, and what your plans are for the job market and life after this program. You then choose the people to work with who are best poised to help you achieve the things you want.
For me, this rhetorical process breaks down into the following steps, processes, and pieces of advice. I’ve tried to separate general thoughts from specific steps I’d recommend or that I followed where possible. There are lots of perspectives and ways to approach all of this; these are just my bits of advice based on what I’ve seen and gone through.
I've broken this advice into a few main areas, as follows:
Step One: During Coursework
Step Two: Actual Committee Formation
Step Three: Ongoing Committee Management and Assessment
Resources
I will also preface this by saying that this is all a culmination of great experiences, advice, and counsel I have received over the years. I had an amazing dissertation chair, Bernice Hausman, who taught me a lot about how to do this all the right way. I also had a great PhD advisor, Paul Heilker, who demystified a lot of the process for me as I went through it. I also had generous colleagues like Brian Gogan and Amy Reed who went through the process before me and shared their feedback and experiences and an amazing PhD cohort that included Libby Anthony, Molly Scanlon, Matt Sharp, Michelle Seref, and others with whom to share strategies and feedback. You can’t do this in isolation, and your faculty and colleagues around you are your first and most important resource. In addition, I also sought out some great books and websites, which I’ve included in Resources.
Forming a committee takes more work than just filling out the forms and required documents. It is actually a deeply rhetorical process where you assess yourself, the faculty, your work, what you have learned about the field, and what your plans are for the job market and life after this program. You then choose the people to work with who are best poised to help you achieve the things you want.
For me, this rhetorical process breaks down into the following steps, processes, and pieces of advice. I’ve tried to separate general thoughts from specific steps I’d recommend or that I followed where possible. There are lots of perspectives and ways to approach all of this; these are just my bits of advice based on what I’ve seen and gone through.
I've broken this advice into a few main areas, as follows:
Step One: During Coursework
Step Two: Actual Committee Formation
Step Three: Ongoing Committee Management and Assessment
Resources
I will also preface this by saying that this is all a culmination of great experiences, advice, and counsel I have received over the years. I had an amazing dissertation chair, Bernice Hausman, who taught me a lot about how to do this all the right way. I also had a great PhD advisor, Paul Heilker, who demystified a lot of the process for me as I went through it. I also had generous colleagues like Brian Gogan and Amy Reed who went through the process before me and shared their feedback and experiences and an amazing PhD cohort that included Libby Anthony, Molly Scanlon, Matt Sharp, Michelle Seref, and others with whom to share strategies and feedback. You can’t do this in isolation, and your faculty and colleagues around you are your first and most important resource. In addition, I also sought out some great books and websites, which I’ve included in Resources.