Step Two: Actual Committee Formation
Putting the committee together is a tough process. You want people who can mentor and evaluate your competencies in your research areas, of course, but you also want to pick people with whom you have a good relationship, who you know have good relationships with the other members of your committee, and people who fulfill what you need as a researcher and a writer to be productive.
Timeline.
Ideally, you want to start thinking about who will be on your committee one year before you plan to begin exams. Once you start assembling the committee, you want to give yourself about 4 to 6 weeks to secure the committee. Give yourself time to schedule a meeting with your hopeful chair (and a back-up if he/she says "no") and committee members. Secure your chair first, then ask committee members. When you begin approaching the committee, you should have a draft of your statement, buckets, and some possible readings ready. More on that below.
So, for a sample timeline, let's say you plan to take your exams in the fall semester of your 3rd year. The fall semester of your 2nd year, you should start running through the checklist of faculty you'd like to work with. Plan to approach faculty by the end of the fall semester or beginning of the spring semester at the absolute latest with your drafts and committee requests. By spring break of your 2nd year, you should be all set to take exams during the fall of your 3rd year.
Committee assembly can be done faster than that, but you have to get these members secured and get their feedback well in advance of the actual exam.
Choosing a Chair.
Your relationship with your chair can be very important to your future, especially as an academic. It establishes your trajectory, is your first real contact in the field, and will forever establish your lineage through your subfield. That is why the classic, perfect dissertation chair is a full professor, an established expert in your research area, has a high profile in your discipline, and has a long track record of happy, successful former students placed in high-profile jobs. And isn't a big-headed, distant, out-of-touch jerk.
But, few people are a position to access such a person, and that’s completely fine. Plenty of great dissertations and careers are born from relationships that don’t fit the classic model; it’s just a matter of managing the compromises that work best for you.
When sorting through those compromises, remember that your chair will also be most influential in what your dissertation looks like--how successful it is in passing through our processes here at Mason, how attractive it looks on the job market and to people outside of our department, and how easily it converts to books and articles in your academic job (and thus likely secures you tenure). The best chair is the chair who can get you the best dissertation (thank you for that advice, Eric Anderson!). That’s the key.
To assess the best fit for your chair, ask yourself the following:
After you assess content, you want to think about practical things, such as:
Let all factors weigh evenly in your mind. Yes, sometimes the most expert person is the best person to chair. But sometimes other factors might outweigh that decision. Think and consider yourself, your work habits, and your research needs carefully.
Approaching the Chair
Once you have really assessed the faculty, yourself, and your options, narrow down on a possible chair, and start to prepare the documents, rationales, and arguments you will need to ask that person to be a chair.
To do this, do the following:
Hopefully you leave the meeting with a positive experience and answer and a distinct path forward to ask your other committee members. Once you have a chair, you should then ask your potential committee members if they will serve. Good news is, you already have all of your materials ready, and you can have a version of the same conversation with other committee members, in the course of which they will all hopefully agree to participate on your committee.
Remember to follow up. After your meeting, and as you go through the process, continue to contact that person and stay on his/her radar. Let him/her know how conversations with committee members go, how you are doing with different stages of list and document drafting, etc. Make that person a part of your process, and keep them informed about your progress.
Of course, committee work doesn't stop there; you want to keep evaluating the committee for workflow and compatibility throughout the exam process in particular since you can change committees from exam to dissertation. Read more in Step Three: Ongoing Committee Management and Assessment.
Timeline.
Ideally, you want to start thinking about who will be on your committee one year before you plan to begin exams. Once you start assembling the committee, you want to give yourself about 4 to 6 weeks to secure the committee. Give yourself time to schedule a meeting with your hopeful chair (and a back-up if he/she says "no") and committee members. Secure your chair first, then ask committee members. When you begin approaching the committee, you should have a draft of your statement, buckets, and some possible readings ready. More on that below.
So, for a sample timeline, let's say you plan to take your exams in the fall semester of your 3rd year. The fall semester of your 2nd year, you should start running through the checklist of faculty you'd like to work with. Plan to approach faculty by the end of the fall semester or beginning of the spring semester at the absolute latest with your drafts and committee requests. By spring break of your 2nd year, you should be all set to take exams during the fall of your 3rd year.
Committee assembly can be done faster than that, but you have to get these members secured and get their feedback well in advance of the actual exam.
Choosing a Chair.
Your relationship with your chair can be very important to your future, especially as an academic. It establishes your trajectory, is your first real contact in the field, and will forever establish your lineage through your subfield. That is why the classic, perfect dissertation chair is a full professor, an established expert in your research area, has a high profile in your discipline, and has a long track record of happy, successful former students placed in high-profile jobs. And isn't a big-headed, distant, out-of-touch jerk.
But, few people are a position to access such a person, and that’s completely fine. Plenty of great dissertations and careers are born from relationships that don’t fit the classic model; it’s just a matter of managing the compromises that work best for you.
When sorting through those compromises, remember that your chair will also be most influential in what your dissertation looks like--how successful it is in passing through our processes here at Mason, how attractive it looks on the job market and to people outside of our department, and how easily it converts to books and articles in your academic job (and thus likely secures you tenure). The best chair is the chair who can get you the best dissertation (thank you for that advice, Eric Anderson!). That’s the key.
To assess the best fit for your chair, ask yourself the following:
- Is there a clear expert in our department in your area? Have you taken classes and worked with that person? Do you have a good working relationship and rapport?
- Is there someone with whom you have worked closely and well? What was that relationship like? Does that person have any overlapping interests that you might leverage or build during the dissertation process? What expertise--if not in the main content area--do you think or hope that person can lend to the dissertation? Do you have theoretical perspectives or methods in common, for instance?
After you assess content, you want to think about practical things, such as:
- How is that person with feedback? Is his/her feedback helpful and productive for you? Is he/she too critical (or can you do no wrong)?
- What do you really need to hear as a writer? Do you want to be coddled (nothing wrong with that)? Or do you need to hear honest feedback, even if it is sometimes unpleasant?
- What logistics should you consider? Does the person keep regular office hours, respond to email quickly, have a lot of other commitments you know about? How much will that availability matter to you? Some people need accountability; others want to be left alone. Know yourself and what suits you best.
- How might you troubleshoot difficulties that you can envision?
- Do you know anyone who has worked with this person? Can you meet that person for coffee to get some off-the-record intel?
- What other exterior factors should you consider? Is the person tenured (a tenured faculty member will usually have more power and more time for things like chairing committees)? What mix of assistant, associate, and full professors will you have on a possible committee (which can be important in terms of committee power dynamics and the mix of credible letter writers you'll eventually have)? How many other commitments does the person have that might mean less time for you?
Let all factors weigh evenly in your mind. Yes, sometimes the most expert person is the best person to chair. But sometimes other factors might outweigh that decision. Think and consider yourself, your work habits, and your research needs carefully.
Approaching the Chair
Once you have really assessed the faculty, yourself, and your options, narrow down on a possible chair, and start to prepare the documents, rationales, and arguments you will need to ask that person to be a chair.
To do this, do the following:
- You actually have to ask the person, in a formal way, and the person can say “no.” This is a big moment and a big question--somewhere in between asking someone on a date and asking someone to marry you. Not quite as informal as the former or as big as the latter (and not romantic no matter how you slice it), but somewhere in between. The point is, you are forging a big relationship in this moment, and you want to get it off on the right foot. Plus, you are asking a lot from this person--this person will put a lot of time and energy into you and your career in the next few years, so you’re asking for a big commitment. You want to be professional, prepared, and proactive in your engagement from the get-go.
- Set a meeting with the person where you ask him/her to direct your committee. Your email should say something like, “I am preparing to develop my exam committee and related materials and would like to discuss my project further with you.”
- What to discuss in the meeting (you can think of this as an agenda for the meeting):
Your general idea. Be ready to pitch your project. Know the main points that you want to accomplish in your dissertation in the end (at least in theory at this point), have an idea about the main areas your work should engage, know questions you plan to pursue, and discuss the kinds of expertise you hope that person can lend to you and your project as its mentor ready to discuss. Have drafts of all of your required documents ready for discussion and review.
REMEMBER: the person can say “no,” and you may also get cold feet during this process too. You might get halfway through your pitch, and the person has a really negative reaction to it, or clearly wants to take the project in another direction. So, you want to give yourself room to change your mind, change course, or maybe come back and ask again another day if the conversation doesn’t go as expected. Don’t feel obligated to ask just because you’re there; don’t be too hurt if the person says no. Be prepared for lots of different outcomes.
Timeline and constraints. Know when you are considering beginnng your reading and your exam. Have a draft schedule ready for discussion. Be ready to ask what kinds of schedules or timeframes do you need to be aware of (leaves, busy semesters, etc.).
Other committee members. Have some possible committee members in mind and ask that person for feedback on other members. Don’t be too set on anything going in; there may be personal issues or concerns that the chair may share with you that change whether or not other committee members you had in mind are a good idea.
Logistics. Then, ask any questions you have about how he/she manages committees. How does he/she communicate with committee members? How does he/she want you to submit document drafts and updates? Will he/she expect in-person meetings? Skype? No meetings? Does that all sound OK to you?
Hopefully you leave the meeting with a positive experience and answer and a distinct path forward to ask your other committee members. Once you have a chair, you should then ask your potential committee members if they will serve. Good news is, you already have all of your materials ready, and you can have a version of the same conversation with other committee members, in the course of which they will all hopefully agree to participate on your committee.
Remember to follow up. After your meeting, and as you go through the process, continue to contact that person and stay on his/her radar. Let him/her know how conversations with committee members go, how you are doing with different stages of list and document drafting, etc. Make that person a part of your process, and keep them informed about your progress.
Of course, committee work doesn't stop there; you want to keep evaluating the committee for workflow and compatibility throughout the exam process in particular since you can change committees from exam to dissertation. Read more in Step Three: Ongoing Committee Management and Assessment.