Graduate Program - Doctoral Program: from Proposal to Defense
Students who successfully complete the comprehensive examination must submit a written dissertation proposal to all members of a (newly constructed) dissertation committee by the end of the semester of comps. The student will then be orally examined on the dissertation proposal. The assistant to the DGS will be notified of all defenses one week prior to the defense. The proposal should be a statement of 15-20 pages covering such matters as the theoretical framework for the dissertation; how it relates to other literature on the topic; the methodology and data the student intends to use in the dissertation; and the kind of scholarly contribution the student feels the dissertation will make to the discipline. The dissertation is a major project demanding original research. Most Political Science students take about a year to complete dissertation writing and research, although this varies as to the type of research conducted.
During the dissertation research and writing stage, full-time status requires continuous enrollment, but only two hours of course credit (PS9090) are required each regular semester and one hour each summer semester.
After the dissertation is drafted, distributed to the doctoral committee at least one month prior to the oral defense, and revised, a student engages in an oral defense of the dissertation in the presence of the doctoral committee. A successful defense is the last stage in the Department necessary for the Ph.D.