The doctoral dissertation may address any subject in literary or film/media theory. It is an opportunity for sustained inquiry into topics of literary-theoretical, literary-historical, or interdisciplinary importance, including cross-cultural literary and film analysis. It should deal in a substantial way with texts in at least two languages, and, when appropriate, take into consideration diverse cultural and linguistic contexts. You may also propose a translation for your dissertation, provided that it is prefaced by an extensive introduction with a level of analysis appropriate to a doctoral dissertation. This introduction should deal with theories and specific problems of the translation. 

Selection of the Dissertation Committee

Within 3 months after you successfully complete your comprehensive examination, you will select, in consultation with the Graduate Program Director, the chair of your dissertation committee from among the graduate faculty in Comparative Literature. Dissertation committees must include a total of at least four members, including the chair. All faculty who serve on graduate committees, including those who are not on faculty at UMass, must be approved as a graduate faculty member by the UMass Graduate School. If you wish to have more than four faculty members on your committee, you should consult with the GPD. As with the comprehensive examination committee, at least one member in addition to the Chair must be from the Program of Comparative Literature, and at least one must be from another department or program. 

The members of your dissertation committee can be the same as the members of your comprehensive committee, but they need not be. Be careful to choose faculty members with whom you have a good working relationship and who will offer you timely feedback. In consultation with the chair of the dissertation committee, you will select your committee members and, once they have agreed to serve on the committee, arrange a preliminary meeting of the entire committee. 

If the chair of the dissertation committee should leave the University—e.g. due to retirement or to take another position—they may continue to chair the dissertation. However, if they are unable or unwilling to continue to serve as chair, the second faculty member from Comparative Literature who has been serving on the committee should be prepared to take on the duties of chair and to enlist an additional faculty member from the program to join the committee; another Comparative Literature faculty member may also agree to take on the role of chair.

The Dissertation Prospectus

You will present and defend your Ph.D. prospectus—essentially a plan of the dissertation—within 6 months of the successful completion of your comprehensive examination (i.e. by the end of the 7^th semester of graduate study). The prospectus should describe, in 10-15 pages (double-spaced, Times New Roman or equivalent 12-point type, or roughly 3000-4000 words) the aims, method, and scope of the proposed dissertation, including summaries of planned chapters; the accompanying bibliography should not exceed 10 pages. 

A dissertation prospectus is not an abstract (i.e., a summary of a completed dissertation), nor is it a full-scale introductory chapter; instead, it is an attempt to describe what is planned before it has actually been done. It thus most closely resembles a grant proposal or book proposal (in this case, a proposal for dissertation funding). It should set out the value of the topic and your approach in a compelling and concise manner. 

Your prospectus should provide a preliminary description of the proposed dissertation, delineating not only the topic you will discuss but also your primary arguments (insofar as you know them at this point). You need to explain why this topic merits discussion and the importance of your proposed contributions. In addition, you should indicate your project’s relation to existing scholarship, describe your methodology, and outline your planned structure of chapters. 

Finding, defining, and communicating an argument that is at once significant and of realistic scope are tasks that require discussion and collaboration with your committee members, who should see and respond to drafts of your prospectus. It is crucial to consult with faculty members early in the dissertation prospectus process. 

The prospectus should answer, as best as possible at this early stage of research, certain fundamental questions: 

1. What is the central problem that the dissertation will address, and what will be your major argument? The problem can be theoretical, critical, or historical. It is important that this problem and your hypothetical answers (hypotheses) be stated from the outset, so that your research will not risk becoming random and your exposition will not lapse into mere description. Write in terms of what you will “argue,” “contend,” or “claim,” rather than simply “explore,” “examine,” and “discuss.” It is fine to speak of “asking” or “inquiring,” but questions should in general be associated with an argument or hypothesis. 
    
2. The audience for an academic dissertation ranges from members of your own cohort, to interested undergraduates, to advanced scholars. It also includes thinkers of the future, since most dissertations are readily accessible online after an initial embargo. Be sure to explain your scope or focus. Describe how your work does or doesn’t fit into, develop from, or in some other manner deal with relevant (or only apparently relevant) work done by others. This will increase the chance of making your thesis the book you are likely to want it to become, as well as aiding you in deriving articles from chapters of the dissertation. 
    
3. Although you are writing a dissertation for a Comparative Literature Ph.D., your project might not be obviously comparative. The comparative nature of the project may lie in the way it interrupts or revises existing narratives of explanation using new materials. If you will be relying on an intellectual framework developed by a particular theorist or theoretical school, you should say something about how the theory will inform or be at issue in your work. What will count as evidence? Will your thesis aim at the revision of a paradigm, or the utilization of one? How does your framework fit your problem, and why have you chosen it? Are you testing it or using it? What kind of end point are you after? Do you want to make us understand something about the text(s), the world, the art form, or the analytic enterprise—or about the inextricability of all of these? Be sure to define clearly any concepts or terms that will carry important analytical energy for you, and perhaps briefly explain their genealogy or provenance, especially when you are using contested, general, or often-misunderstood terms. 
    
4. To persuade your reader that you are not just restating the findings of other scholars, you should include a brief review (about a page) outlining the present “state of the field” with respect to your topic and argument. How have previous scholars treated your topic, and how have their arguments differed from yours? Has there been new evidence (for example, a new primary source) that has come to light since previous treatments? For the sake of collegiality, it is advisable not to attempt to upstage other scholars, but to bear in mind that your work would not be possible without their contributions. 
    
5. Your prospectus must include a chapter-by-chapter outline, with a paragraph or so describing each chapter. Naturally, the final arrangement of chapters may look different from the one developed in your prospectus: When new perspectives open up in the course of your work on the dissertation, you are free to revise the organization proposed in the prospectus. Nonetheless, outlining a sequence of potential chapters will help you to clarify your argument and check the balance of its parts in relation to one another. 
            Dissertations vary widely in length, but a good target is around 250 pages. Chapters typically run anywhere from 30 to 60 double-spaced pages; you will also have an introduction, conclusion, and bibliography. If the major sections of your dissertation seem likely to exceed this span, plan to subdivide them. You might consider organizing your topic in terms of four or five main chapters, unless your topic is better served by a larger number of shorter chapters. The proposed chapters should be presented in your prospectus in a manner that allows your readers to form a clear overview of the project as a whole. You will probably find that developing this outline helps your thinking to move forward substantially, so that the actual writing of the dissertation will be more clearly focused.
    
6. Remember that you are undertaking to write a connected narrative. You ought therefore to think about that narrative as a whole rather than merely as a series of separate chapters. What overall message would you like people to take away from your dissertation? Try to formulate your subject and your intended destination in a simple sentence or two; make sure that you locate this sentence or two in a prominent place in your introduction. 

Scope and Audience of the Prospectus

To avoid writing a prospectus (and then dissertation) that either loses itself in detail or is too general, try to do what you would in any paper: Make sure that your main argument remains explicitly stated and visible, and that each paragraph connects with both the preceding and following ones. Care should be taken to ensure that the prospectus clearly and concisely articulates the project, its arguments, methods, and special considerations in a manner that anyone in Comparative Literature (or literary studies in general) can grasp. 

Once you have drafted your prospectus under the guidance of your committee, you might want to have it read by someone who knows very little about your topic, to see whether you have clearly set out your problem and defined a workable method. Seeking out a general reader right at the start is a good reminder that though you may be writing on a specialized topic, your thesis should be written in clear, intelligible prose. Make sure you define the theoretical terms and categories you are introducing and try to avoid technical jargon unless it is necessary to the intricacies of your argument. 

Finally, your prospectus should be a polished and professional document without typographic errors or spelling mistakes. It becomes part of your scholarly file and is an invaluable tool for securing fellowships and for developing grant applications.

Your prospectus should include a bibliography, which can vary in length. You do not need to have already read every source listed on your bibliography. However, you should have a sense of the most important works for your topic and have taken the time to become familiar with them.

The Prospectus Defense 

Once you have completed your prospectus, you are required to have an oral defense of your prospectus in the presence of your full dissertation committee. You must send your prospectus to your entire committee at least 10 days before the defense, although you will have shown your advisor and possibly one or more committee members drafts earlier in the process. The defense, which typically lasts about an hour to an hour and a half, is a discussion both of the work leading up to your dissertation project and of the prospectus itself, with the aim of ensuring that you are well prepared to move forward with the project and have developed both a viable conceptual structure and an appropriate outline of the chapters that will comprise the dissertation. The prospectus defense usually begins with students speaking for about 10-15 minutes on their proposed project, followed by questions from the committee.

As soon as possible after a successful prospectus defense (and within the same semester) the student files the approved final version of the prospectus, including a cover sheet signed by the Graduate Program Director and the Department Chair, with the Graduate School and provides a copy to the Graduate Program Director. Graduate School regulations stipulate that a dissertation prospectus must be formally filed at least seven months before the dissertation defense.

Tips for Writing a Successful Dissertation 

The dissertation is the culmination of your graduate studies, and the years you spend on it can be the best of times or the worst of times, if not both. You should have the satisfaction of drawing on much that you have already learned, of finding or refining your scholarly voice, and of entering fully into the debates in your field; at the same time, you face the challenges of managing a larger project than anything you have likely completed before. How can you best structure your days, weeks, and semesters to keep yourself working productively at a pace suited to the length of the project, neither burning out nor letting the project extend into an indefinite horizon? Individual projects and schedules vary greatly, but a few basic guidelines can help make this the best of times for you, yielding an excellent written product within the time—and the funding—available. 
 

1. Break it down. The best way to write a dissertation (and, generally, a book as well) is one chapter at a time. You may or may not write chapters in the order in which they will appear in the finished manuscript. Usually the introduction and conclusion are best written at the end. 
    
2. Pace yourself. For a typical four- or five-chapter dissertation, a good output (and the rate of progress expected by the program) is one chapter per semester or summer. This may seem a daunting pace, but you have been writing 50 to 60 pages per semester all through graduate school, which is the rate you should aim for in the dissertation. Regardless of how many chapters your dissertation contains, plan to draft 20-25% of the project per semester/summer. 
    
3. Make a plan. Upon approval of your prospectus, you should work out an overall plan for the coming two or so years of dissertation work. Show these plans to your advisor and get their input, then proceed accordingly, modifying the plans from time to time as needed. Even if circumstances arise that alter your plans, such as adding a year of research abroad, it is essential to remain in contact with your advisor and to retain a coherent plan for your progress. In addition to an overall plan, at the start of each semester you should work up a plan for that semester, taking into account your teaching schedule and other commitments and building in substantial blocks of time most days for dissertation work. An average of four to five hours a day (20-25 hours a week) will likely be about right to get the job done. Many students become consumed by teaching and let dissertations fall by the wayside. Do not do this, as dissertations cannot be written during the summers alone. Students having difficulty balancing teaching and research should speak with their advisors or the GPD. 
          It is important to have the body of the dissertation drafted by the fall of the sixth year, so that you can make a serious showing on the job market. For most academic jobs, you must be able to demonstrate that you will finish your dissertation by the end of the current academic year, and having the dissertation largely complete will leave you the significant time needed for a thorough job search. 
    
4. Meet regularly with your advisor. Your advisor (as well as your other dissertation committee members) is there for you, but it is your responsibility to take the initiative to meet with them. If faculty members don’t answer your emails, email them again or go to their office hours. In the rare cases when you cannot reach your advisor or one of your committee members, speak with the GPD as soon as possible. Much as with comps preparation, you should draw up a schedule to ensure that you see your advisor (and possibly some of your committee members) regularly, to discuss tentative plans, chapter drafts and outlines, and completed chapters. You should meet with your advisor absolutely no less than once a semester. You should also share individual chapter drafts with your advisor (and committee as a whole) as you complete them. Do not wait until your dissertation draft is done to share it with your advisor. In general, committee members should also see drafts periodically throughout the writing process—don’t wait until you’re ready to schedule your defense to let them see your work. Drawing on the expertise of your entire committee will make your dissetation stronger.
    
5. Share your work. Beyond campus, you should present your work at one or two conferences a year (more than that adds little and can slow your dissertation writing). The program has funding to assist in conference travel (see p. 22), although normally we cannot fund more than one conference per year and full funding is not guaranteed. The program also very strongly recommends that while in graduate school you send out two articles for publication, one derived from your dissertation chapters and another drawing from work separate from the dissertation, to show the breadth of your knowledge. If you hope to publish your dissertation as a book, it is not advisable to publish more than one or at most two articles from the dissertation.

Completion and Preliminary Approval of the Dissertation

The dissertation committee chair will work with you to establish deadlines for the submission of each chapter draft. You will submit a draft of each chapter to the chair and to the members of their committee, as agreed upon in prior consultations. Faculty members on the committee normally will respond to each chapter draft within four weeks. Do not expect a faculty member to be able to read a draft in less than four weeks, and bear in mind that faculty may be less available on weekends and during periods of non-responsibility (winter break, spring break, and summer break). Contact the chair and the GPD should one of your committee members fail to provide timely feedback. The dissertation defense is scheduled only when the dissertation committee chair, in dialogue with the members of the committee, deems the dissertation acceptable in content, form, and language and ready to stand for defense.

 The Dissertation Defense

Once your dissertation has been approved by your chair and the rest of your committee has agreed that you are ready, you will schedule your dissertation defense. Dissertations must be submitted to the entire committee at least one month before the defense. Defenses typically last about two hours. It will begin with you giving a presentation of about 20-25 minutes on your project. Next, members of the committee will ask questions; then, if time permits, other members of the audience may ask questions. Dissertation defenses are open to the department, and you may also wish to invite friends or family.

In accordance with Graduate School regulations, “attendance at the final oral examination is open to all members of the candidate’s major department and any member of the Graduate Faculty. However, only members of the Dissertation Committee may cast votes.” The Graduate School directs that the oral examination or defense be “primarily upon, but not limited to, the contents of the candidate’s dissertation.” In order to pass the examination, your dissertation and defense must receive unanimous approval from the Dissertation Committee, which will meet behind closed doors immediately following the defense. If there is one negative vote, the degree will be held up pending action of the Graduate Council. The outcome of the examination is to be made known to you immediately after the members of the dissertation committee have conferred at the conclusion of the defense.

At the defense, you may be asked to make minor revisions to your dissertation before filing it. The chair and committee will communicate required revisions to you in writing and set out a clear timeline for their completion. The revised dissertation must be approved and submitted to the Graduate School, ideally within two weeks of the defense and no later than the end of the semester following the defense. Thus, a student who defends in the fall semester must file the revised dissertation by the following May; likewise, a student who defends in the spring semester must file by the following December. In order to give the dissertation committee chair the requisite four weeks to review the revised thesis, the candidate will submit their revisions to the chair at least four weeks prior to the end of the semester: by November 15 for a fall submission or April 15 for spring.