Welcome to the Ph.D. News Website. This Website contains items of interest to iSchool Ph.D. students at University of Texas at Austin. The home page "Announcements," "Activities for this Week," and "Future Events" are normally updated each Sunday. Additions and changes to the current week as well as special announcements are noted in red (or other appropriate color) . Significant future calendar events are posted as they are received and time permits. Suggested additions, corrections, and other comments are always appreciated. Email me or grab me in room SZB 463 or in the hall.

Announcements

Hooray for Don Drumtra
His committee approved his proposal
on February 3:
Business Information Organization:
A Search for Common Concepts for Information Integration

Tuesday, Feb 21, 9 AM - Noon, UNB San Rita, Jamie Stewart, Information on Filing US Taxes. This is the annual graduate student tax seminar sponsored by the Graduate Coordinator Network. Jamie is a Senior Tax Specialist, IRS-Stakeholder Partnerships, Education & Communication. She will be joined by UT representatives from the International Office, Payroll Office, Office of Accounting, and IRS representative who will be available to answer your questions about graduate student educational tax benefits and processes during the Q&A. Schedule is
9:00 – 9:30 Refreshments
9:30 – 10:30 am Jamie Stewart, Information on Filing US Taxes
10:30 – 11:00 am UT Panel Discussion
11:00 – 12:00 pm Q & A
For more information, please contact Nichole Evans via email or phone, 475-8649.

Tuesday, Feb 21, 1-3 PM, Fine Arts Library, Open House. The Fine Arts Library will host an open house to celebrate it’s newly renovated main level. Refreshments will be served. For more information, please visit the event Website or contact Melissa Keenan.

Wednesday, Feb 22, Noon - 1 PM, UT ALA/TLA Midweek Lunch. We will meet for a brown bag lunch just to socialize. Bring games if you wish, and bring your lunch. We are hoping for this to become a regular monthly or bi-weekly meeting; so let's make this first one great. For more information, please contact Melissa Keenan.

Wednesday, Feb 22, 9AM - Noon, UNB Santa Rita Suite, Graduate Student Tax Seminar. The GCN Events committee members are looking forward to seeing your students at the 3rd Annual Graduate Student Tax Seminar this morning.  Breakfast snacks will be available starting at 9am in the Santa Rita Suite in the Texas Union and the presentations will begin at 9:30am. For more information, please contact Nicole Evans by emai of phone, 475-8649.

Wednesday, Feb 22, 5-7 PM, Spiderhouse, iSchool Student Organization meeting. Yep, that's right!  SASI is finally having a meeting this semester, and we would love to have you all join us.  We are going to be meeting at the Spiderhouse,which is a coffee shop, just north of campus at 2908 Fruth St.  We are going to be introducing our new Co-Director Lisa Charbonnet and eliciting input from students as to what role you see SASI playing in the school and what you want from us.  We also need to start planning Tea with the Dean, so if you've got input... come!  We know we usually have these things at Sanchez, but we're hoping this will be a more relaxed atmosphere so that you'll feel free to give us a piece of your mind. For more information please contact Cara Johnson, Co-director.

ADDED EVENT. Wednesday, Feb 22, 5-7 PM, Club DeVille, UT ASIST meeting. It’s a happy hour, but we’ll also be planning for the SXSW warm-up party. SXSW is always a big event for us, and last year was fantastic. Come help us plan how we can make it even better! This is a great opportunity to get involved with a highly visible event. Tell us about your favorite IA celebrity that you would like to meet. If that is not enough, we’re meeting at Club DeVille, which was voted “best outdoor bar” by Citysearch in 2005. Club DeVille is at 900 Red River St. And don't forget to buy your UTASIS&T t-shirt at http://www.cafepress.com/utasist! For more information, please contact Brian Lewis.

Thursday, Feb 23, 3-6 PM, ART 1.102, Dr. William Germano, The Graduate Author: From Research Topics to Published Book. An open invitation to graduate students from all disciplines who are interested in creating a publishable work! Dr. William Germano is author of "Getting It Published" and "From Dissertation to Book, " is former editor-in-chief at Columbia University Press, and is publishing editor at Routledge. The workshop is free, but registration is required.  Mark you calendars now! To register and see more information about Dr. Germano's workshop and related events, go to the event Website.

ADDED EVENT. Thursday, Feb 23, 5:15-6:15 PM, Kat Berry, Digitization Projects in Major US Research Libraries: a Comparison. Kat is a MSIS graduate of Dec 2006 with a CAS in Preservation Administration. This is a Kilgaren Center Forum event. For more infirmation, please contact, Ellen Cunningham-Kruppa, center Director, by email or phone, 471-8287.

Friday, Feb 24, Proposals due for Connections, 2006, Bringing Together Emerging Information Studies Researchers: A Doctoral Conference in Information Studies. Connections 2006, aka the 11th Annual Great Lakes Information Science Conference, is a forum for doctoral students in information studies to meet one another, exchange ideas, present research and attend workshops and panels in a collegial and receptive atmosphere.  In keeping with a tradition of convening Connections in a city near the Great Lakes, Connections 2006 will be hosted by Syracuse University's School of Information Studies in Syracuse, New York, from May 19-21.  Our goal is to attract doctoral students working in one of three broad areas:
* Library and information science (LIS)
* Information systems (IS) and management information systems (MIS)
* Information and telecommunications policy
Doctoral students working in these areas are invited to submit abstracts for presentations, workshops and panels.  Students at all stages of their program, from first year through ABD, are encouraged to participate.

We are accepting proposals for presentations and workshops from now through February 24, 2006.  Individuals are invited to submit proposals (in the form of 300-word abstracts) to present nascent, in-progress or completed research.  Presenters will be given 10-15 minutes to present their research and 5-10 minutes to field questions.  Shortened abstracts (from those accepted) will be included in the Canadian Journal of Information and Library Science.  Also, individuals and groups of four or fewer people are invited to submit proposals to lead short workshops on topics of interest to doctoral students in information studies.  Extended abstracts must be at least one page (but not more than two) and must state workshop objectives and the means for realizing them.  Workshop leaders will be given either one or two hours (depending on the workshop) to conduct them. We are also accepting proposals through February 24 to serve as a panelist on one of up to six panels. Panel topics currently include (i) information retrieval systems, (ii) distance education, (iii) the boundaries of information science, (iv) global internet policy, (v) organizational communications and knowledge sharing, and (vi) usability research.  Panels will be made more specific or modified slightly to match the interests of accepted applicants. For more information on how to join the conference listserv, for the conference schedule, for and more detail on submissions please visit the Connections 2006 Website or contact the Conference Chair, Joe Rubleske.

IMPORTANT DEADLINES & CONTACTS

* February 24:  Deadline for submitting a proposal to participate as a presenter, as a workshop leader and/or as a panelist
* March 17: Notification of acceptance
* March 20: Registration period begins
* April 21: Deadline for shortened and revised abstracts
* April 28: Registration period ends
* May 19-21: Connections 2006 is convened

See also Ph.D. Consortium below.

ADDED EVENT. Friday, Feb 24, 10AM-Noon, Center for Tranportation Research, UT-SLA Tour. Please join Heather and John of the UT Special Library Association on a tour of the Center for Transportation Research.  The CTR, associated with UT's College of Engineering, maintains special collections of materials about Texas transportation infrastructure, particularly highway construction and maintenance. Because of the distance between the CTR and Sanchez, we are encouraging people to drive; visitor parking will be available.  We will be leaving the Sanchez at around 9:45 AM, if anyone would like to follow us there.  Please let us know if you are willing to drive/take on passengers; we can take a couple of passengers as well. The CTR is located at 3208 Red River, Room 115, 1.5 blocks north of Dean Keeton, and across the street from Jimmy John's sandwich shop.  This should be an interesting tour, and we hope everyone will come. For more information, please contact John Reid, UT SLA Co-director.

Saturday, Feb 25, 8 - 9:30 PM, Bates, Rossini, Petite Messe Solennelle. In this UT Choral Arts Society performance, the solo quartet will be members of the Houston Grand Opera Studio. Written in 1864 at the age of 72, Rossini called the mass "the last mortal sin of my old age." Composed for private performance, Rossini¹s grand mass setting is "petite" only in the chamber forces employed, including two pianos and harmonium. This original instrumentation accompanies brilliant operatic arias and ensembles and magnificent choral movements. $17 general/$15 UT faculty and staff/$10 students. For tickets call 471-0806. For more information on the concert contact Dr. James Morrow, Choral Director, via email or phone, 471-0806.

Future Events - Mark Your Calendar

Friday, March 3, Submissions due for the Ph.D. Consortium to be held in conjunction with the Doctoral Consortium in Information Studies at Connections 2006. PhD students in information studies (including LIS, IS, MIS and information policy programs) are invited to submit applications for the Connections 2006 Doctoral Consortium. The consortium offers an opportunity for Ph.D. students making progress on their dissertation research to share and discuss their research with peers and faculty mentors. It will include multiple concurrent small group sessions facilitated by experienced faculty members with expertise in the topic area or methodological approach. In addition, there will be opportunities to network with peers and faculty, learn about research and publishing strategies, and engage in discussions on research, teaching, jobs, and careers. As the purpose of the Doctoral Consortium is to share and get feedback on research, it is most useful for students who have defended a proposal (or are close to doing so). The consortium will be held on Friday 19 May 2006 as a pre-conference activity in conjunction with Connections 2006 (19-21 May 2006), at the Syracuse University School of Information Studies, in Syracuse, NY. Accepted participants will be expected to arrive in Syracuse by 6 pm on Thursday 18 May 2006. A get-acquainted event will take place at 7 pm. Participants are also encouraged to attend and present their research at Connections 2006. To apply, send an e-mail to Kevin Crowston with Subject Line "Connections 2006 Doctoral Consortium." Attach an abstract (not to exceed 5 double spaced pages including figures and tables but not references) describing the student's proposed dissertation. The submission should also include the expected timeline for completing the dissertation, including the date of the proposal defense. The DEADLINE FOR SUBMISSIONS is 3 March 2006 and accepted participants will be notified by 17 March 2006.  Faculty participants will be identified soon. For more information or questions please visit the Consortium Website or contact Dr. Kevin Crowston .

Friday, March 3, 8 AM -6:30 PM, TX Medical Library, SLA Spring Meeting. The Texas Chapter's Spring Meeting theme is Transformation. The program will consist of:

• Morning session: A panel discussion moderated by Betty Jo Hibberd from Dialog's Quantum program. The panelists will be given 10 minutes to present and a 5 minute Q&A will follow. Possible topics of discussion can include:
  • Process improvements implemented to enhance information delivery
  • Action plans for shifting fro hardcopy to electronic tools
  • Unique marketing strategies for product launches
  • Outsourced library services which enabled staff to focus on new opportunities
  • Gathering silent feedback using blogs or e-surveys
• Afternoon session: presentation by Mary Ellen Bates, MLS, owner of Bates Information Services.
• Late afternoon: wine and cheese reception.

Sponsors are Hoovers, Ovid, 10 K Wizard, and EOS. The Texas Medical Association Building is located at 401 West 15th Street. Registration is $40 for SLA Members, $60 for non-members, and $15 for students, retirees, and those between jobs (price includes breakfast, lunch, and the wine and cheese reception). Please register at http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.asp?u=760311696951 Please consider participating in this event. It is a great opportunity for our chapter members to gather and apply the lessons learned. For more information, or if you would like to participate in the panel please contact Marcia Schemper-Carlock via email or phone, 972-718-6290.

Saturday, March 4, 11 AM - 5 PM, UT, Explore UT. Texans of all ages are invited to EXPLORE UT, "the biggest open house in Texas." You're encouraged to attend, volunteer to help, and invite friends and family to enjoy 400 free events.These and more adventures await explorers of all ages. Participants will be able to:

...dream up a childhood fort
...track a fossil
...learn from Longhorn athletes
...run with robots
...come under Hogwart's spell
...pose for a magazine cover
...tune up with Mariachi Vargas
...reason like a judge
...escuchar cuentos para niños (en español)
...size up an earthquake
...map a career path
...lick up nitrogen ice cream
...dig an eSkeleton
...decipher "The Da Vinci Code"
...climb a wall
...market stock trading skills
...dance with light
...race like Lance Armstrong
...join a cast of caricatures
...watch water flow uphill
..score a look at national championship trophies
..roam university residence halls
...get hooked on college
...tower above Austin at 300 feet
...fall in step with the Longhorn Band
...star in the Explore UT grand finale

Also included are special sessions designed in response to the natural disasters of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. Participants can learn how to make sure their families are ready for an emergency and how to save precious family documents when disaster strikes. Explore UT is grateful to the University Co-op for its generosity in serving as the primary sponsor. The University Co-op is cooperatively owned by the faculty, students and staff of The University of Texas at Austin. Earnings support campus events, grants and activities, including the prestigious Robert W. Hamilton Book Awards to recognize faculty authors and the George H. Mitchell Student Awards for Academic Excellence. The University Co-op has provided more than $2.7 million in grants and program sponsorships with $150,000 going to student organizations. This year, the University Co-op has returned a record $1 million directly to students through patronage refunds. Mark your calendar for EXPLORE UT! For more information, to access the complete schedule, or to sign up as a volunteer, please visit the event Website.

Friday, March 10, 5 PM, input die for OGS/GSA/SCC/UC, Interdisciplinary Perspectives, Research Showcase. We welcome graduate students in all departments and schools to participate in UT's first Graduate Student Research Showcase: "Interdisciplinary Perspectives."  We invite presentations in a variety of formats-- from round tables, to individual paper presentations, to poster sessions.  If you would like to participate in this event, please email a one-paragraph proposal describing your research and stating the format in which you would like to present it to utgradresearch@yahoo.com by 5 pm, Friday, March10.  Please also include your name, department, and contact information.   The GSA will then put together a schedule and notify presenters of their time slot by Tuesday, March 21. This showcase is part of National Graduate and Professional Student Appreciation Week. The goals of this event are to share graduate student research with the entire University community, provide graduate students with an informal forum in which to present their work, and build graduate student community across departmental boundaries. This half-day event is cosponsored by the Graduate Student Assembly (GSA), the University Co-op, the Office of Graduate Studies, and the Senate of College Councils.  It will be held in the Texas Union (UNB).  Lunch will be provided to all participants and attendees. For more information please visit the GSA Website or contact UT Grad Research.

Friday, March 10, 10 AM - 4 PM, SZB 556, Native Expressions. The Honoring Generations community at the School of Information proudly presents Native Expressions, a public event featuring and celebrating indigenous scholars, authors, creators, and thinkers. Join us as we hear about Native American issues with technology from Karen Buller and how to encourage young Native Americans to value the oral tradition through animation projects from Roy Boney. We'll also have the privilege of hearing a very special poetry reading from the accomplished Ojibwe poet and author, Dr. Heid Erdrich, and a reading from an up-and-coming poet, Jacob C. Jimenez. Refreshments will be served. Join us for one or more sessions.

• 10:00 Welcome
• 10:15 Karen Buller (Comanche), President and CEO of the National Indian Telecommunications Institute (NITI), Santa Fe, New Mexico, Topic: Native Peoples and IT
• 11:15 Roy Boney, Jr. (Cherokee), Illustrator, graphic novelist, and animator, Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation Fellow, Sequoyah Research Center, the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, Topic: Native language claymation projects with tribal schools
• 2:00-2:15 Jacob C. Jimenez (Hispanic), Poet, San Antonio, Texas
• 2:15-3:15 Dr. Heid Erdrich (Ojibwe) Poet, Teacher of Writing and Native American Literature, University of St. Thomas, St. Paul, Minnesota
• 3:15-4:00 Closing and book signings

We ask that any non-UT affiliated attendee provide $10 admittance fee to support "If I Can Read, I Can Do Anything," a national reading project supporting library services to Native youth. For more information please contact S. Littletree.

Monday-Saturday, March 13-18, Spring break.

Thursday, March 23, 7-8 PM, HRHRC, Dr. Henry Petroski, Bookshelves, Pencils, and Paper Clips. Dr. Petroski is a Professor at Duke University and author of The Pencil: A History of Design and Circumstance. This lecture is co-sponsored by the College of Engineering at UT. For more information please visit the HRHRC Programs Website .

Friday, March 24, 7-9 PM, CAL 100, Jim Reid-Cunningham, Book Artist Lecture. This is the first annual; Mim Watson-- book artist lecture. Jim is the head Conservator at the Boston Athenaeum , as well as an internationally shown book artist.  He will discuss how book conservation and book art intertwine in his work. This series is generously funded by Mr. Kim Watson in honor of his now deceased wife Mim, who was a book artist in the Dallas area. There will be an informal
reception following the presentation. For more information, please contact Chela.

Tuesday, April 4, 10 AM - 4 PM, UNB, OGS/GSA/SCC/UC, Interdisciplinary Perspectives, Research Showcase. As part of National Graduate and Professional Student Appreciation Week,  we welcome graduate students in all departments and schools to participate in UT's first Graduate Student Research Showcase: "Interdisciplinary Perspectives."  The goals of this event are to share graduate student research with the entire University community, provide graduate students with an informal forum in which to present their work, and build graduate student community across departmental boundaries. This half-day event is cosponsored by the Graduate Student Assembly (GSA), the University Co-op, the Office of Graduate Studies, and the Senate of College Councils.  It will be held in the Texas Union (UNB).  Lunch will be provided to all participants and attendees. We invite presentations in a variety of formats-- from round tables, to individual paper presentations, to poster sessions.  If you would like to participate in this event, please email a one-paragraph proposal describing your research and stating the format in which you would like to present it to utgradresearch@yahoo.com by 5 pm, Friday, March10.  Please also include your name, department, and contact information.   The GSA will then put together a schedule and notify presenters of their time slot by Tuesday, March 21. For more information please visit the GSA Website or contact UT Grad Research.

Thursday, April 6, 7-8 PM, HRHRC, Dr. Janine Barchas, Technologies of Innovation: The Visual Exuberance of Eighteenth-Century Print Culture. Dr. Barchas is a professor of English at UT. For more information please visit the HRHRC Programs Website .

Thursday, April 13, 5-6 PM, HRHRC, Dr. Denise Schmandt-Besserat, The Earliest Writing. Dr. Schmandt-Besserat is a Professor Emerita at UT.For more information please visit the HRHRC Programs Website .

Monday, April 17, Fall registration begins.

Tuesday-Friday, April 25-28, TLA 2006 Annual Conference Libraries: Igniting the Passion, Houston, April 25-28. For more information, go to the conference Website. While we are on the topic, there is still room in the inn!  The 2006 TLA Conference in will be here before you know it, so make sure you reserve your hotel room if you have not already done so.  Online housing is available at the TLA website. For more information, please contact TLA or Kathy Pustejovsky, conference manager, via email or phone 328-1518, ext. 14.

Friday, May 5, Last day of classes.

Wednesday, May 17, Semester officially ends.

Saturday, May 20, 9-11 AM, Bass, Graduate School Convocation.

Saturday, May 20, iSchool Convocation.

Saturday, May 20, 7-10 PM, South Mall, UT Commencement.

Thursday, June 1, 7-8 PM, HRHRC, Ed Nowotka, The Origins of Writing. Ed Nowotka, is a book critic and writer. He will host a panel discussion, An Ode to Typewriters, of writers who compose on typewriters. For more information please visit the HRHRC Programs Website .

Thursday, June 29, 7-8 PM, HRHRC, Dr. Barry Powell, Alphabetology. Dr. Powell is a Professor of Classics at the University of Wisconsin at Madison. He will focus on the nature and origin of the Greek alphabet. For more information please visit the HRHRC Programs Website .

Thursday, July 27, 7-8 PM, HRHRC, Dr. Mark Van Stone, The Interaction of Pen, Paper, and Scribe: The Technical and Aesthetic Forces that Shape our Letterforms. For more information please visit the HRHRC Programs Website .

Friday-Thursday, Nov 3-9, Hilton Austin, ASIST Conference. The 2006 ASIST conference "Information Realities: Shaping the Digital Future for All" will be in Austin this year November 3-9 at the Hilton Austin. This is a unique opportunity you will not want to miss. ASIS&T 2006 challenges us to explore this moment in the history of information science as people seamlessly move between their physical and digital worlds to create information realities for themselves and others. Submissions by researchers and practitioners are solicited on a wide range of topics.

Who We Are Webpage

The information on the Ph.D. student Webpage is slowly growing. Names of all current Ph.D. students have been added. Your other information is needed to complete it . Please send Don a jpeg photo, information to post, and a link to your Website whenever you can. What is this Webpage? Well, as we agreed in spring semester, 2002, we wanted to have a summary page with a list of all Ph.D. students and links to more detailed information on each of us. The summary page consist of a photo, name, academic interest, contact information, and links to other pages. A detail page repeats the summary information and provides, education, a brief biography, and specialization. Students information should be linked to each student's individual Website with their vita, resume, and any other information they may wish to provide. If there is interest, we can also add Ph.D. alumni to this list. There is an input form that might work with your browser. Otherwise you can copy and paste.

Professional Associations, Email Lists, and other Forums

Information on professional associations, student governance organizations, email lists and and other forums of interest to Information school Ph.D. students is provided through the Ph.D. Forums link on the left. Included is information on email lists, Blackboard, Websites and other forums.

Information School Forums

The school of information sponsors weekly or fortnightly iForums (or iFora) of interest to School of Information Students and Faculty. Scholars from across the campus and occasionally from other universities are invited to present their work at a forum. From time to time, Ph.D. students are also invited to present their work to the forum. Each individual forum will be listed in the above schedule when details are known.

In 2001 and 2002 , Ph.D. students organized the Ph.D. students organized a colloquia to share their work in a friendly environment. The last series we had was the Fall 2002 Ph.D. Colloquia Series. Such a series could be reestablished if there was an interest. If you are interested in leading such a series, please contact Don Drumtra for his experience on leading the 2002 Colloquia

Orientations

New students (and even old) might appreciate the following two Orientation Websites:

UT Graduate School: http://www.utexas.edu/ogs/orientation/
iSchool: http://www.ischool.utexas.edu/orientation/

Ph.D. Requirement Overview

Disclaimer. The following information is compiled from various sources and is current as of the time it was written and the documents available. It is not official UT, Graduate School, or School of Information policy. It is offered to help Ph.D. students gain an overview of Ph.D. requirements. Please refer to official sources for current information before taking irreversible action.

General. UT Graduate School requirements for award of the Ph.D. degree are listed in the UT Graduate Catalog. Detailed requirements for the School of Information are listed the provided on the Doctor of Philosophy Webpage. Lisa Kleinman provided an unofficial summary of the requirements to the participants in the Fall 2004 Ph.D. Orientation.

Milestones. Program milestones consist of development and approval of a Program of Study, satisfactory completion of course work and a comprehensive doctoral examination including written, oral, and research components, presentation and approval of credentials to Graduate School (including a separate Program of Work), approval of a dissertation proposal, research and completion of a dissertation culminating in a final examination consisting of defense of the the dissertation and final presentation approval of the student's credentials to the Graduate School. Administrative progress through most of these milestones is described in the Checklist for the Doctoral Program (1993). Annual reviews are submitted to the students Advising Committee so that the committee may evaluate the student's progress. The student's Supervising Committee monitors the student's progress after the student reaches candidacy.

Graduate Studies Committee. Within the School of Information, the Graduate Studies Committee or GSC approves the students Program of Study and Annual review.

Doctoral Program of Study. The content of the Program of Study is provided in the Guidelines for Development of the Doctoral Program of Study (ca. 1993). Lisa Kleinman and Don Drumtra have posted examples of their approved programs on their Websites.

Annual Review. Required content of the Annual Reviews is provided in the Annual Review of GSLIS Doctoral Students (2002) and the Annual Review of Ph.D. Students (draft, 2003). Lisa Kleinman and Don Drumtra have posted examples of their approved Annual Reviews on their Websites.

Qualifying Procedures. In order to qualify to apply for candidacy, the iSchool requires a written exam and oral defense (often called the comprehensive exam or "comps") and a research paper or "mini proposal" to be accepted by the student's committee. This committee (perhaps, it should be called the Examination Committee) ordinarily consists of three members of the iSchool faculty and one outside member. The three iSchool members could be your Advising Committee, potential members of your Supervising Committee, or any other three members who agree to serve. Ron Houston and Don Drumtra have volunteered to post their comps as two different examples of what was required. Their exams were open book and emailed to them on Monday at 8 AM with a response was due by Friday at 5 PM. But since the exams are student and committee dependent, another student's may be completely different. Ron and Don have volunteered to answer any questions you might have about their experiences.

Application for Candidacy. On June 1, 2004 the UT Office of Graduate Studies automated the application for candidacy and placed it online. Instructions for completion of and a link to the actual online form is provided in the application Webpage. Other candidacy requirements are also provided on that page including the requirement for the Program of Work.

Program of Work. The Program of Work is a document submitted to the Graduate School upon application for candidacy. It is discussed under "Certification of Academic Credentials" on the Application for Doctoral Candidacy Webpage. It is the "list of courses taken toward the doctoral degree." Additional details about courses included in the Program of work are provided in the Graduate Catalog.

Dissertation. Requirements for the content of your dissertation are developed between you and your Supervising Committee and the Graduate School sets guidelines for format. There are two format guidelines are provided by the Graduate School (Office of Graduate Studies or OGS), print guidelines and electronic submission guidelines. Even though you must submit your dissertation electronically, you would do well to meet both guidelines because someone might very well want to print your dissertation in the future. An a point of interest, the final authority on both the content and format of your dissertation is your Supervisory Committee--not the folks in the Office of Graduate Studies. However, the OGS folks can make life really difficult for you if you do not listen to them.

Dr. Harmon and eleven other UT advisors have published dissertation tips for doctoral students.  It is posted on the UT Intellectual Entrepreneurship, Dissertation List-Serve and Resources Webpage. The Webpage also contains a dissertation writing bibliography, reflections of former graduate deans on dissertation completion, advice from UT alumni, and numerous other useful items for Ph.D. students.

Final Oral Exam (Defense of Dissertation. A satisfactory final oral examination is required for the approval of a dissertation. The Office of Graduate Studies publishes the time and place of this examination. The exam is open to all members of the University community and the public, unless attendance is restricted by the Graduate Studies Committee. Information is available in the Graduate Catalog and an application form are available from the Office of Graduate Studies.

Application for Graduation. There are lots of forms for graduation listed by the Office of Graduate Studies. You would be well advised to visit the office of Graduate Studies well before the deadlines to be sure you have the latest information and do not forget an essential form the absence of which might hold up your graduation.

Graduation. After all that work you won't want to miss the graduation celebration and fireworks at the end of the spring semester. UT introduced a new doctoral robe in 2001, which will be first available for graduating students in May, 2005. You can be one of the first scholars to wear one.

Additional Sources. The University of Texas and the UT Office of Graduate Studies provide the latest information on degree and administrative requirements requirements in three publications:

• The University of Texas at Austin, Handbook or Operating Procedures. The HOP provides basic policy and procedures on how the University of Texas at Austin operates. Probably of most interest would be "Chapter 1, Faculty Governance, Section II, The Graduate School" dealing with what the Graduate School and the Graduate Studies Committees do.
• The Graduate Catalog. This publication provides more update information than the HOP but not as much as the Policy Manual below. "Chapter 3. Degree Requirements" is probably the most interesting, but there are items of interest in other sections as well.
• Graduate School Policy Manual. This manual supplements the HOP and Graduate providing details on OGS administrative procedures not adequately covered in the two publications.
  
• In addition The University of Texas at Austin, Revised Handbook of Operating Procedures and the Original Policy Memoranda may provide curious details that could impact Ph.D. programs. Also, for anyone really interested, Texas Law and UT System Regent's Rules and Regulations provide the underlying basis for the UT Austin HOP and other rules impacting Ph.D. students. "Part one, Chapter5, Graduate Education in the University of Texas System" is the section that is probably of most interest to Ph.D. students, but other sections are not without interest.

Course Comments of Ph.D. Students

Moved Here

Information on Qualitative Research Methods. In September 2004, Dr. Davis loaned a copy of the three-volume Sage Encyclopedia of Social Science Research Methods (2004) to the lab for our use. It not only provides excellent summaries of lots of issues and topics related to research methodology, but it provides reference sources under each topic to allow further exploration. A copy is also available is also at the PCL reference desk.

Content Manager: Don Drumtra . Updated, 2006 February 21