Dissertation from Afar

Most of the research for my dissertation was done in the DDD lab at PGSP, but the final touches on the manuscript happened primarily at the Milwaukee VA Hospital.  I think for clinical psychology students in general, the experience can be somewhat atypical in that we are usually on internship when the final lap of the dissertation is coming to a close — often far from our home institution.  For several people in my cohort, this has meant flights back to the home institution to collect additional data, wrangle with committees, and finally to defend.

UW Milwaukee Library

For me this was brought home as I inserted the final changes recommended by my committee — I was sitting in Roast Coffee Shop and then moved to the UWM libraries for the final details to work on some faster machines.  The last leg was actually completed in the halls of an entirely different institution.  This felt comforting to me in some ways as I listened to the chatter of undergraduates about their papers – arguing about the meaning of the word “plurality” – thinking about the last 10 years of higher education, the process of transformation into a scholar and (hopefully) a healer.  In spite of the 2,000 miles between me and my home institution and advisor, the work of the university was going on around me.

It is fairly typical for one member of the committee join during the defense by phone — particularly consulting faculty.  However, I am wondering if and when the day will come for virtual or  tele-presence dissertation defense proceedings?  It would be interesting to hear if anyone has done this yet.  I don’t think it would be for me, but particularly for highly specialized topics, I can imagine this becoming common place in the future.