Following completion of three years of coursework and all examinations, a student will be advanced to dissertation stage. The dissertation constitutes a significant and original contribution to a field or fields of scholarship in ancient world studies. It is undertaken under the supervision of (usually) one primary faculty advisor, along with a dissertation committee of at least two other faculty members. Generally, it is expected that it will be completed by the end of the student’s fifth year in the program. Characteristically, students will remain in Philadelphia while engaged with their dissertations, so that they can consult regularly with their advisor and committee, participate in dissertation workshops with their peers, and continue to attend colloquia and talks on a regular basis. In these ways, students can obtain regular feedback on their progress and, equally important, remain part of the intellectual community around them.
Supervisor and Committee
Students will usually have one primary faculty advisor for the dissertation, who is a standing member of the Ancient History Graduate Group. This advisor will serve as chair of the student’s dissertation committee, which will include two or more secondary advisors, who are generally also members of the Group. In some circumstances, the dissertation chair and Graduate Group Chair, in conjunction with the student, may decide to appoint a member of the dissertation committee from outside the Group. Students meet regularly with their primary advisors, especially in the early stages of their project.
Prospectus
In the spring of the third year in the program, all students participate in a prospectus workshop as one of their courses in that semester. A full dissertation proposal outlining the topic, structure, goals, and methodology of the dissertation, along with a research bibliography, must be submitted to the Graduate Group Chair for distribution to the examiners at least two weeks before the Preliminary Examination. The Prospectus will then be discussed at the oral examination (see above). If the Prospectus is deemed satisfactory, the student will be admitted to candidacy for the PhD degree. If the submitted Prospectus is deemed unsatisfactory, the examiners will decide whether the student should revise the Prospectus within a specified time frame and re-submit it for further discussion, or leave the program.
Satisfactory Progress
The dissertation must be completed within five years of completing the Preliminary Examination. Together, the dissertation chair and the Chair of the Graduate Group will regularly assess the state of the student’s progress towards completion. Students who have not completed the dissertation within five years of first registering for dissertation tuition are required to submit a revised dissertation Prospectus and to repeat that portion of the Preliminary Examination that involves defending the Prospectus before a committee of at least three examiners. The revised Prospectus must include an account of the current state of scholarship on the topic and an up-to-date bibliography.
Defense
Candidates for the PhD degree are required to defend the dissertation formally. The dissertation defense will be scheduled only when the chair of the dissertation committee, in consultation with the other committee members, has confirmed that the dissertation is close to completion.
“Close to completion” implies the following:
1. All individual chapters, including the introduction and conclusion, have been read and commented upon by all committee members; all suggested revisions to each chapter have been acted upon to the satisfaction of all committee members.
2. The final order of chapters has been determined and all chapters, including introduction and conclusion, have been revised accordingly.
3. A complete bibliography of works cited has been compiled.
A draft of the whole dissertation incorporating all suggested revisions must be submitted to the committee at least two weeks before the scheduled defense.
The defense consists of two steps, typically to be scheduled in the same week:
1. Dissertation Review: The Chair of the Graduate Group, the dissertation advisor, and the other members of the committee confer about the dissertation and decide if further revisions are going to be requested. They then meet with the student to discuss the project as a whole and outline any remaining requirements for the completion and deposit of the dissertation. The discussion also includes consideration of the student’s career plans and the next steps on the project and beyond.
2. Public Defense: The student will give a public oral presentation of the dissertation for approximately 40-45 minutes, followed by an open-floor question period. The presentation may focus on a selected portion of the dissertation but must include an account of the whole. The public defense is chaired by someone NOT on the dissertation committee, such as the Chair of the Graduate Group or any other member of the standing faculty. Immediately following the defense, the committee will decide whether the dissertation has been satisfactorily defended.
Students who finish their dissertations in the summer months may have to defer their defense until the fall semester.
Deposit
After the successful defense, the student must revise the dissertation as recommended by the committee. In all cases, the finalized dissertation must be read and approved by the candidate's dissertation advisor and the other members of the dissertation committee before the dissertation is deposited formally. The finalized dissertation must follow the format prescribed in the Dissertation Formatting Guide. All dissertations must be submitted electronically. Candidates are encouraged to familiarize themselves early on with the guidelines and requirements published by the Office of the Provost and should make an appointment for depositing the dissertation well in advance.