Culminating
Events:
Culminating event for the degree program
Dissertation
Dissertation Advising Committee Information
Dissertations are directed by students' Dissertation Advisors and Committees. Dissertation Committees are formed by students upon completion of all preliminary and technical examination and are approved by the Graduate Committee upon petition. The doctoral advisory committee must include at least two graduate faculty members from the anthropology department, one of these two must be the chair of the committee. They may have the same membership as the Ph.D. Examination Committee. The Doctoral Advisory Committee may be expanded to include graduate faculty from other Temple programs as well as from other universities. Doctorally prepared expert advisors from outside university settings may also be asked to serve on Doctoral Advisory Committees.
Preliminary Exam Description
All doctoral programs require students to pass a major preliminary examination or set of examinations before being advanced to candidacy. These examinations are intended to test the student's knowledge of the field and, in the case of preliminary examinations, the student's ability to do doctoral research and to write a doctoral dissertation. No student may take the doctoral preliminary examination more than twice. A student who fails a doctoral examination or part thereof twice is automatically dropped from his/her graduate program.
Subject Areas/Major Components of the Preliminary Examination
This examination will be organized by the student's advisor and examination committee. It will cover three topics/areas agreed upon previously by the student and the committee members.
Writing the Questions for the Preliminary Examination
The student and his/her committee will agree on a schedule and format for the written examination. Example: Three days in house at 3-4 hours each day or seven day take home. This will be followed two to four weeks later by an oral examination after the committee members have read the responses to their questions.
Criterion for Passing the Preliminary Examination.
A minimum of three Temple graduate faculty members must approve the content of the preliminary examination; two committee members must be from the anthropology department. The remaining committee member may come from the graduate faculty of other Temple programs or from outside the university provided the Graduate Committee deems them qualified. The composition of the examination committee and the examination topics must be approved by the Graduate Committee prior to the examination. The grading of the examination must be such that no single faculty member makes the decision on whether the student passes or fails the examination. In the instance where a student fails one or more examination question, a member of the Doctoral Preliminary Examination Committee must provide feedback to the student identifying areas of failure and providing suggestions for remediation. A student who does not receive his/her doctoral degree within five years of passing their preliminary examination must re
Dissertation/Monograph Philosophy
A doctoral student is elevated to candidacy when she or he has completed all requirements for the doctoral degree, except the research for, writing of, and defense of the doctoral dissertation. This includes the completion of all required course work, passing the preliminary examination, satisfying the residency, and any language or proficiency requirements. A student can not be elevated to candidacy with an "I" or "NR" grade on her or his transcript. Students must have an approved research/dissertation topic before being elevated to candidacy.
Philosophy of the Proposal
Doctoral students must complete a minimum of six credits of research after achieving candidacy and before graduation. Normally these will be in Dissertation Research 999. However, credits earned in courses with other numbers, provided they are clearly research or dissertation research credits, will also be counted. As these credits reflect continuing work on a single project, a grade is assigned only for the last semester before graduation (A,B,C, F, or P). All previous semesters of such work are transcripted as 'R ' (for 'Registered').
Criterion for Passing the Dissertation and the Defense.
The dissertation must conform to rules set out in the "Guide for Doctoral Dissertations" of the Graduate School.
Dissertation Defense Scheduling
Who Can Attend the Oral Defense. Attendance at the defense is limited to members of the Examining Committee, the student, the student's family, and members of the academic community. If others wish to attend, permission must be obtained in writing from the student and members of the Examining Committee at least five days prior to the defense. If consent is not granted, those seeking permission for others to attend must petition the Dean of the School or College. If there is need for additional appeal, the petitions should be forwarded to the Dean of the Graduate School.
Who Must Attend the Oral Defense. All members of the Doctoral Examining Committee must be physically present for the defense unless exceptions are approved in writing by the Graduate Dean or by his/her designee. Absent members of the Examining Committee must still participate in the defense via a scheduled teleconference, video conference, or, where appropriate, the submission of written comments and questions. No mo
Announcing the Dissertation Defense
Every dissertation defense must be publicly announced in writing at least 10 days in advance of the defense and must be open to the academic community. Minimally, copies of the announcement must be posted on all the public bulletin boards in and around the department, sent to all graduate faculty in the candidate's program and to the Graduate School. The Graduate School will not accept any dissertation for which a defense announcement was not received.
