Ph.D. Colloquium

Sec 001, Cat 3615, 2nd Yr PhD Students
Sec 002, Cat 82197, 1st Yr PhD Students

For the new incoming students, you are probably wondering what the PhD Colloquium is about. Put briefly, it is a way to get you started on your doctoral research in a collegiate setting. The Colloquium does not replace your Committee,  but it pushes you define your research question so that by the end of the second year, you are ready to take the Comprehensive Exam which is supposed to ”frame” your research (see below).

You are probably wondering why we need the Colloquium, especially as you have had to present a research project to be admitted to the Program. Although you may have a general idea of the kind of research you would like to do, it is inevitable that over the course of the first two years, your ideas will undergo a change. Some of this will come from discussions in the Colloquium, others from discussions with your supervisory committee, and still others from the outside courses which we hope you will take to stimulate your thinking as well as allow you to scan the field of who might serve as an outside member on your committee. Questions of method also need to be addressed, but first you must have a fairly good grasp of what I call the question of which you are in pursuit.

First and second year students—we will have six this year—are  required to take the colloquium for credit.  To obtain credit, you will have to make two oral presentations of your ideas for a dissertation, one in the Fall and the other during the Winter term.  In addition, you will have to prepare a written paper of between 4000 and 6000 words which is to be handed in at the end of the second term.  Your grade will be based on both this paper and your active participation in  our bi-weekly meetings.

The normal procedure is for students to present their research ideas twice over the course of the year, typically but not necessarily in the form of power point presentations accompanied by handouts as appropriate.  It is understood that the ideas of first year students are preliminary/ exploratory, whereas second-year students are expected to be further along in their studies and already have a reasonable grip on their basic research question.

As a general rule the Comprehensive Examination (see website for particulars) precedes the writing of the prospectus document.  But without knowing what your research question is going to be, you cannot know the subjects on which you will want to be examined in the comprehensive paper/s: the two documents are closely linked.  It is for this reason that we have decided on the mandatory nature of PLAN 603 and its required contents, which is a first stab at identifying the central research question/s you will be addressing in your dissertation work.

Our first meeting this year will be on 12 September. Please be prepared to talk for 5-10 minutes about the research you expect to pursue. This will give all of us a better idea of what we’ll be talking about for the next two years.

Finally, the Colloquium also serves to cement relations among each cohort of incoming and older students and is as much a social as an intellectual event.