Ray
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Rayvon Fouché: [00:00:00] The good, the bad, and the ugly of dissertation committees. Yeah, so I guess first I hope you all have wonderful dissertation committees who work together collaboratively, thoughtfully, and are all on the same page, Work smoothly together, but sometimes it does not work that way. I've been in a few meeting committee conversations where oftentimes there are people that don't get along and they come from different intellectual backgrounds, which on service, they would look like they would be good partners or the committee. And they are in the abstract when they're talking with you and specifically thinking about your work. But when they're in that meeting, It becomes a conflict between those two people, and the dissertation or the project drops to the bottom, and it becomes this Intellectual, at best, argument or personal, at [00:01:00] worst, between two people.

So just think about the personalities in on your committee. And if you know that there are two people that you like to have on your committee that probably don't get along, or they probably don't see eye to eye, then you've got to find I would call them the interstitial person. The person who gets along with those 2 people and can manage those different personalities. Oftentimes I've played that role of that person in the middle and making sure everything works smoothly.

I think part of it is that, right? I think this is about more committees beyond your advisor because I think advisors are important and meaningful. And those are the people that, are going to do a lot of the labor and work with advising and thinking about reading your work. But part of it is, I would say is what do you want the other people to do?

And I think there, there are certain roles that people have. So I think [00:02:00] part of it will just call one of them. I think of the role. I just call it function and meaning. What functions do you want people to serve? And right? Jasmine, you're in psychology, right? Do you want an African Americanist to read your stuff? Do you need that functional, just okay, I just need, I just want someone who's familiar with this literature, read your stuff or, whatever place you want them to do this functional work for you that is about helping you build a stronger dissertation and the way you want it to work.

Part of that is do you need- and some of the people just want I want someone to read my stuff. This is a person that you may have taken a class with, or just know, and they college and you respect their stuff and how they read and you can say, I just need you to read this. I'm not asking for you to get into the weeds with me about it, but just say, okay, so this makes really sense, good sense. This is a [00:03:00] compelling, exciting argument. So I think there are all different ways that you can have people be functional and function for that. 

Then this is other wrinkle is that each of you all can have someone from outside of the of that space.

And and some of the ways, what do you want those people to do? Do you want someone that's well known in the intellectual world that you're trying to contribute to be on your committee? And part of that is thinking about the next step down the line. Do you want someone to help share your ideas?

Because part of it is that you have to remember people talk about back members talk about the committees around with people, the things that they're reading and thinking about potentially, to have someone who's in different lots of different spaces who can talk about your work is very useful from just marketing your work to job prospects to just thinking about it in different places. 

The other wrinkle is [00:04:00] thinking about letter writing. And I know this is the multiple steps down the line, but eventually people are going to have to write you letters for jobs and opportunities and or all of it. And so part of the thing is, where do you want to potentially land, and will those committee members allow you entree into that space?

So I think this is a conversation about those external members, connections and committees. And I think I, I fall into places where people are saying, and communication, media studies, African American studies that want some legitimacy in kind of this world. We'll call it science, technology, science, studies, science, and culture that space.

By having me on that committee, I opened the door and says, yes, I'm on this person's committee. So I am writing to [00:05:00] legitimate them that they can fit in this space as well. 

So that's part of the thing is so who do you want? What other spaces do you want to enter? And how can you have those committee people write letters for you?

And I think part of it is not short term and thinking about those letters. It's who can contribute and write letters for you for 5 years post dissertation. And part of that is right I don't want to disparage any of my colleagues who are undependable and are not good at getting back emails, but part of the deal is as a committee member outside on this, is that your commitment to the people you work with doesn't end once the dissertation defense is over.

So part of that is trying to figure out how to build relationships with people who will- you can depend on and in the biggest examples depend on it is that you found this wonderful opportunity. The application is due in [00:06:00] 3 days and you need 3 letters. And who can you call send an email to at Friday night midnight and say, I know this late, but can you get that letter in on Monday by noon and you need those people in your quiver because it's going to happen.

And who can you depend on?