Graduate School dean honored for "impeccable
scholarship"
Dean Jon Butler returned to his alma mater in
December to deliver the commencement address at the University of Minnesota's
College of Liberal Arts. Butler, who earned both his BA and his PhD in history
from the University of Minnesota, received an honorary doctor of science degree
for his "impeccable, deeply researched scholarship," his efforts to "increase
public understanding of American history and religion," and his "incandescent
ability to reimagine the past."
"This great university gave me everything I could
ever have wanted as a student, a person, ultimately as someone from a Minnesota
farm town who simply wanted to be a historian," Butler said in his speech. Dean
Butler joined the Yale faculty in 1985. Author of numerous prizewinning books
on the role of religion in American history, he is the Howard R. Lamar
Professor of American Studies, History, and Religious Studies. He served as
chair of the American Studies program and the Department of History and
director of the Division of the Humanities before becoming dean of the Graduate
School in 2004.
Renewing the PhD: the 2-4 project
During the second, third, and fourth years of their
doctoral programs, most PhD students move from formal class work to independent
scholarship. Science students complete lab rotations and exams, choose an
adviser and a lab, write a dissertation prospectus, and begin independent
research and writing. Humanities and social science students finish their last
courses, take exams, write a prospectus, and begin teaching. When all goes
smoothly, students advance to candidacy by the end of the third year and are
deeply engaged in dissertation research in the fourth year. But sometimes
all doesn't go smoothly, and progress gets stalled.
Last semester, all academic departments in the
Graduate School were asked to evaluate the second, third, and fourth years of
their doctoral programs. "We want our PhD programs to show greater flexibility,
imagination, and responsiveness to shifting intellectual needs, student
aspirations, and broadening professional opportunities and demands," the dean
wrote, outlining the project. Students should be able to advance "to candidacy
efficiently and with confidence, so that the researching and writing of the
dissertation is neither unduly delayed nor fraught with anxiety."
Departments were given questions to consider on such
topics as course requirements, exams, and the ways in which departments mentor,
evaluate, and communicate expectations to their students. Reports and
recommendations for change were submitted to the dean in December.
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