[Vision2020] English vs. US PhDs

[Joan Opyr]

Thanks, Nick, for stressing the distinctions between the PhD as most of us 
understand it and thesis-only doctorates.  I have yet to finish my own PhD 
(in English, Ohio State University) because I haven't written my 
dissertation.  My area of study was Anglo-Saxon.  I completed the 
coursework; passed the fluency exam in French; studied Latin, Old Norse, and 
Gothic; taught freshman composition and introduction to literature courses 
as a TA; and wrote articles for presentation at conferences and for 
submission to juried publications.  (Two articles were returned to me with 
nasty notes written in the margins, suggesting editorial changes that I 
ultimately refused to make.  Sometimes in the scary world of academe, you 
think your articles are clever and cutting-edge, and then you discover that 
they're being reviewed by the very scholars you've dismissed as old hat and 
irrelevant.  That's the pain of peer review . . . you can't pick your 
peers.)

I began my medieval work as a Master's student at North Carolina State 
University, a degree I did finish, and then carried on at Ohio State before 
deciding that, really, what I wanted to be was a novelist.  And so, I moved 
out here to attend the School of Hard Knocks.  I can't say that I regret it 
-- though after the Idaho House vote yesterday, I did wonder.

That said, I do think it's important to recognize that thesis-only 
doctorates can indeed reflect good and perhaps even brilliant scholarship.  
I believe Jane Goodall wrote a thesis about her work with chimpanzees and 
was awarded the doctorate without coursework.  (Don't quote me on this.  My 
recollection is based on a talk she gave twenty years ago in North Carolina, 
and on the brief star-struck conversation I had with her at the book-signing 
afterward.  Well, she talked, and I let my mouth hang open and the flies 
buzz in.)  Now, no one could argue that Jane Goodall doesn't understand 
chimp behavior, or that a few graduate classes at Oxford or Cambridge would 
make her a better scholar than she already is.  Life experience does count 
for something.  So do intelligence, original thinking, and the value of 
one's contributions to the field.

I don't worship academic degrees, but I respect the work, the knowledge, and 
the achievement that they represent.  As regular readers of this list know, 
I was ordained a minister by the Universal Life Church back in December.  I 
did it online and it took about two minutes.  What you might not know is 
that for 105 bucks and a score of 75% on a ULC pop quiz, they'll also award 
you a PhD in Religion.  Now, if I sprang for that and passed the test, would 
I be Nick's equal on the job market?

No.  And if I ate bananas and lived in a tree, I don't think I'd fool Jane 
Goodall, either.

Joan Opyr/Aunt Monkey Establishment

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