Academic Dissertations in the News

PhD Student discovers previously unknown ancient Egyptian cemetery

5 July 2023

Since 2022, the egyptologist, archeologist, and PhD candidate has been working with Princeton University and the Ministry of Antiques in Egypt on an excavation in Abydos. Here, she along with her team made the discovery of a previously unknown cemetery that could fundamentally change our understanding of the time period from which it’s from.

We had no idea that these burials were occurring at this site.” Smith-Sangster said. “That’s a really significant data point…for as much as we know, we still know very little.

Read article at https://www.app.com/story/news/local/2023/07/05/princeton-student-discovers-egyptian-cemetery-emily-smith-sangster/70373706007/

PhD student solves a mysterious ancient Sanskrit text algorithm after 2,500 years

15 February 2023

A Cambridge Ph.D. student has solved a grammatical problem that has befuddled Sanskrit scholars since the 5th century BC.

Pāṇini's Aṣṭādhyāyī is an important work for understanding classical Sanskrit. But for centuries, a grammatical problem surrounding a meta-rule has risked readers misinterpreting the text.  R's original intention. By solving this grammatical problem, Rajpopat ishi Rajpopat, a Cambridge Ph.D. student, has solved the grammatical problem by rediscovering Pāṇinihas given modern scholars a fresh means to interpret and understand this wealth of human achievement.

Read story at https://bigthink.com/the-past/ancient-sanskrit-text-algorithm-solved/

Advice for Completing a Thesis or Dissertation

1 January 2022

Research on graduate students' experiences with writing a thesis or dissertation suggests many students aren’t always sure what to expect when they begin the process. Dr. Ken Oldfield, professor emeritus at the University of Illinois, Springfield, offers these strategies along with some tips on how to manage the process.

* Start early.
* Choose your adviser wisely.
* Choose your supervisory committee wisely.
* Choose your topic…wisely.
* Take notes.
* Keep copies of everything.
* Ask for help.
* Just do it.

Read article at University of Nebraska–Lincoln

Top DeSantis official embraced critical race theory in dissertation

22 December 2021

Gov. Ron DeSantis has called critical race theory a “Marxist” ideology that has no place in public schools. But a top official in his administration had previously taken a very different stance.

Eric Hall, who DeSantis recently appointed to head Florida’s Department of Juvenile Justice, used critical race theory as the bedrock of his 2014 dissertation examining alternative schools.

Read story at Politico.com

Naomi Wolf wanted extra year-long embargo on controversial thesis

3 July 2021

By Jack Grove for Times Higher Education.

Oxford rejected her request to delay release of error-strewn dissertation.

Naomi Wolf attempted to block the publication of her error-strewn doctoral thesis for a further year after submitting it to the University of Oxford’s digital archive more than five years late.
According to internal emails seen by Times Higher Education, the American feminist requested an additional extension to embargo her D.Phil. dissertation after depositing it, alongside a lengthy corrections sheet, with Oxford’s research archive at the end of December 2020.

Read more at Inside Higher Education