The Thesis Journey: Travelling with Charley

Ardra L Cole

doi:10.26522/brocked.v13i1.23

Abstract

I chose the title of my talk for two reasons. The first part connects with the book, The Doctoral Thesis Journey, which I co-edited with David Hunt in 1994. The journey metaphor still works for me as a way to talk about the thesis process. The sub-title, Travelling with Charley, is borrowed from an account of a particular kind of journey John Steinbecks’s road trip across the United States with his standard poodle, Charley, chronicled in his classic novel, Travels with Charley. The sub-title connects with a new book that I am working on now, with the working title, Of Dogs and Dissertations: Notes on Thesis Writing and Life.

Highlights

I chose the title of my talk for two reasons
I invite you to pause for a minute and invite a dog you have known or currently know to come forward in your mind. Let him or her be here with you for the 40 minutes or so while we think together about what we can learn about thesis writing from these wonderful creatures
There is much to be learned from dogs if we learn to adopt what Lous Heshusius (1994) would call, a “participatory mode of consciousness” and if we engage with them with patience, openness, and feeling

Summary

Introduction

I chose the title of my talk for two reasons. The first part connects with the book, The Doctoral Thesis Journey, which I co-edited with David Hunt in 1994. I invite you to pause for a minute and invite a dog you have known or currently know to come forward in your mind. Let him or her be here with you for the 40 minutes or so while we think together about what we can learn about thesis writing (among other things) from these wonderful creatures.

Results

Conclusion