Third Year and Beyond

The student completes a written Dissertation Proposal that must be submitted and orally defended by the end of the sixth semester. The only remaining requirement before admission to formal candidacy for the Ph.D. is completion of a foreign language requirement. In many cases, the IDPAS requires submission of a research grant to obtain funds necessary for field, museum, or experimental research. IDPAS students have had extraordinary success at raising external funds for their dissertation research. The Dissertation Guidance Committee oversees the completion of the dissertation research, writing, and defense. The defense includes a public defense as well as a defense to the committee.

IDPAS students are expected to become effective teachers, and the IDPAS accomplishes this goal in several ways. Virtually all students at some point serve as a teaching assistant for a course. They are typically asked to provide at least one guest lecture for that course, which is reviewed by the course instructor. Later in their careers, students may be asked to deliver a course as the course instructor. Under the supervision of a faculty member, the student will develop and deliver the lecture series.