Digital Commons Network^™

Opening The Dissertation: Overcoming Cultural Calcification And Agoraphobia, Denise Troll Covey

Denise Troll Covey

This article places the struggle to open access to the dissertation in the context of the crisis in doctoral education and the transition from print to digital literacy. It explores the underlying cultural calcification and agoraphobia that deter engagement with openness. Solving the problems will require overhauling the curriculum and conventions of doctoral education. Opening access to dissertations is an important first step, but insufficient to end the crisis. Only opening other dimensions of the dissertation -- the structure, media, notion of authorship, and methods of assessment -- can foster the digital literacy needed to save PhD programs from extinction. …