The Emerging Scholars Blog

Inside Higher Ed reports today on National Science Foundation’s data on 2007 earned doctorates. Overall, 48,079 doctorates were awarded by U.S. institutions last year, an increase of 5.4% over 2006. This is the fifth straight year of increases.

Humanities Ph.D.s, however, declined 4.6%, led by “Letters” (English literature & language, classics, etc.), which declined by 6.9%. Wow. What this means for literature fields, I’m not sure. I’d be interested in seeing how the MLA or other associations interpret the data.

Here’s a good opportunity to help you finish your Ph.D.: The Charlotte W. Newcombe Doctoral Dissertation Fellowship. From their website:

The Charlotte W. Newcombe Doctoral Dissertation Fellowships are designed to encourage original and significant study of ethical or religious values in all fields of the humanities and social sciences, and particularly to help Ph.D. candidates in these fields complete their dissertation work in a timely manner. In addition to topics in religious studies or in ethics (philosophical or religious), dissertations appropriate to the Newcombe Fellowship competition might explore the ethical implications of foreign policy, the values influencing political decisions, the moral codes of other cultures, and religious or ethical issues reflected in history or literature.

Each one-year fellowship is worth $24,000, and you must be planning to submit your Ph.D. or Th.D. by summer 2010. The deadline is November 14, so you need to apply soon.

Link: Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation (HT: Gail Neal at Biola, via Stan Wallace)

Inside Higher Ed reports on new data from the Council of Graduate Schools’s Ph.D. Completion Project. It finds “significant gaps” in Ph.D. completion rates among different demographic groups. IHE’s summary:

Generally, foreign, male, and white students are more likely to earn their doctorates after 10 years than are their counterparts who are American, female or minority.

The gaps vary greatly across disciplines. For example, in engineering, life sciences, and physical sciences, men are more likely to finish their Ph.D.s within 10 years than women, but in the humanities and social sciences, women are more likely to finish.

International students are also more likely to finish than domestic students. One theory is that international students feel real pressure to finish because of their visas’ expiration dates, though one commenter notes that domestic students typically have greater access to financial resources.

The article is worth reading. Any thoughts about why these gaps exist?

Science Out in the Open

Young scientists making their research results open to the public, challenging the standard means of publishing results, and opening themselves up to criticism.

Out in the Open (Boston Globe) (HT: Culture Making)

Historically Black Colleges Producing More PhDs

After falling for several years, the number of PhD recipients produced by historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) is on the rise.

Who Produces Black Ph.D.’s? (Inside Higher Ed)

Teach Them to Challenge Authority

Inside Higher Ed speaks with Gregory S. Prince Jr., former president of Hampshire College and author of Teach Them to Challenge Authority: Educating for Healthy Societies. Prince argues that taking a “neutral stance” in the classroom is the wrong approach:

Faculty need to take positions so that students can learn how to challenge those in authority. How a faculty member takes a positions is what is critical. It is an art both to take positions and to create an atmosphere in which students will learn how to challenge those positions

Teach Them to Challenge Authority (Inside Higher Ed)

Get Reporters to Call You

If you are an expert on something (and if you have a PhD, then you most definitely are!), check out the website HelpAReporter.com. It is a free subscription service that connects journalists with expert sources. According to the home page, after you sign up, you will receive up to 3 emails a day, with 15 to 30 queries each, listing reporters who are looking for expert sources. Just don’t let all the publicity go to your head!

HelpAReport.com (HT: Seth Godin)