1st Edition
Women Scholars: Navigating the Doctoral Journey
Over and over, studies have concluded that the doctoral experience is a monumental challenge in higher education, particularly for women. This book, Women Scholars: Navigating the Doctoral Journey, provides an enlightening ethnographic look at women and their doctoral developmental experiences. The book’s aim is to empower women to be able to contextualize their experience while also offering support and inspiring readers to consider alternative ways to successfully approach the doctoral process. Women anticipating and entering the life of academia will benefit from the voices and experiences shared by the women scholars in this book.
The essay writers in this volume offer an examination of critical incidents in their doctoral experiences and offer strategies they have found helpful in managing those incidents. The book also addresses challenges presented by the transition from doctoral study to post-doc employment. The volume presents 46 essays from 40 women representing a range of ages, ethnicities, academic disciplines, sexual orientations, family circumstances, and family educational histories. Their stories are told in five stages:
Stage 1: Preadmission to Enrollment
Stage 2: First Year of Program
Stage 3: Second Year Through Candidacy
Stage 4: The Dissertation Stage
Stage 5: Completion and Transition to Employment
These are stories of empowerment, of pitfalls and barriers overcome, of successful negotiations of the graduate school process, of the joys and challenges of scholarly pursuits, of positive help-seeking behaviors and strategies, and of life after the dissertation is completed.
Potential applicants for doctoral studies will walk away with a sense that graduate education is possible and that one can be successful. Higher educators in doctoral programs, as well, will acquire a deeper understanding and appreciation for the idiosyncratic challenges facing their female students and, one hopes, develop policies and/or strategies and behaviors that empower and encourage these students’ completion of their doctoral studies.
From the Concrete Walls of Spanish Harlem to the Mosaic Tiles of Academia
Sherlene Ayala
Do I Really Want or Need a Doctorate, and How Do I Choose the Right Program for Me?
Delmy M. Lendof
You Can’t Do That!
Cherie L. King
"Good Moms Don’t Go to Doctoral Programs"
Jody J. Fiorini
First Steps
Margaret Leone
Making the PhD Happen, Stage 1: Preadmission to Enrollment
Anne Toolan Rowley
The Overnight Psychologist
Hillary Hurst Bush
Not All Who Wander Are Lost
Beverly A. Burnell
The Ticket to the Dance
Emily Phillips
The Importance of a Successful Peer Support Group
Anna W. Nolan
The Language of the Academy: An English Language Learner in a Doctoral Program
Cinzia Pica-Smith
The Doctoral Experience: One Single Woman’s Response to the (Mis)perceptions of Academic Peers and Family
Maureen E. Squires
My First Year: Is Work-Life Balance Achievable?
Cherie L. King
Ahead of the Curve
Deborah J. Smith
"You Can’t Make a Silk Purse Out of a Sow’s Ear," My Mother Said
Signe M. Kastberg
Widening the Circle
Kim R. Harris and Lucille W. Ijoy
"My Keepers": The Power of Mentorship During the First Year Doctoral Experience
Markesha Miller
Making the PhD Happen, Stage II: First Year of Program
Anne Toolan Rowley
This Was Not the Original Plan
Jamie S. Switzer
Who Would Have Thought?
Jelane A. Kennedy
Against All Odds: Persevering While Pursuing the PhD
Nadja C. Johnson
Mentoring: A Real Relationship
Allison M. Hrovat, Melissa Luke
"Lift as We Climb": Community in Doctoral Education
Liza A. Talusan
And This Too Shall Pass
Nancy L. Elwess
From ABD to EdD/PhD
Yettieve A. Marquez-Santana
Making the PhD Happen: Part 3
Anne Toolan Rowley
The Big Push
Cherie L. King
Advancing Through Candidacy: Selecting a Dissertation Topic, Chair, and Committee
Maureen E. Squires
When Motherhood and PhD Collide: The Power of Positive Messages
Kate Bresonis McKee
Promise and Potential: How I Lost and Found My Scholarly Counseling Self
Karen L. Mackie
A Greater Purpose
Wanda I. Montañez
Monsters
Silvia Mejía
The Importance of Social Capital and Internal Determination
Terri Ward
Mrs., Mommy, Doctor: The Dissertation Phase
Cherie L. King
Making the PhD Happen: Part 4
Anne Toolan Rowley
Talking Me Off the Ledge
Wendy Neifeld Wheeler
A Place for Me
Aja E. LaDuke
My Albatross: Completing the Dissertation at Last
Jennifer A. Brown
A Story of Thriving and Arriving: My Online PhD Journey
Patrice Jenkins
The Doctoral Study: The Intertwined Professional Transition and Personal Transformation
Ying Tang
Dear Miles: Letters from a Grateful PhD Student
Kit Anderson
Why Perseverance Was Crucial
Eileen Cecilione
"Finish Wisely"
Seema Rivera
And for You
Tammy Lynn Garren
Finding My Scholarly Voice
Michelle C. Sterk Barrett
Finding Your Cape: Discovering the Educator Inside
Susannah C. Coaston
Biography
Jelane A. Kennedy, EdD, is an Associate Professor in the Student Development and Higher Education Program, Counselor Education and Family Therapy at Central Connecticut State University, New Britain, CT. She was previously Professor in the Counseling and College Student Services Department at The College of Saint Rose, Albany, New York. She teaches graduate students in the both Counseling and College Student Services. At The College of Saint Rose, she had been the Program Coordinator of College Student Services for 20+ years. Some of her areas of professional focus have been career development, cultural competency, and ethical practices. She has worked with numerous students completing their theses and has coached doctoral students from other colleges as they have worked to complete their programs. She has also mentored master’s level students entering doctoral programs. Dr. Kennedy began her career working in student affairs primarily in the area of career services.
Beverly A. Burnell, PhD, Professor Ementa at the State University of New York (SUNY) at Plattsburgh, and also served as the Employee Assistance Program Coordinator for the campus. She taught graduate students in the department’s nationally accredited Clinical Mental Health Counseling program and the program in Student Affairs and Higher Education. Some of her areas of professional focus have been career development, counselor professional roles and identity, ethical practice, cultural competence, and transition processes for students with disabilities. Dr. Burnell has been an active contributor to the design of nationally accredited graduate programs in Teacher Education and Counselor Education and has coordinated the accreditation process for the Counselor Education Department. Dr. Burnell began her education career as a secondary mathematics teacher and has been a college career counselor, academic advisor, and personal counselor.
"Professors Kennedy and Burnell have captured generalized guidelines and tactical advice for pursuing doctoral education in their new book. Divided into multiple chapters, each begins with an overview of the phases or stages of doctoral education that will be of use to those considering this pursuit or in the throes of it. . . . The more compelling aspects are the stories of women from all walks who chose this path and their lived experiences while doing so. Practical, heart-wrenching, inspiring, compelling, and cause for personal reflection by every reader, this compilation shows the current state of doctoral studies from the inside out. Future graduate students and current faculty need to critically consider the stories included here if we want to improve the opportunities and possibilities for all women."
—Marilyn J. Amey, Mildred B. Erickson Endowed Chair, Professor and Chair, Department of Educational Administration, Michigan State University
