Camp Dissertation
Camp Dissertation: A Humane Guide for Tackling Your Weighty Writing Project
Sometimes you can prepare for a sojourn. Plan your route.
Gather resources… But what you cannot know at the beginning of a sojourn is who you will be on the other side.”
—Alexis Pauline Gumbs, Michelle Lanier, and Johnica Rivers, “Sojourn,” Southern Cultures
After years of intense study, finally writing your dissertation might feel emotionally and intellectually impossible. Tiya’s Camp Dissertation: A Humane Guide for Tackling Your Weighty Writing Project is a practical and empathetic guide for current and prospective dissertation writers and anyone seeking to hone their writing practice. Using the metaphor of Camp Dissertation—a crew hiking the mountain of dissertation writing together—Tiya offers concrete strategies drawn from reflections on her own decades of academic writing, collective wisdom from her mentors and colleagues, and testimonies from her former and current students. Personal, at times playful, and always wise, Miles’s advice ranges from how to choose your dissertation topic to how to balance the evolving commitments of graduate studies, teaching, financial stressors, and personal and family life.
Camp Dissertation is a rare, honest look at the joys and challenges of dissertation writing, supporting students with tools and techniques to tackle every stage of the journey.
Camp Dissertation is available for purchase in paperback and ebook formats.
PRAISE
”Advisors often seek to alleviate stress by reminding students that they are not their dissertations, and their dissertations are not them. Tiya Miles offers a wise twist on that advice: it is precisely what makes you you and connects you meaningfully to others that will get the dissertation done. Drawing generously from Miles’ own experience and relaying testimonies from her many students, this delightful, doable, humorous, and human-scale guide to the art of the dissertation is a gift to writers at all stages.”
—Paulina Alberto, Professor of African and African American Studies and of History; and Director of Graduate Studies, African and African American Studies, Harvard University
“At once practical and personal, humorous and moving, straight-talking and inspiring, Camp Dissertation is essential reading for graduate students and their advisors. Weaving together her own candid reflections, insights from her mentors, and earned wisdom from ten students, Miles demystifies the process of conceptualizing, drafting, and revising a dissertation. Her “Humane Guide” is chock full of concrete strategies (e.g., find a metaphor for your writing process, draw your dissertation, plan for the unexpected, rely on your “posse”) as well as pithy adages (e.g., “bite less, chew more;” “when in doubt, shift into writing mode;” “make it sing;” “let it go”). At a moment when navigating the landscape of graduate education is more challenging than ever, Camp Dissertationoffers much- needed, accessible advice that will help graduate students approach writing a dissertation as both an arduous task and a life-changing process of discovery through which they may greet themselves “in a startling new way.”
—Megan Sweeney, Arthur F. Thurnau Professor of English; Afroamerican and African Studies; and Women’s and Gender Studies; and Director of Graduate Studies, Department of English, University of Michigan
“With its honest and encouraging tone, creative exercises, and memorable takeaways based in the wisdom of Tiya Miles and her rich scholarly community, Camp Dissertation is not only a welcome resource for dissertation writers, but also a vibrant model of generous mentorship in the academy.”
—Laura Portwood-Stacer, author of The Book Proposal Book and Make Your Manuscript Work