Tentative, Qualitative Definition of Terms Laura: The nature of the dissertation requires a clear definition of key terms. Creswell (2009) stresses the importance of defining terms that “individuals outside the field may not understand and that go beyond common language… define a term if there is any likelihood that readers

Relevance of our Study Collaborative: Faculty at our graduate institution have remained at the forefront as advocates of collaborative research at the dissertation level as far back as 1991, when Hurlbert and Blitz called on others in the academy “to claim a place for collaborative dissertations in our universities and

Origins of our Study American universities have sought to create ‘a climate conducive to creativity’ from their inception by welding the concept of individualism to the idea of research itself. The figure of the ‘independent scholar’ has served graduate education as both its informing principle and its telos… -Patricia Sullivan,

INTRODUCTION Studies and Research to present our proposal for a collaborative dissertation that studies the nature of and resistance to collaborative dissertations in the field of composition. The audience for our presentation included our Dean of Graduate Studies, the Assistant Dean, the Assistant Dean for Administration, and a member of

Establishing Exigency for Further Research Laura: The topic of collaborative research in the humanities has gained momentum since 1999 when MLA incoming President Linda Hutcheon named the theme of the 2000 MLA Presidential Forum “Creative Collaboration: Alternatives to the Adversarial Academy,” a forum she said was about collaboration, not “the

Delimitations of our Study Laura: There has been little research conducted on the resistance to collaborative dissertations in composition, and no research has been done that examines what happens when two dissertating students in composition collaborate. As such, we have chosen to limit the scope of our research to focus

Benefits of our Present Study Collaborative: In this chapter, we’ve reviewed how our initial proposal for completing a collaborative dissertation study met resistance from our graduate school dean. We shared our experiences of working with the dean to negotiate a middle ground where we would be permitted to collaborate throughout