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| Faculty Sponsorship of Dissertation |
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A sponsor of a dissertation is defined as a faculty member
approved by the student’s department/program to guide dissertation research and
to participate at the defense (as one of the required three members of the GSAS
Faculty.) The faculty member must be involved on a continuing basis in doctoral
instruction and research. No faculty member may sponsor a dissertation unless
he or she has been nominated by a Department or Doctoral Program Subcommittee
and approved by the Executive Committee of the Graduate School
and the Dean. The list of approved sponsors for individual departments/programs is
available online here: List of Approved Dissertation Sponsors.
Faculty are expected to sponsor dissertations not only in
their own specialized field of current research interest but in other subjects
in which they have command of pertinent literature and/or research.
Nominations for new sponsors are normally initiated by departments or programs. The categories of eligibility to sponsor
and the nomination procedure for each are listed below:
Regular Full-time Tenured Faculty who hold an appointment
within a GSAS department or doctoral program subcommittee or within an
affiliated school (e.g., Barnard
College) are nominated by
the Chair of the Department or Doctoral Program Subcommittee. A letter of
nomination from the Chair and an up-to-date curriculum vitae of the nominee are
submitted to Associate Dean Beatrice Terrien (such nominations are normally
determined at the time of initial appointment and nomination to a seat on the
Faculty of the Graduate
School.) The letter
should indicate that the nominated sponsor is substantially involved on a
continuing basis in graduate education and research.
Regular Full-time Non-Tenured Faculty holding an appointment
with a GSAS department/program are nominated by the Department/Program Chair. A
letter from the Chair and an up-to-date curriculum vitae are submitted to the
Associate Dean for approval.
The nomination letter should contain the following:
- A statement as to whether approval is requested on a
continuing basis or for a single dissertation (in which case the student's name
should be noted)
- Indication of the substantive fields in which the faculty
member will be expected to sponsor dissertations
- Other evidence, where appropriate, that the proposed sponsor
has the requisite scholarly qualifications to guide dissertation research in
these areas
- An explanation of specific arrangements for continuing
dissertation guidance and sponsorship should the faculty member leave
- Indication that the nominated sponsor is substantially
involved on a continuing basis in graduate education and research. The curriculum
vitae of the proposed sponsor should be attached to the letter
Whenever possible, non-tenured faculty members should not
sponsor a dissertation alone; instead, they should act as co-sponsors with a
tenured faculty member.
Adjunct faculty in GSAS departments/programs are eligible to
serve as sponsors, provided that a full-time Columbia faculty member who is an approved
sponsor serves as a co-sponsor and accepts that designation as a genuine
responsibility. The co-sponsorship proviso reflects the Executive Committee's
conviction that all Columbia
University dissertations
should be sponsored or co-sponsored by regular full-time faculty members. The
same departmental procedures should be followed in the nomination of adjunct faculty
for dissertation sponsorship as for regular full-time non-tenured faculty.
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