Movement II · Week 9
What Do I Know and Who Helps Me Know It?
Committee
as Intellectual
Community
WEEK 9  ·  CRDM 790  ·  Spring 2027
Suggested reading: Karen Kelsky, The Professor Is In — advisor + committee chapters
Activity: Committee Email Workshop
Guest: Recently advanced student or faculty member
UDL COMPLIANT
CRDM 790 · Spring 2027 Week 9 · Movement II
Session Map

Today's Arc

📖 Suggested Reading (No Perusall)
  • Karen Kelsky, The Professor Is In — advisor + committee chapters (Library Reserve)
  • No Perusall assignment this week — use the time to reach out to potential committee members
✏️ Pre-Class Writing
  • Committee map: draw or write your ideal committee, name positions, write 2–3 sentences per person
  • Draft the email you will send your first committee contact
  • Bring both — we will workshop the email in class
🎤 Guest Speaker

A recently advanced student or faculty member willing to speak candidly about committee dynamics, how they chose their committee, what worked, and what they would do differently.

✦ Activity + Check-Ins
  • Committee Email Workshop — partner feedback on your draft ask
  • By end of session: commit to sending one inquiry email within 48 hours
  • Individual committee status check-ins with instructor
CRDM 790 · Spring 2027 Week 9 · Pre-Class Writing
Before We Met

The Committee Map

Chair / Primary Advisor
The Anchor
Your day-to-day intellectual partner. The person who knows your project most deeply and guides its overall direction.
  • Who in your field reads the way you read?
  • Who challenges you productively?
  • Have you talked with this person already?
Reader(s)
The Interlocutors
Faculty who bring expertise your chair doesn't have. They represent the specific fields your dissertation is in conversation with.
  • What methodological gaps does your chair have?
  • What fields are you drawing from beyond your home discipline?
  • Who disagrees with you productively?
Outside Member
The Bridge
Often from a different department or program. Brings an external perspective and ensures breadth across your exam and dissertation.
  • Is there a field you borrow from that should be represented?
  • Does your project need an outside validator?
  • Non-academic path? Does this change who you need?

For each person on your map: note who you've already spoken to, and who you haven't. That list of "haven't yet" people is your Week 9 action items.

CRDM 790 · Spring 2027 Week 9 · Guiding Questions
Into the Work

Questions to Bring

1
What kind of intellectual support do you need from a committee — and is that different from what you think you're supposed to need?The committee you build for the job market may not be the same as the committee you need to finish the dissertation.
2
Who in your field thinks in ways that would genuinely challenge and improve your work — even if that's uncomfortable? A committee that only affirms you is not serving you.
3
What does it mean to ask someone to invest in you? What are the relational dynamics at play — the power differentials, the implicit obligations, the possibilities for mentorship and disappointment both?
4
What do you owe your committee — and what can you reasonably expect from them? These expectations are worth making explicit early.
5
If you are considering a non-academic path, does that change who you want on your committee? What expertise would serve a post-ac trajectory that a purely academic committee might lack?
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CRDM 790 · Spring 2027 Week 9 · Committee Email Workshop
✦ Activity — Committee Email Workshop

Writing the Ask

CRDM 790 · Spring 2027 Week 9 · Guest Speaker
Guest

Candid Conversation

Who we're hearing from

A recently advanced student or faculty member speaking candidly — not aspirationally — about the experience of building a committee, navigating advisor relationships, and getting through candidacy.

Questions to bring
  • What do you wish you had known before choosing your committee?
  • What would you do differently?
  • What should we expect from our chairs — and what shouldn't we expect?
  • How do you navigate a difficult committee dynamic?
  • What made your committee actually work?
After the guest leaves

Individual committee status check-ins with instructor. Where are you with your committee assembly? What obstacles are you running into? Bring your committee map from the pre-class writing.

Listening Notes

"The thing I most needed to hear today was ___. The thing that surprised me was ___."

The Question Behind the Question

What are you actually afraid of about asking someone to serve on your committee? Name it. Then notice whether that fear is useful information.

CRDM 790 · Spring 2027 Week 9 · Suggested Reading
If This Week Opened Something

Further Reading

📖
Karen Kelsky
The Professor Is In
Frank, sometimes uncomfortable, always useful. The most clear-eyed account of academic culture, advisor dynamics, and the job market you will find. Read the advisor and committee chapters now; read the job market chapters later. Available through Library Reserve.
📖
Meltzer & Sherman (eds.)
Mentoring in the Age of Professional Complexities
A collection specifically on mentorship in graduate education — what it is, what it should be, and where it breaks down. Useful if you are navigating a mentorship that isn't working as it should.
📖
Cassuto & Weisbuch
The New PhD: How to Build a Better Graduate Education
Structural critique of doctoral education in the humanities — useful context for understanding why the advisor-committee system works the way it does, and where reforms are happening.
All available through Library Reserve · No Perusall purchase required this week
CRDM 790 · Spring 2027 Week 9 → Week 10
Before You Leave

Looking Ahead

🗓️
Week 10 · Individual Meetings Week

No full group session. Individual check-ins with instructor — 20–30 minutes each. Sign up for a slot via Moodle. Use this week to confirm committee contact, revise exam list from Week 8 feedback, and begin thinking about prospectus framing.

◆
MILESTONE DUE — Week 10

Committee Confirmation — 15% of final grade. Email confirmation from your chair is sufficient, or a written plan (named faculty + timeline) for completing assembly. If you are running into obstacles, flag them now. Submit via Moodle or email.

✏️
Before Your Week 10 Meeting

Write 300–500 words: "The problem my dissertation addresses is ___, and it matters because ___." Do not edit. Do not polish. Bring this writing to your check-in — you and the instructor will read it together.

After Spring Break: Movement III begins — prospectus drafting, imagination, and the question of what comes next.

CRDM 790 · Movement II · Week 9

Committee as Intellectual Community

Not bureaucracy — intellectual relationship. Who will challenge your work productively?

Suggested reading: Kelsky, The Professor Is In Activity: Committee Email Workshop Guest: recently advanced student or faculty

Session Map

📖 Suggested Reading (No Perusall)

Karen Kelsky, The Professor Is In — advisor + committee chapters (Library Reserve). No Perusall assignment this week — use the time to reach out to potential committee members.

✏️ Pre-Class Writing

Committee map: draw or write your ideal committee, name positions, write 2–3 sentences per person. Draft the email you will send your first committee contact. Bring both — we will workshop the email in class.

🎤 Guest Speaker

A recently advanced student or faculty member speaking candidly about committee dynamics — how they chose their committee, what worked, and what they would do differently.

✦ Activity + Check-Ins

Committee Email Workshop — partner feedback on your draft ask. By end of session: commit to sending one inquiry email within 48 hours. Individual committee status check-ins with instructor.

Suggested Reading

No Perusall this week · Library Reserve
Kelsky, The Professor Is In (Library Reserve)

Read the advisor and committee chapters now; save the job market chapters for later. Frank, sometimes uncomfortable, always useful — the most clear-eyed account of academic culture, advisor dynamics, and committee formation you will find.

Further Reading
  • Meltzer & Sherman (eds.), Mentoring in the Age of Professional Complexities — useful if you are navigating a mentorship that is not working as it should
  • Cassuto & Weisbuch, The New PhD — structural critique of doctoral education; context for understanding why the advisor-committee system works as it does

Pre-Class Tasks

Task One — Committee Map
Draw or write your ideal committee. Name each position and write 2–3 sentences about why each person, what they bring, and where you are in the conversation with them.
Chair / Primary Advisor — The Anchor

Your day-to-day intellectual partner. Who reads the way you read? Who challenges you productively? Have you talked with this person already?

Reader(s) — The Interlocutors

Faculty who bring expertise your chair doesn’t have. What methodological gaps does your chair have? What fields are you drawing from beyond your home discipline?

Outside Member — The Bridge

Often from a different department. Is there a field you borrow from that should be represented? On a non-academic path? Does this change who you need?

Task Two — Draft Your Committee Ask Email
Draft the email you will send your first committee contact. Bring it to class — we will workshop it with a partner.

For each person on your map: note who you’ve already spoken to, and who you haven’t. That “haven’t yet” list is your Week 9 action items.

Guiding Questions

1
What kind of intellectual support do you need from a committee — and is that different from what you think you’re supposed to need?
The committee you build for the job market may not be the same as the committee you need to finish the dissertation.
2
Who in your field thinks in ways that would genuinely challenge and improve your work — even if that’s uncomfortable? A committee that only affirms you is not serving you.
3
What does it mean to ask someone to invest in you? What are the relational dynamics at play — the power differentials, the implicit obligations, the possibilities for mentorship and disappointment both?
4
What do you owe your committee — and what can you reasonably expect from them? These expectations are worth making explicit early.
5
If you are considering a non-academic path, does that change who you want on your committee? What expertise would serve a post-ac trajectory that a purely academic committee might lack?

Committee Email Workshop

Activity · Writing the Ask · Partner feedback on your draft
1
Subject
Clear + specific. Include your name, program, and what you’re asking. “CRDM PhD — Request to serve on dissertation committee” is better than “Quick question.”
2
Opening
Brief context: who you are, where you are in the program, and that you’ve been thinking about your committee. Do not over-apologize for reaching out.
3
The Project
2–3 sentences on your dissertation project’s central problem and intervention. Not everything — just enough for them to see whether it’s in their wheelhouse.
4
The Why You
Specific and concrete: why this person? Name a text, a conversation, an area of expertise. Flattery is transparent; genuine specificity is not.
5
The Ask
Be direct. “I am wondering if you would be willing to serve as a reader on my dissertation committee.” Not “I was wondering if maybe perhaps…” Make the ask clear.
6
Closing
Offer to meet, share your prospectus draft when ready, or discuss further. Thank them. Keep it brief — you’ve already said what matters.
Common Pitfalls
  • Over-apologizing for reaching out
  • Vague subject lines (“Just a quick question”)
  • Summarizing your entire dissertation history
  • Failing to explain why this person specifically
  • Burying the ask at the very end
Commitment
By end of class: each person commits to sending at least one committee inquiry email within the next 48 hours.

Guest Speaker — Candid Conversation

Questions to bring
  • What do you wish you had known before choosing your committee?
  • What would you do differently?
  • What should we expect from our chairs — and what shouldn’t we expect?
  • How do you navigate a difficult committee dynamic?
  • What made your committee actually work?
Listening notes

“The thing I most needed to hear today was ___. The thing that surprised me was ___.”

The question behind the question

What are you actually afraid of about asking someone to serve on your committee? Name it. Then notice whether that fear is useful information.

Looking Ahead

Week 10 — Individual Meetings Week
  • No full group session — individual check-ins with instructor (20–30 min each)
  • Sign up for a slot via Moodle
  • Come prepared — these are working sessions, not status reports
Before your Week 10 meeting
  • Write 300–500 words: “The problem my dissertation addresses is ___, and it matters because ___.”
  • Do not edit. Do not polish. Bring it to the meeting — you will read it together
◆ Milestone 3 Due — Week 10
Committee Confirmation

Email confirmation from your chair is sufficient, or a written plan with named faculty + realistic timeline. If you are running into obstacles, flag them now. Submit via Moodle or email kkcole2@ncsu.edu.

After Spring Break: Movement III begins — prospectus drafting, imagination, and the question of what comes next.