MOVEMENT III · WEEK 13

Paths Forward

WEEK 13  ·  CRDM 790  ·  Spring 2027
Format: Guest lecturers (alt-ac paths) + Three Versions Side-by-Side activity
No required reading — prepare your three project descriptions
Next week: Full prospectus draft due — Milestone 4 (40%)
UDL COMPLIANT
CRDM 790 · Spring 2027 Week 13 · Movement III
Session Map

Today's Arc

🗣️ Three Versions Pre-Work Sharing
  • Open with small group sharing of all three versions before the guest arrives
  • What stays constant across all three? What changes?
  • Identify where the actual core of your project lives
🎤 Guest Presentation + Q&A
  • Former CRDM students on non-academic paths — candor, not polish
  • Come with prepared questions about what's genuinely uncertain for you
  • Aim: honest accounts of what was hard and what the PhD actually gave them
✦ Three Versions Side-by-Side (Full Group)
  • Full group debrief of the pre-class writing
  • What does the grant version reveal that the hiring version hides?
  • Where is the most alive articulation of your stakes?
✏️ Individual Writing + Share
  • "Given what I heard today, the one thing I want my prospectus to do — that I hadn't thought about before — is ___."
  • Go around the room. These are commitments. Write them in your prospectus draft.
CRDM 790 · Spring 2027 Week 13 · Pre-Class Writing
What You Brought to Class — Three 100-Word Descriptions

Three Versions

1
Academic
For a hiring committee in your field
A search committee who knows the discipline, evaluates by field standards, reads contribution claims and theoretical positioning
What jargon is doing work here that plain language can't do? What is the contribution claim?
2
Grant / Foundation
For a foundation or nonprofit grant panel
Educated non-specialists who evaluate based on impact, public relevance, and whether the work matters beyond the university
What falls away when you remove disciplinary scaffolding? What do you have to translate to matter here?
3
Journalism / Public
For a journalist covering your research area
Curious and intelligent; needs to understand why this matters in terms a general reader can follow and care about
What is the story here? What makes this interesting to someone who has no obligation to care about scholarship?

The differences between the three versions are the data. The most alive articulation of your stakes often lives in the grant or journalism version — not the academic one. Notice which version surprised you to write.

CRDM 790 · Spring 2027 Week 13 · Discussion
Click to Reveal · or press Enter

Guiding Questions

1
What skills, frameworks, and ways of thinking has the PhD actually given you — beyond your specific content area? Not the credential — the intellectual formation. What can you do now that you couldn't do at the start?
2
How do you describe your expertise to someone in a hiring context who isn't in your field? What do you lead with? The person hired is not just 'the dissertation' — it's the thinker the dissertation trained. How would you describe that thinker?
3
What would a 'public scholarship' version of your dissertation look like? A policy brief? A public-facing essay? A community partnership? A piece of journalism? Not "write for a general audience" — what form would best serve the argument you're actually making?
4
What are you afraid of losing if you leave — or don't enter — the tenure track? What might you gain? Name the fear specifically. Then ask whether the fear is about the path or about who you think you'll be if you take it.
5
How do you design a dissertation that opens doors rather than closing them? What choices, now, keep more futures available? This is a design question — and it's not too late to make different choices before the prospectus is final.
Click a question to reveal · or press Enter
CRDM 790 · Spring 2027 Week 13 · Activity
Hands-On Activity · Press A to Advance

Three Versions Side-by-Side

1
Share all three versions
In small groups: each person reads all three versions aloud. 6 minutes per person. Partners listen — no interrupting. Notice what surprises you in your own reading.
2
What stays constant?
The group identifies: What stays constant across all three versions? What is the thing that you couldn't cut regardless of audience? That core is where your argument actually lives.
3
What changes?
What changes most dramatically across the three versions? What vocabulary drops away? What framing shifts? The delta between versions tells you what is disciplinary costume versus what is essential argument.
4
Where is the most alive version?
Identify together: which version is most alive? Which one makes you want to read the dissertation? The answer is often surprising. The grant or journalism version often contains the most urgent articulation of what's actually at stake.
5
Individual writing + go-around
"Given what I heard today — from the guest and from this activity — the one thing I want my prospectus to do that I hadn't thought about before is ___." Go around the full room. Write these down. They are commitments.
Step 1 of 5
The Key Insight

Students who can't write the journalism version don't yet know what their prospectus is arguing. The inability to translate is diagnostic — it points to where the argument is still unclear to the writer.

Non-Traditional Prospectus Note

If your post-degree goals are primarily non-academic, your prospectus may take an alternative form. This option requires the same intellectual rigor — it is differently difficult, not easier. Talk to instructor before Week 14. See syllabus appendix for details.

Prospectus Protocol

Workshop Response Protocol distributed this week — read it before class next week. Come with written responses already drafted. The prospectus is due the night before Week 14.

CRDM 790 · Spring 2027 Week 13 · Guest
Candor, Not Polish

Guest Conversation

Who we're hearing from

Former CRDM students who have taken non-academic paths — industry research, nonprofit or public sector, policy, journalism, other professional trajectories. Two guests with different paths when possible. The goal is honest accounts of what was hard, what they wished they'd done differently, and what the PhD actually gave them.

Questions to prepare
  • What do you use from your PhD that you didn't expect to use?
  • What do you wish you had done differently during the degree?
  • What does your prospectus need to do if you want to keep multiple paths open?
  • What was the hardest moment of the transition — and what helped?
  • What would you say to someone who is afraid of leaving the tenure track?
Listening Notes

"The thing I most needed to hear today was ___. The thing I'm carrying into my prospectus from this conversation is ___."

The Frame for This Conversation

"We want candor, not polish." Set this explicitly before the guest speaks. Success narratives are easy to find. What's harder to find — and more useful — is honest reflection on what the degree actually prepared someone for, and what it didn't.

CRDM 790 · Spring 2027 Week 13 · Optional Reading
No Required Reading This Week · Optional

Optional Reading

📖
Karen Kelsky
The Professor Is In — alt-ac chapters
The clearest account of academic culture and the job market you will find — including the alt-ac chapters, which are as useful for non-academic paths as the academic ones. Available through Library Reserve. Read the alt-ac chapters now; save the academic job market chapters for later.
📖
Kathleen Fitzpatrick
Generous Thinking: A Radical Approach to Saving the University
On public scholarship — what it would mean for the university to genuinely connect to the publics it claims to serve. Useful if you're thinking about what form your dissertation's intellectual contribution could take beyond the traditional monograph.
📖
Leonard Cassuto & Robert Weisbuch
The New PhD: How to Build a Better Graduate Education
Structural critique of doctoral education — why the system works the way it does, where it's changing, and what a more expansive version of doctoral preparation might look like. Useful context for understanding the systemic forces shaping the choices you're making now.
All available through Library Reserve · No Perusall purchase required this week
CRDM 790 · Spring 2027 Week 13 → Week 14
Before You Leave

Looking Ahead

◆
MILESTONE 4 DUE — Night Before Week 14 · 40% of Final Grade

Full Dissertation Prospectus — upload to Moodle or share via Google Drive. Bring print copies for your small group if you prefer print. Also write a one-paragraph director's note: What are you most uncertain about? What do you most need feedback on? What feels strong?

📋
Read the Workshop Response Protocol

Being distributed this week. Read it before class. Come with written responses to your group members' drafts already drafted — not composing them in the room. The workshop works best when everyone comes prepared to give, not just to receive.

✏️
Use Your Three Versions

The most alive articulation of your stakes — likely from the grant or journalism version — belongs in your prospectus near the front. Your 'so what' sentence from Week 12 belongs there too. Use the work you've done in Weeks 11–13. It is not separate from the prospectus; it is the prospectus's foundation.

"The one thing I want my prospectus to do — that I hadn't thought about before today — is ___."

CRDM 790 · Movement III · Week 13

Paths Forward

Alt-ac and otherwise — designing a dissertation that opens doors.

Format: Guest lecturers + Three Versions activity No required reading — prepare your three project descriptions ◆ Prospectus draft due night before Week 14

Session Map

🗣️ Three Versions Sharing

Open with small groups sharing all three versions. What stays constant? What changes? Where does the actual core of your project live?

🎤 Guest Presentation + Q&A

Former CRDM students on non-academic paths — candor, not polish. Come with prepared questions about what’s genuinely uncertain for you.

✦ Three Versions Side-by-Side

Full group debrief. What does the grant version reveal that the hiring version hides? Where is the most alive articulation of your stakes?

✏️ Individual Writing + Go-Around

“The one thing I want my prospectus to do — that I hadn’t thought about before — is ___.” Go around the room. These are commitments.

Three Versions — Pre-Class Writing

Three 100-word descriptions of the same project
1
Academic — for a hiring committee in your field
A search committee who knows the discipline, evaluates by field standards, reads contribution claims and theoretical positioning. What jargon is doing work here that plain language can’t do?
2
Grant / Foundation — for a nonprofit or foundation grant panel
Educated non-specialists who evaluate based on impact and public relevance. What falls away when you remove disciplinary scaffolding? What do you have to translate to matter here?
3
Journalism / Public — for a journalist covering your research area
Curious and intelligent; needs to understand why this matters in terms a general reader can follow. What is the story? What makes this interesting to someone with no obligation to care about scholarship?
The insight

The differences between the three versions are the data. The most alive articulation of your stakes often lives in the grant or journalism version — not the academic one. Notice which version surprised you to write. Students who can’t write the journalism version don’t yet know what their prospectus is arguing.

Guiding Questions

1
What skills, frameworks, and ways of thinking has the PhD actually given you — beyond your specific content area?
Not the credential — the intellectual formation. What can you do now that you couldn’t do at the start?
2
How do you describe your expertise to someone in a hiring context who isn’t in your field? What do you lead with?
The person hired is not just “the dissertation” — it’s the thinker the dissertation trained. How would you describe that thinker?
3
What would a ‘public scholarship’ version of your dissertation look like? A policy brief? A public-facing essay? A community partnership?
Not “write for a general audience” — what form would best serve the argument you’re actually making?
4
What are you afraid of losing if you leave — or don’t enter — the tenure track? What might you gain?
Name the fear specifically. Then ask whether the fear is about the path or about who you think you’ll be if you take it.
5
How do you design a dissertation that opens doors rather than closing them? What choices now keep more futures available?
This is a design question — and it’s not too late to make different choices before the prospectus is final.

Three Versions Side-by-Side

1
Share all three versions
In small groups: each person reads all three versions aloud. 6 minutes per person. Partners listen — no interrupting. Notice what surprises you in your own reading.
2
What stays constant?
The group identifies what stays constant across all three versions. That core is where your argument actually lives.
3
What changes?
What vocabulary drops away? What framing shifts? The delta between versions tells you what is disciplinary costume versus essential argument.
4
Where is the most alive version?
Identify together: which version makes you want to read the dissertation? The answer is often surprising.
5
Individual writing + go-around
“The one thing I want my prospectus to do that I hadn’t thought about before is ___.” Go around the full room. Write these down. They are commitments — write them into your prospectus draft.

Guest Conversation

Questions to prepare
  • What do you use from your PhD that you didn’t expect to use?
  • What do you wish you had done differently during the degree?
  • What does your prospectus need to do if you want to keep multiple paths open?
  • What was the hardest moment of the transition — and what helped?
  • What would you say to someone who is afraid of leaving the tenure track?
Listening notes
“The thing I most needed to hear today was ___. The thing I’m carrying into my prospectus from this conversation is ___.”

Looking Ahead

◆ Milestone 4 Due — Night Before Week 14
Full Dissertation Prospectus — 40% of Final Grade

Upload to Moodle or share via Google Drive. Include a one-paragraph director’s note: What are you most uncertain about? What do you most need feedback on? What feels strong?

Read the Workshop Response Protocol
  • Distributed this week. Read it before class. Come with written responses to your group members’ drafts already drafted — not composing them in the room.
Use your three versions

The most alive articulation of your stakes — likely from the grant or journalism version — belongs in your prospectus near the front. Your ‘so what’ sentence from Week 12 belongs there too. Use the work you’ve done in Weeks 11–13.

“The one thing I want my prospectus to do — that I hadn’t thought about before today — is ___.”