Wonderland and Dissertations

On August 2, 1865, Lewis Carroll published Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, a tale of profound confusion and wisdom. Dissertation students take heed…

Lewis Carroll was a mathematician as well as an author. At its highest levels, math is about logic and reasoning, not numbers and computations. Carroll deftly weaves pithy advice throughout Wonderland in surprising and, to the characters, confusing ways.

Here are a few of my favorite Wonderland moments and the lessons they have for your dissertation:

“Begin at the beginning,” the King said, very gravely, “and go on till you come to the end: then stop.”

Your school likely gave you similar advice with regard to your dissertation. Although the King was simply asking the Rabbit to read a poem, your task as a dissertation student is far more complex. There is no straight path for you to follow, not until you make one, anyway. Indeed, Carroll points out the necessity of setting proper goals in Alice’s meeting with the Cheshire Cat.

“Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to walk from here?”
“That depends a good deal on where you want to get to,” said the Cat.
“I don’t much care where——” said Alice.
“Then it doesn’t matter which way you walk,” said the Cat.
“- so long as I get SOMEWHERE,” Alice added as an explanation.
“Oh, you’re sure to do that,” said the Cat, “if you only walk long enough.”

My advice for setting direction for your study is rather the opposite of the King’s. Instead, you should follow Dr. Stephen Covey’s maxim, “Begin with the end in mind.” If you know where you’re going, only the right path will do…and, you won’t have to walk so long to get there!

“I could tell you my adventures—beginning from this morning,” said Alice a little timidly: “but it’s no use going back to yesterday, because I was a different person then.”

The dissertation process is a transformative experience. You haven’t graduated, yet, because you’re not a doctor, yet! As you continue your dissertation journey, you will find that your thinking changes, your writing changes, you change!

Putting up with your committee’s demands can be quite frustrating at times. But even the most cynical doctoral student can’t help but be amazed at the transformation they undertake, when comparing their earliest drafts to their final dissertation.