Upon the completion of the first 24 credits of the PhD program (pre-candidacy), students may submit a Topic Request to the department. The department assigns a professor to mentor students and guide them in the preparation of the Topic Request.

Once the Topic Request is accepted by the Department, the dissertation committee is appointed (Read the sections “advancement to Pre-candidacy” and “Dissertation Committee” in the AIIAS Academic Bulletin). The dissertation committee consists of a chairperson, who becomes the student’s advisor, and two other members.

An important stage in the dissertation writing process is the Dissertation Proposal. It is elaborated under the guidelines of the dissertation advisor and the suggestions and recommendations provided by the other members of the committee. Upon the completion of the proposal, and with the consensus of all dissertation committee, it should be defended by the student before the dissertation committee. This document needs to be approved by the all-dissertation committee before it moves to further developments, it is, the following chapters of the dissertation.

“The dissertation will normally be approximately 200-250 pages in length. It should demonstrate the student’s familiarity with the primary and secondary literature related to the topic, give evidence of clarity of thought and of the ability of the student to research a specific topic and report the results, following a careful and appropriate methodology, at the same time making a significant contribution to the thought in the field of study.” (AIIAS Academic Bulletin, p. 228)

All documents should be written in the format of the AIIAS Research Standards and Writing Manual, and the style of the SBL Handbook.