I sat there with my palms sweaty. Prayers to God for the favor of the dissertation committee of four professors gathered (one on speaker phone) and the Holy Spirit's invitation to grant perfect recall were petitioned for. I took a deep breath. And sat in on the first of my doctoral students to give a PhD defense.
Alma* (name changed) has been a student at NYU for SEVEN years to get a PhD in Performance Studies. One of two Christians in her department, she has worked tirelessly and with some trepidation with an academic department that does not necessarily "get" her as a Christian nor as an African American. Thankfully she is worshipping at a church that blesses her both as a woman leader and an academic (although this is not usually the case, I have heard from my female doctoral students), even if most polite church folk refrain from asking what a degree in Performance Studies is for.
I still find it astounding what men and women do for an education in the US: the time and money that goes into higher education is a heavy price. PhD's typically spend between 5-7 years in their programs only to graduate into the machine of academia which may or may not hire them, depending on need. Medical doctors will spend 4 years in med school, another 4 years in residency, and perhaps another 2 years in a fellowship before they go into the "real world." All this with rising debt to pay back to the degree granting institution, and perhaps while working in indentured servanthood as either a Teaching Assistant (TA) or Graduate Assistant (GA). One of my doctoral students is living on less than $25K a year as a TA. In NYC. Students may be in their 30's by the time they graduate. All this while trying to attend to the "normal" lifecycle of those around them: dating, getting married, having children, growing in faith and character. All this while racking up huge amounts of debt (NYU's average student debt upon graduation is $65K). Astounding.
Alma says that it's all worth it: all SEVEN years to bear witness to Jesus' grace in the Performance Studies Department. Performance Studies, by the way, is an emerging discipline in the humanities that looks at performances (any public display, really) in order to understand the anthropological, social, psychological, linguistical, and gender context of a culture or community. And I can't help but to know that God has much to say about this interdisciplinary field.
Alma's defense was flawless. She was calm, articulate, and thoughtful as she navigated through her committee's questions. Alma is now my first grad student to get a PhD. She is now DR. ALMA. I am so terribly proud of her.
Her next steps: enter the industry that is academia and find a teaching position in a university, begin the climb up the tenuous tenure ladder. An academic has two chances to achieve tenure and full professorship or else be condemned to the life of an itinerate adjunct. What a wild system. May God continue to have mercy on Alma's soul. Hers and all those who have gone before her and are coming after her.
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