My Non-Dissertation Book
When I was in grad school, we essentially had two ways that we could write our dissertations: as a book length and styled dissertation, or as a dissertation that included three article style papers, plus an introduction and conclusion. When I imagined my dissertation in my head, it felt clear to me that the topic made more sense as three articles rather than a single book. My dissertation, which focused race, social relationships and food, and while the major themes (i.e., romantic relationships, workplace relationships, and faith) had some overlap, they seemed to me, too disjointed to be a book. So, my dissertation, Eating Together: Race, Social Relationships and Food Practices Among College Educated Adults, contains an introduction where I layout my motivation, detail my use of race and gendered theories, and outline my dissertation. Next, my dissertation contains three article style chapters dedicated to one of the major themes mentioned above and closes with a conclusion that summarizes my central findings, key contributions, the limitations of my dissertation, and future research plans.
I have several friends, colleagues, and mentors who went the other route and created book style dissertations. Some of whom have published their dissertations as books as recently as this year. Looking back, I’m not sure if I would’ve done anything differently, especially if I had stuck with my focus on food for my dissertation. As of now, 3 years post graduating from my doctoral program with my PhD, I have published one article based on one of the chapters from my dissertation that focuses explicitly on Black men, masculinity, food, faith, and health. I also have a second paper based on data from that same dissertation chapter that focuses on Black women and is under review. Now, these two articles may be the only ones that I get published, meaning only 1/3 of my article chapters was useful beyond the dissertation itself (at least for the time being). That’s the thing about dissertations though, they are learning experience, a chance for growth, but if you go into academia hopefully, they won’t be your masterpiece or else what do you plan to work on for the next 30 odd years?
For me, my first book isn’t based on my dissertation because I am looking further back before my dissertation to my first grad school academic love topic: sports from a Black feminist lens. More similar to my master’s thesis than my dissertation, my book project utilizes Black feminism as both theory and method to explore the relationship between race, sports, and society via the lived experiences of Black sports women from Gabby Douglas and Simone Biles to Serena Williams and Naomi Osaka. Writing this book has been a lot of trial and error so far, but I have a strong team behind me, mentors, research assistants, friends, family, and a great press willing to work with me. If someone had asked me in 2018 when I was turning in my dissertation if I thought I’d be writing a book three years later on a complete unrelated topic with an advanced contract in hand, I would’ve laughed and rolled my eyes, yet here I am—laughing, with my head in my hands wondering just what exactly I’ve gotten myself into.
