Writing in the academy: the practice-based thesis as an evolving genre

Summary of the project:

This Australian Research Council funded study investigates the practice-based doctoral thesis in the visual and performing arts, an alternative thesis type that is still in a process of development. The project aims to identify the range and extent to which practice-based theses are being submitted for doctoral degrees in the visual and performing arts in Australian universities and the particular nature and character of these texts. The study will make a significant contribution to academic literacies research by defining the range of current practices in the area and the desirable character of a doctoral thesis written in practice-based areas of study.

Contribution of the project:

The study will make a significant contribution to the research literature on thesis writing by defining the range of current practices in doctoral writing in the visual and performing arts as well as the desirable character of a doctoral thesis written in these areas of study. The study will also go ‘beyond the text’ in its investigation of factors which impact on what students write and how they are expected to write it. The study will also explore the background knowledges, values, and understandings it is assumed that students will share with the readers of their texts in their particular areas of study. The study, thus, will make a significant contribution to academic writing research in its analysis of a new and evolving genre: the practice-based doctoral thesis.

Overview of the project:

This study has a number of key aims: to identify the range and extent to which practice-based doctoral theses are being submitted for examination in the visual and performing arts in Australian universities, to examine the particular nature and character of practice-based doctoral theses submitted for examination in these areas and, via this examination, to make both practical and theoretical contributions to the field of research higher degree supervision and training and advanced academic literacies research.

A practice-based doctorate is a doctoral degree that comprises a visual or performance component and a written thesis to accompany it.The fields in which practice-based doctorates are being submitted are varied, encompassing inter alia Art and Design, Fine Arts, and the Creative and Performing Arts.  The common denominator is the production by the student of both a creative work and a written text, commonly known in Australia and the UK as a thesis or, in some cases, an exegesis.

The kinds of texts that students write for these degrees are, however, dramatically different from the texts that students write in the traditional thesis only degree. The study aims to identify the particular nature and character of these practice-based theses, the goals, assumptions and values that underlie these theses, as well as the background knowledges, values, and understandings it is assumed ‘high quality’ theses of this kind share with their readers.

The study will uncover the extent to which these new thesis types are being submitted for examination in Australian universities as well as what it is that characterizes these new thesis types. This is an important issue as there are no fixed customs or guidelines across universities for the examination of these kinds of theses and terms that examiners use in their assessment of these kinds of work, such as ‘coherent’, ‘informed’ ‘fresh’ and ‘innovative’ are vague, with no explication as to what these terms means for students trying to come terms with what is required of them in their written work.

The project will make a significant contribution, not only to our understanding of the nature and character of practice-based theses but also provide a greater understanding of the advanced academic literacies requirements of students working in these particular areas and what it is that characterises such pieces of research writing in these areas of study.

The proposed study, then, will address the following questions:

•    What is the range and extent to which practice-based doctoral theses are being submitted for examination in the visual and performing arts in Australia?
•    What is the particular nature and character of visual and performing arts doctoral theses submitted for examination in Australia?
•    What are the goals, assumptions and values that underlie visual and performing arts doctoral theses submitted in Australia?
•    What are the typical characteristics of ‘high quality’ visual and performing arts doctoral theses submitted for examination in Australia?