Students are eligible to submit their full proposal for departmental review only after they have had their dissertation committee officially appointed by filing appropriate paperwork with the Steinhardt Office of Doctoral Studies and their committee has met with the student, reviewed and approved the proposal, and formally indicated their approval by signing the Dissertation Proposal Cover Sheet. Students are responsible for confirming their dissertation chair’s availability prior to submitting the proposal for departmental review as the chair must be present for the review.
Submission of doctoral proposals is governed by the school-wide policies and procedures for your dissertation proposal.
Students must have fulfilled all conditions set by the School for filing proposals. The information below is department specific and complementary to the information provided by the School.
Note: DMA students do not have a proposal review in this format. DMA students should refer to the Topic Review guidelines for information on their required abstract and proposal.
To be eligible to submit your dissertation proposal review, you must have met the following requirements:
Have taken MPAIA-GE 3097 Doctoral Proposal Seminar, or equivalent course as required by your program.
Have successfully completed the topic review process.
Have a full dissertation committee already appointed (see Dissertation Committee below).
The dissertation committee must meet as a group with the student at least once prior to the filing of the proposal for review and the student must have their approval for submission. This is formalized by the committee’s signing of a Dissertation Proposal Cover Sheet. The form must be completely filled out and submitted with the proposal.
Complete the IRB application from Cayuse (found in the UCAIHS Website) and include a draft version with the proposal, only when your study involves human participants (interviews, subjects for observation, data collection, etc.). Please note that this application is not to be submitted to UCAIHS until after your proposal has been approved. Students planning to file for exemption must also complete and include the application with their submission.
Generally, proposals are submitted for review no earlier than the semester following topic review (typically spring of the third year for full-time students).
Dissertation Proposal
Dissertation Proposal Cover Sheet
CV
draft IRB application (if your research involves human subjects)
These documents must be emailed to mpap-doctoral-studies@nyu.edu by one of the pre-specified deadlines each semester. You may begin submitting a week prior to the deadline. See more information on upcoming submission deadlines on the MPAP Doctoral Proposal Dates and Deadlines page in this Handbook.
Prior to submitting your dissertation proposal, your dissertation committee must have been selected and officially appointed.
The following regulations apply to dissertation committee appointments for all PhD and EdD candidates in NYU Steinhardt.
The dissertation committee chairperson and at least one committee member must be full-time members of the faculty of New York University, holding the rank of professor, associate professor, or assistant professor with an earned doctorate. The chairperson is to come from the student's program of specialization. Further, in order to ensure a diversity of perspectives during the proposal and dissertation development process, at least one member of the committee must hold professorial appointment in a program different from the student's program.
Part-time adjunct faculty, clinical assistant professors, and persons with an affiliation other than New York University may serve as committee members with the approval of the Department Chairperson and the Vice Dean for Academic Affairs. Students requesting the appointment of such a member will be required to submit a copy of the proposed member's curriculum vitae or faculty bio along with the required dissertation committee appointment form to the Office of Doctoral Studies. All PhD dissertation committee members must have earned doctorates.
For the EdD in Educational Theatre, a professional doctoral committee will consist of at least three members. The chair should be a full-time tenured, tenure-track, or appropriate clinical faculty member in the candidate’s program of study. The committee should include a practice-active faculty member. A practicing professional from outside the university who is a leader in the relevant field of practice may be appointed as a third committee member either in place of or in addition to the practice-active faculty member.
Students may request, by exception, the appointment of a two-member committee. This request must be made in writing and must be countersigned by the dissertation committee chairperson. Three-member committees that have been officially appointed may only be reduced to two-member committees by exception and with the approval of the Department Chairperson and the Vice Dean for Academic Affairs. A two-member committee, at the written request of the student and the chairperson, may be increased to a three-member committee.
Students may request, by exception, the appointment of a four-member committee. As is the case with three-member committees, the chair and at least one member must be full-time members of the faculty of New York University, holding the rank of professor, associate professor, or assistant professor with an earned doctorate. Students requesting a four-member committee should submit an additional "Request for Appointment of Dissertation Committee" form with the signature of the committee chair, the fourth member, and the department chair.
Students may request the appointment of a dissertation committee chairperson without simultaneously requesting the appointment of the remaining members of the committee by following the instructions on the committee appointment form. Students who elect to request the advance appointment of a chairperson will have one year from the date of the approval of the chairperson's appointment to request the appointment of the remaining member(s) of the complete dissertation committee.
See information on the official process of appointing a dissertation committee at the Steinhardt Dissertation Policies and Guidelines website.
The dissertation proposal document should address and include the following elements:
Title page (The same format as for the dissertation, which can be found at the Steinhardt Dissertation Policies and Guidelines website)
Table of Contents
Problem Statement
Statement of Subproblems
Definitions
Delimitations/Limitations
Need for Study
Discussion of Related Literature
Discussion of Method as related to each sub-problem
A sample of method applied to a portion of data (i.e., sample analysis, pilot study, etc.), or a deep discussion of theory or other factors if a sample analysis is not appropriate to the study
Bibliography
Appendices
This enumeration of factors to be included is not intended as a prescription of form, but as elements that must be addressed in some formal manner in the proposal. The proposal is limited to 40-60 pages, not including references or appendices.
Additionally, the submission must include:
The candidate’s Curriculum Vitae
A completed copy of the Dissertation Proposal Cover Sheet, signed by all three members of the dissertation committee
A completed copy of an IRB form, whenever applicable
The review of the proposal will be the responsibility of a committee, consisting of two members appointed by the Director of Doctoral Studies from among all available and qualified doctoral faculty. The committee will typically include at least one faculty member from the student’s program. The student and Chair of the Dissertation Committee are required to attend the review.
The following information about the proposal review is taken from the Steinhardt Policy on Dissertation Proposal Review at the Steinhardt Dissertation Policies and Guidelines website.
The committee chairperson and both committee members must sign the Dissertation Proposal Cover Sheet indicating their approval of the proposal for review by the panel.
The dissertation committee must meet as a group at least once prior to the filing of the proposal for review.
Both the candidate and the dissertation committee chairperson are required to attend the review.
Attendance by a minimum of two reviewers (external to the dissertation committee) is required.
Attendance by the committee members is optional.
The recommendations of the proposal review panel are advisory.
After the proposal review, the proposal review panel coordinator will notify you of the outcome in writing (with copies to the dissertation committee chairperson and members and to the Office of Doctoral Studies). The proposal review panel will recommend that you proceed in one of the following ways:
If the panel vote results in a "pass," the panel will recommend that you carry out the research and dissertation writing as proposed (there may be minor revisions suggested that are not officially noted).
If the panel vote results in a "deferred pass" or "pass with conditions," the panel will recommend that you address the concerns of the panel in writing (with copies to the committee chairperson and members and to the Office of Doctoral Studies). In some cases, the proposal review panel or the dissertation committee may recommend that you submit a revised proposal reflecting the revisions suggested by the panel. Two copies of the revised proposal must also be submitted to the Office of Doctoral Studies.
If the panel does not approve the proposal, you will be asked to rewrite the proposal and submit it for a second proposal review.
Because the proposal review panel is an advisory committee, your dissertation committee may choose not to incorporate some or all of the proposal review panel's recommendations. In the event that the panel's suggestions are not incorporated, you will be expected to provide a written rationale explaining this decision. This rationale should bear the signature of the dissertation committee chairperson. As is the case with all correspondence regarding the proposal review, copies should be distributed to the committee members and to the Office of Doctoral Studies.
A copy of the proposal, the review panel's outcome and notes, and your response to the panel's notes are given to each of the two faculty members who serve as outside readers on the final oral examination of the dissertation.
No proposals are to be submitted to the graduate office until the student has received the response of the Departmental Proposal Review Committee and complied with its recommendations and any revisions required by Human Subjects Review.
Steinhardt students proposing to do research involving human subjects for an independent study, a graduate thesis, or a doctoral dissertation require approval from the University Committee on Activities Involving Human Subjects (UCAIHS). If your proposed research involves interviews, surveys, questionnaires, participant observation, ethnography, or other methods involving human subjects, UCAIHS approval is required. Approval from UCAIHS must be granted before work on the research or data collection has begun, including all pilot studies, trial runs, pretests, and preliminary sampling or surveys.
Prior to submission to UCAIHS, students must complete the on-line training program through the Collaborative Institutional Training Initiative (CITI). See more information in the UCAIHS Tutorial.
The student must work with a faculty mentor while preparing a UCAIHS application. This mentor is usually a dissertation chair or advisor.
Follow the instructions on the University Committee on Activities Involving Human Subjects (UCAIHS) website to submit your application.
UCAIHS approval can take several months, so students are advised to prepare the necessary paperwork prior to the dissertation proposal review; this ensures that UCAIHS review can begin immediately upon completion, taking into account that the UCAIHS application might change as a result of the proposal defense. UCAIHS trainings and drop-in consultations are available.
Helpful UCAIHS websites:
Students and alumni are reticent to share their proposals on a publicly accessible website. As such, students are encouraged to request sample proposals from their peers in the regular collegium sessions. Sample Proposals for student in the Program in Educational Theatre can be accessed at this link.