The purpose of the Topic Review is to identify the proposed topic, the significance or need for the study, and to examine the doctoral candidate's preliminary grasp of pertinent issues articulated in the literature. A brief statement of method will be sufficient to enable the peer reviewers to assess the background and skills of the doctoral student in context of the proposed topic. The entire document is limited to ten pages, excluding bibliography and title page.
Students must email their Topic Review paper and CV to their respective program director or designee as outlined below and mpap-doctoral-studies@nyu.edu at least two weeks prior to their presentation date in their program-specific collegium meeting. This will allow the faculty time to distribute the Topic Review paper to the students in the program-cohort in advance of the presentation. The collegia meet at different times and dates, so students must confirm submission and presentation dates with the appropriate faculty. These meetings only take place during the fall and spring semesters; as such, there are no Topic Review presentations in the summer.
To be eligible to submit your topic review, you must meet the following requirements:
Have passed the doctoral candidacy examination and fulfilled any conditions (if applicable).
Secure approval from the Program Advisor and, if already appointed, from the Chair of your dissertation committee. This approval must be submitted to mpap-doctoral-studies@nyu.edu at least two weeks prior to the student's presentation date.
Have completed research courses required by your program.
After passing Candidacy, you are eligible to secure the appointment of a Dissertation Chair, but you do not need to have an approved Dissertation Chair in order to present your topic.
Generally, student participation in Topic Review takes place in the semester after passing the candidacy examination. The timing of Topic Review is not dependent on when a student takes MPAIA-GE 3097 Doctoral Proposal Seminar (as the Seminar is offered in both fall and spring) though many students present their Topic Review during the semester in which they enroll in that course.
Students planning to submit their topic proposals for review should notify mpap-doctoral-studies@nyu.edu at the start of that semester. Each program will handle the Topic Review presentations differently, so be sure to confirm expectations with your program director or designee as follows:
Educational Theatre - David Montgomery
Music Education - Adriana Diaz-Donoso
Music Performance and Composition - Marilyn Nonken
Music Technology - Juan Pablo Bello
Music Therapy - Ken Aigen
The topic proposal should be 6-10 pages long. The document is to be double-spaced. A title page and one-page curriculum vitae are to be included and are not considered part of the 10 pages. There is no need for a Table of Contents in the document.
Suggested guidelines for preparing your topic proposal can be accessed at the MPAP Topic Review Guidelines page of this handbook. Note these guidelines are recommendations and not requirements.
After passing the candidacy exam, students are expected to write a dissertation topic proposal document and present it to their fellow doctoral students in the Doctoral Symposium class (MPATE-GE 3060). The document should include motivation, problem statement, preliminary literature review, and an outline of the proposed solutions/methods. The presentation is 10-15 minutes plus additional time for questions. The topic proposal is mandatory but non-binding (i.e. its results are just informal feedback and suggestions towards the dissertation proposal). For more information see the Music Technology Topic Proposal Guidelines.
Sample topic review papers for student in the Program in Educational Theatre can be accessed at this link.
DMA students work with their capstone mentor over the first year of study to define an idea for the capstone project. Depending on their timeline, students submit a 2-page abstract and begin the literature review. The abstract should be two pages in length, describing the topic and research direction students plan to undertake towards completion of the capstone project. A bibliography must also be included, listing some of the source material students will refer to. A 10-page proposal with literature review is submitted within Performing Arts Research Collegium (or Independent Study if applicable), which is taken Pass/Fail. The proposal is evaluated by the instructor of the course and the student’s capstone mentor.