Dissertation Prospectus - Archaeology

The dissertation prospectus should normally be written and defended in the third year, and must be defended no later than the end of the seventh enrolled semester. A dissertation topic is developed through consultations between the student, the principal advisor(s), and other appropriate scholars. The dissertation prospectus consists of a proposal that describes the question/hypothesis to be investigated in the dissertation, the methods that will be employed to address that question/hypothesis, and the plan of research on which the dissertation will be based. It should include a statement of the problem(s) and topic(s) to be addressed and should relate how the student intends to address them. The prospectus normally should be no longer than 20 double-spaced typewritten pages of text and should include relevant visual and bibliographic materials and details on possible funding sources. With the approval of the student’s advisor, the prospectus may be produced in the form of a proposal to the National Science Foundation for a doctoral dissertation improvement grant (DDIG). 

The student must circulate the prospectus to the Archaeology Program faculty at least two weeks before the prospectus examination. The examining committee shall consist of at least three members: the student’s advisor(s), one other member of the Archaeology faculty, and a third member who may come from outside of the Anthropology Department or outside of Harvard University.  The chair of the examining committee must be a member of the archaeology program and is ordinarily one of the student’s advisor(s). All Archaeology Program faculty are invited to participate in the examination. 

The dissertation prospectus examination shall take the form of a defense before the student’s advisory committee. Following the defense, the final version of the prospectus should be circulated for comment and approval to the prospectus examination committee (or to the dissertation committee, should said committee have been constituted by that time) at least two weeks before being placed on file with the department’s graduate program administrator. 

Upon successful defense of the prospectus, all students are required to present their prospectus projects in the Spring Anthropology Prospectus Symposium, normally held annually in early May. 

Students ordinarily may not apply for outside funding for dissertation field research until they have successfully defended their prospectus. Any application to a funding source outside of Harvard University for either fieldwork or other research funding for dissertation research must be approved by the student’s advisor(s), and it is expected that students shall first submit all research proposals to their advisor(s) for approval. 

Following the eighth semester, students must normally submit at least one draft chapter of the dissertation to their Dissertation Committee annually in order to maintain good standing in the Program.