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In most cases, the process to identify, select, ensure agreement, and secure approval to work with a dissertation chair can be challenging—and students deserve to work with a faculty member as chair who is the best fit for them. Whether centralized programmatically or independently set by mutual agreement, knowing a bit more about what you need as a student and with whom you will work best in an advising relationship will aid you as you start to work on your dissertation. While you may or may not have a controlling role in dissertation chair selection, this is an area where students generally seem to need more guidance, given the implications of the decision, and where they often feel most isolated and alone in navigating interpersonal relations and program processes with faculty. In general, this is the point where, as new members in the profession and in transition from previous to new identities, students move from a program environment where curricular and advising structures guide them to a status as doctoral candidate where they work more independently outside of classrooms and faculty offices. What many students need at this point is continuity—not necessarily implying a continuance of the same advisor—in high-quality faculty advising as they start (or really continue) their dissertation studies so that a work structure remains in place, even if the focus of the work changes, and guides their research and career development.

Faculty Benefits of Dissertation Advising

Beyond specific program or department requirements for dissertation advising, most faculty members tie their roles as dissertation chairs to a professional responsibility. With strong identities connected to membership in the profession—the broader academy and a more specific discipline—program and department faculty members tend to meet institutional and professional expectations for teaching, advising, research, and service in their work on campus. Just as faculty members’ dissertation chairs invested in their development as researchers, faculty tend to see their work with advisees as investments in their students’ development as scholars and scholar-practitioners (in applied programs and/or in professional schools) in the discipline. In part, advising may be self-serving as faculty look to fill graduate student research positions and find doctoral students to work as part of a research team on a project that they are leading. As future colleagues with whom they may (continue to) collaborate, chairs often work with students to support their own scholarly work as faculty researchers. Down the road, faculty may see work with dissertation advisees as opportunities to collaborate and publish and/or present with students as second or third authors. Of course, advising relationships in which students work on faculty research tend to be mutually supportive and generally serve students, too, as students look to build their vitas and secure a publication or presentation before they go on the job market or promote within their institutions or fields.

Generally speaking, the use of criteria to select a dissertation chair directs students to explore who is the best fit for their dissertation research work. We are talking about fit here—not most popular or renown—so the process involves a sort of standardization much like rubrics in instructional environments and evaluation sheets in qualifying exams. Here, best fit means a faculty advisor with whom you can work and who can work with you—who can serve in the roles of program advisor, mentor, and research supervisor, viz. your qualitative dissertation research study, scholarly interests, and professional goals. Think about the issue this way: Among all the members of the program, department, or university, who are eligible to serve as your chair, who is on your short list? In other words, with whom do you feel that you could meet every week (or perhaps multiple times a week), share confidential information about your study, classes, program, and so on and trust for advice about important decisions in your academic life and career?

Here is a final question that, for me, contextualizes decisions about prospective chairs and sets your decision in perspective: Do you see yourself inviting this person over for dinner in your home in 10 years? This is important! When you consider the folks with whom you sit down and share meals together, especially dinner in your home, who comes to mind? Family, friends, neighbors, close colleagues, and so on. But what about your dissertation chair? I still work with my dissertation chair—we collaborate professionally, maintain contact, and eat meals together; he knows my family, and I know his. The question about hosting your chair for dinner reminds me of the question that jurors may ask themselves when they are in the deliberation room deciding on the conviction or acquittal of a defendant in a criminal trial: Would you feel the same about your vote 10 years from now as you do today? Frequently used in Western adversarial-type judicial systems, this is a question related to the idea of an abiding conviction that you feel about your decision based on whether the evidence that a prosecutor presents proves the charges beyond the doubt of a reasonable person. Granted, your decision about a dissertation chair does not relate at all to someone whose personal freedom (or entire life) hangs in the balance, but there are implications for program completion, career directions, and life outcomes related to whom you work with here.

The Roles of Dissertation Chairs

While advising relationships may be problematic for many students, the fact remains that faculty advisors are the single most important figures who shape the experiences and outcomes of doctoral students. In fact, faculty advisor roles and responsibilities seem to point to why faculty contact, interaction, and relationships are essential to graduate students. One of my favorite descriptions of the role of a dissertation chair can be found in the California State University, Northridge’s doctoral program handbook. There, you will discover a role among roles for faculty advisors who work as dissertation chairs: head coach (California State University, Northridge, 2014). What a fantastic description! Want a big win? Look to your head coach! Need a halftime speech to motivate you for the second half? Wait for the coach to step up and share his or her thoughts! Need someone who will help you develop as a professional? Find a coach who works long hours and invests heavily in her or his players! Of course, images abound when we think of a head coach in amateur and professional athletics—and most of us have had a range of experiences with coaches from childhood through early adulthood.