FASS Interview – PhD Hat trick for Professor of Sociology, Janet Siltanen
FASS Interview – PhD Hat trick for Professor of Sociology, Janet Siltanen
From left to right: Karen Foster, Riva Soucie, Janet Siltanen, Nick Scott
On November 10th at Fall Convocation, Professor of Sociology, and Director of the Institute of Political Economy, Janet Siltanen, hooded three Sociology PhD students whom she supervised: Riva Soucie, Karen Foster (co-supervised with fellow Sociology Professor Andrea Doucet) and Nick Scott.
Having three PhD students graduating at the same convocation is a memorable event. Recently, Siltanen took some time to discuss how she was able to score a PhD hat trick with This Week @ FASS.
Can you describe the ‘day of’ experience of hooding three students at Carleton’s 2012 Fall Convocation?
It is always a great thrill to bring our work with PhD students to a ceremonial close by hooding them at convocation. But, it isn’t always possible because people have often moved on and away. So, it was wonderful that Karen, Nick and Riva were all going to be there on the day – and that their schedules allowed us to gather in the Raven’s Nest for a group photo.
What does an accomplishment like this mean to you on both a personal and professional level?
In many ways I find that relationships with PhD students are both personal and professional. We spend a lot of time together at very significant moments in their personal lives. Plus, many go on to be academic colleagues who we meet at conferences or work with on other projects. I have a good track record of keeping in touch with PhD students I’ve worked with – including the first one I supervised at the University of Edinburgh who graduated in 1990.
We get a lot from working with PhD students – and we give a lot – and this usually means we’ve forged a strong relationship that lasts well into the future. I hope this will be the case for all three of these students.
Your workload must have been enormous! How did you manage?
They were kind enough to not defend in the same month!
These three students are so accomplished that even though they kept me working hard, it was always a joy to read their work. Also, each student had very dedicated committee members (Fran Klodawsky from Geography was on two of the committees), and for Karen I was co-supervisor with my colleague Andrea Doucet. This doesn’t necessarily reduce your own workload but it certainly helps in sharing the responsibility.
Could you describe the experience of working with these particular students?
What was remarkable about working with Karen, Nick and Riva is that they are each very adventurous scholars – willing to explore new areas of thinking and try new approaches to research.
Each one of them pushed the boundaries of theory and research methodology, and each produced excellent work. If anyone wants a great read, I recommend they look at the three dissertations. They taken on important questions and are written beautifully. They also include wonderful visual material..Riva’s thesis presents a fantastic collection of digital photographs taken by young people to show how they conceptualize home, and Nick’s dissertation is punctuated with visual narratives of Ottawa streetscapes.
I continue to work with two of them on other projects. I am working with Riva on an article about a teaching strategy I started to use in my graduate class on the logic of the research process that developed out of thinking experiments we tried during her PhD to help clarify the focus and methodology for her dissertation research. I am also working with Nick on a contract for the Federal government to develop a guide for policy analysts and researchers on how to do quantitative intersectional analysis.
Anything you’d like to add?
I suspect this will be my one and only convocation hat trick, and I enjoyed it thoroughly! Thank you to Karen, Nick and Riva for a memorable convocation.
More information on each graduate’s PhD work:
Riva Soucie‘s thesis ”So Long Little White Fence? Young Adults Confront and Transform Notions of Home” is a study of experiences of home and homemaking for young adults in Canada. She is a Policy Analyst at Human Resources and Skills Development Canada, where her work revolves around the federal agenda on community development. She is presently on leave of absence from the government and lives in Washington, DC with her husband who also graduated in the November convocation with a Master’s in Applied Science. Riva defended her thesis in August 2012.
Karen Foster’s dissertation is titled ‘Relating to Work: Generation, Discourse and Social Change’. She is a Senate Medal winner for her doctoral work. Karen is now a Banting Post-Doctoral Fellow in Management at Saint Mary’s University in Halifax, studying the measurement and morality of economic “productivity” in Atlantic Canada. Although Karen defended in the fall of 2012 and could have attended convocation in June – she chose to defer to the November ceremony so that she could be awarded her degree along with her husband who received his PhD in History.
Nick Scott‘s thesis “Reassembling Urban Travel: Mobilities, Neighbourhoods, and Off-Car Possibilities” examines contemporary and historical city planning trajectories for the city of Ottawa. He is now teaching at the University of Ottawa and building on his Ph.D. research by exploring the politics and practice of urban bicycle travel comparing Canada and Europe. Nick defended in May 2012.