LERA Ph.D. Consortium
January 4th, 2007

Co-Chair's Mary Hoffman and Ryan Petty, Michigan State University
John-Paul Ferguson, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

PhD Tentative Schedule

Update on the 2007 LERA PhD Consortium

 The agenda is currently being finalized for the 2007 LERA PhD Consortium.  This year, we have made a special effort to solicit feedback from students regarding topics they would like to discuss and questions they would like answered.  Our overarching goal for this year's consortium is to put a spotlight on student research.  To do so, we have planned a day-long program including round table discussions of research in progress, plenary sessions focusing on research challenges facing interdisciplinary scholars and the ins and outs of the publication process.  However, we don't want to abandon the consortium's traditional role as an opportunity for students to solicit job market and career advice.  To that end, we are planning to hold two panel discussions, one focused on developing your research ideas into a dissertation and managing your committee and one structured around job market and career concerns of both for academic and non-traditional job seekers.  More detail on the days events is provided below and a schedule will soon be posted.  If you have any questions, please contact us at leraphd2007@gmail.com.  We hope to see you in Chicago!

-Mary, John-Paul and Ryan

v    Round Table Discussions of Student Research in Progress:

Thank you to those who submitted your own research ideas to be the focus of a roundtable.  Currently we have 7 roundtables structured around student research on the following topics:

o       Conflict Management and Workplace Violence

o       Flexible Working Schedules

o       Collective Bargaining Strategies

o       High Performance Work Systems

o       Annualized Hours Agreements

o       Work and Family

o       Union Collaboration

 These round tables are intended to provide participants not only with a chance to network with students and faculty who share their interests but also to observe a piece of the research process and take-away comments that may apply to their own research as well.  More information on student and faculty participants will be provided soon.  If you have an idea you would like to submit for a round table, it's not too late!  Contact us at leraphd2007@gmail.com

  v     Plenary Sessions:

v      Finding Theoretical Grounding in Interdisciplinary Research

o       How to balance breadth and depth of research.

o       How to choose among competing disciplinary paradigms and what these choices mean for the impact of our work.

o       How interdisciplinary researchers fit in universities structured around disciplinary silos.

v      Publication Process

o       Targeting a journal – Considerations for PhD students and associate professors.

o       Preparing a journal submission – Common “rookie” mistakes.

o       How to handle an R&R – What do the reviewers' comments really mean?

  v     Panel Discussions:

v     Developing and Pursuing Research Ideas as a PhD Student

o       How to find inspiration and people who share your interests.

o       How long to wait before “taking it public” and how to successfully communicate ideas to your advisor/committee.

o       How to turn your ideas into successful conference submissions and dissertation proposals.

v     Career Q&A: From Dissertation Proposal to Tenure

o       Tips for navigating the dissertation proposal, developing a job market paper and defending.

o       How “the job market” works: Which markets to try, what to expect and what is negotiable?

Thank you to the PhD Consortium Sponsors

The Segal Company
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
University of Minnesota
Cornell University- School of ILR
Cornell University - Institute on Conflict Resolution
University of Illinois
UCLA – Anderson School of Management
Rutgers University
Michigan State University

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