There’s a condition rampant in graduate schools known
as “ABD.” It usually affects students nearing
the end of their doctoral studies, targeting the overworked,
the uninspired and the unsure.
Carriers are easy to spot. They’re usually teaching
assistants or young professionals who vaguely cancel plans,
mumbling something about working on a project.
Diagnosis consists of one question: "Are you done with school?"
“All But Dissertation,” they reply.
JoBeth Allen, a professor in UGA’s College of Education
Department of Language and Literacy Education, is as close
to a faith healer as these students need. For the past six
years, she’s led a group of graduate students to the
wilderness for a week with the goal of helping them write. And write
and write and write.
The retreat is a seven-day May term course in which about
15 graduate students from a wide range of disciplines, who
have collected qualitative data, trek to Amicalola Falls
State Park to get away from distractions and put their fingers
to the keyboard.
“One of the things we saw was that after students collected
all their data there was this question ‘What do I do
now?’” Allen says. “The other impetus for
us is that everybody—faculty, grad students, doctoral
students—has trouble making time to write. So this
was our solution.”
Under her guidance, students shrug off television, telephones
and e-mail and turn their data into dissertation chapters
and publishable articles. Students spend six to eight hours
writing per day.
“I advise everyone to take a hike or something throughout
the day,” Allen says. “It’s beautiful,
and that’s really part of getting away to write. Everyone
usually hikes the waterfall once while we’re at Amicalola.”
Each student has a 30 minute one-on-one writing conferences
with Allen each day. They also have writing partners or groups
for additional feedback.
It’s this pairing of nature and nurture that works
to inspire and develop the students’ writing; there’s
nowhere like the wilderness to grow.
“Most people get at least a draft of an article or
a chapter done while they’re up there. And nobody thinks
they can do it,” Allen says.
The effects of the course are apparent in its students. In
interviews, they heaped praises upon their teacher, many
giving Allen credit for their ability to finish their dissertations.
“She bridges a diverse community of junior researchers
within a very short time. She crafts writers and spirits,” says
doctoral student Rachelle Washington.
Language and literacy student Jeff Orr, who also took the
course, says, “(Allen) really balances encouragement
and critique with the expectation of quality writing and
productive creation of text. There’s such a concentrated
period of writing and thus a real need for what she does.”
Washington took the course twice. She’s almost done
now, but with the realization that her need to write academically
is not going to stop, she’s got some ideas for another
program.
“I will graduate in May, and I wonder when there will
be a similar retreat designed for those of us heading to
university posts. Any ideas, Dr. Allen? I'm hopeful,” she
says.
Building the New Learning Environment
The new learning environment is an academic and intellectual
community on the campus of the University of Georgia humming
with the vibrancy of the true college experience—bright
and talented students working with brilliant faculty formally
in the classroom and informally over a cup of coffee or lounging
in the greenspace which stretches from one end of campus to
the other. It is a place which recognizes that new information
technologies are transforming traditional academic disciplines
and embraces those opportunities. |
In May term, JoBeth
Allen leads a group of graduate students to the
wilderness to get them away from distractions, put their fingers to the keyboard, and write, write, write. 
