What Doesn’t Bore You Makes You a Scholar: On Picking a PhD Thesis Topic

When starting a PhD thesis or other long piece of writing (any substantial intellectual project really), choosing the right topic is a significant part of whether the end result will be successful. Graduate students choose their topics in many ways. Some see postings for PhD positions within research groups and apply to work on a project with a particular researcher. Some may start a degree program and decide on a topic after they’ve spent time with the subject. And some have a passion for a particular topic and want to spend several years working deeply on it to move the research forward. Beyond the research and writing, all of these options have implications for practical concerns like funding opportunities and strategy for how to approach applications and getting started. I will not get into these elements here, but I would encourage anyone considering pursuing a program to research them before proceeding.

Research is creative. Looking at a series of data points or court cases from the 19th century and extrapolating from those sources to draw conclusions about the world and society is inherently a creative act. Choosing a topic for research is especially so, and it can feel as overwhelming as staring at any blank page. This can be avoided somewhat by working on a project someone else started, but ultimately it is necessary. I took a course on creativity some years ago, and we were encouraged to not rush through the initial stages of a project. This is excellent advice. It can be tempting to nail down the details of what topic will be researched and what form or outline the dissertation will take early in the process. This is understandable, as many people are not comfortable with ambiguity, and there’s often pressure on graduate students to conclude the early stages and focus early. This can be interpreted to mean that the eventual research project will be on its way to completion, which is an important element of a successful program for both the supervisor and the student. And indecision is a common pitfall students encounter, so balance is needed. However, choosing early means that the eventual result is more influenced by decisions made when the student knows less instead of following more rigorous research.

It is understandable that potential students who may not be overly familiar with a topic, and who require external funds to pay for their studies, find that it is most expedient to work on a pre-existing project that their advisor has already started and obtained funding for. This ensures that the project has been vetted by an experienced researcher and external body such as a granting agency. It can be hoped that this gives them some assurance that the research is viable and suitable as a dissertation topic. However, it seems to me that often supervisors in this position do not consider the best interest of the students in selecting these topics but focus on encouraging students to do research they wish to see done for their own reasons. It may be that they simply need to have a large enough number of projects progressing, so they don’t have to be careful about which ones they start. The repercussions for graduate students who choose an unsuccessful topic are considerably more serious than they are for supervisors, so this is an issue that should be carefully considered before committing to a topic. Overall this approach is appealing to researchers with less experience at the beginning of their projects who want to build out a career, but I would encourage them to consider the selection of their topic carefully and to know their options if they decide they want to change focus.

For those who start a program without a clear idea what topic they will pursue, a PhD, especially in its early stages, can be an exploration of what is important to the researcher and the field. I imagine this approach is more common in North American programs where PhD programs are longer and involve a significant period of coursework and other study before sitting a comprehensive exam and starting writing. In European programs, which are shorter, research tends to be started immediately. This approach has clear benefits: delaying selection of a topic until researchers know more means that they are not tied to topics, either emotionally or administratively, that they picked before they spend considerable time with the subject. As I alluded to above, the potential issue with this approach is that if students haven’t selected topics at the beginning of their programs, they may not find it easy to choose a topic in the middle. This indecision is a major contributing factor in many students’ inability to finish their programs.

The final way to select a topic that I will discuss is for students to have a subject they want to spend time researching extensively over a period of years. This could arguably be the most meaningful, or at least the most personally satisfying, way to select a topic. Especially if the researcher can maintain interest in the topic over the course of the program, and if the topic is suitable for a thesis. The risks for this approach is that it may be difficult to get project funding for a project that doesn’t have a professor as lead researcher or if the student doesn’t have experience applying for support. It may also be a dead end, and if there is too much emotional investment, the researcher may be unwilling to walk away or change direction when it is necessary to do so. This is the route I took to choose my thesis topic, and I will see how it goes as my program progresses.

None of these approaches are foolproof or bad choices. They all have advantages and disadvantages. For what it’s worth, my advice is that you should be careful about getting caught up in the sunk-cost fallacy — find a way to pivot as soon as you know that the research project will not be successful. Remember that ultimately no one cares as much about your research project as you do, so be careful about who is giving you advice and remember that in the end you are the person who has to live with the outcomes. Finally, your research topic doesn’t have to be perfect, its purpose is to serve as a way to launch your career and build a research program that you can grow into. Selecting an imperfect project that you can build on is better than indecision or a topic without paths for future development coming off it.

I’m interested to know how these different approaches affect the eventual outcomes and if anyone has additional advice. Please share them in the comments if you do. And I’d like to thank Lachlan Deyong and Scott Wortley who shared their thoughts on my draft.