On PhDs and Coronations

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Silk handkerchief depicting the coronation of Queen Victoria in Westminster Abbey. Printed in black with purple, red, blue, yellow, and green.

I attended the (virtual) dissertation defense of a student in my PhD programme this week. After presenting work that represented years of his life, he was welcomed by the jury into their ranks, into the academy. It was highly moving (and not only because it proved that there are indeed some people who finish their PhDs…).

There's this strangely mystical moment in dissertation defenses: the jury comes back from deliberation and (if all went well) bestows the title of "Doctor of Philosophy" on the student.

It's almost like a coronation, a ceremony where something significant changes about a person. You were once one thing, and now you are another. And as spectators, we get to witness that precise moment of transition.

I love these rites of passage. I get similar chills hearing the vows at weddings and the oaths at citizenship ceremonies. It is such a privilege to be a witness to the sacramental moments of another person's life. To join them in dreaming about what could be possible, what could be worked for, what could be chosen.

Silk handkerchief depicting the coronation of Queen Victoria in Westminster Abbey, 1838, England, Victoria and Albert Museum