A message from Gary M. Grobman, Ph.D.

Welcome to the Ph.D. Culture Project!  This Web site became fully operational on February 1, 2010. A companion discussion board and a "Ph.D. Cartoon of the Week" can be found at: http://www.facebook.com/phdculture

Registration on Facebook is not required to view these pages, but is required to join in on the discussion.

I'm about to let the world know (via press release) that this site exists. Its value depends on folks like you (both abusers of Ph.D. students and the abused) sharing their stories. So be generous with what you share, and I look forward to reading and responding to your posts.

You may contact me and/or the Webmaster at:

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My new book, Just Don't Do It! A Fractured and Irreverent Look at the Ph.D. Culture is now available in its print version!

Here's some recent recent reviews and testimonials about my book:

Review: Just Don't Do It! A Fractured and Irreverent Look at the Ph.D. Culture

Having learned about Gary Grobman’s "Just Don't Do It: A Fractured and Irreverent Look at the Ph.D. Culture" at a recent academic conference, I ordered one for a doctoral student who had just completed a very painful dissertation defense – and then bought one for myself for good measure. I opened it up and soon found myself reading aloud to my wife. Intrigued, she grabbed the book to scope out the biting cartoons, and we soon found ourselves committing an entire evening, quite unexpectedly, to reading back and forth to each other from its witticisms, mini-treatises, stories, and humor.

It’s safe to predict that Grobman’s book will find a readership among those currently slogging their way through doctoral programs and those disgruntled individuals with little more than painful memories from their past doctoral studies. But we can also hope that the book winds up among the ranks of faculty who have some propensity to change the ways that doctoral studies are conducted. I’m afraid I was all too familiar with many of the unjust pitfalls that Grobman outlines; the book was, in places, a bit too close for comfort. Fortunately, Grobman adroitly wraps the presentation in just enough humor to make the bitter pills easier to swallow. Sadly, those with the most up-close view of ego-driven faculty posturing, assistantship servitude, and the processes that breed injustice in graduate education are those with the least leverage for summoning change in the system – the students. And those with greatest potential to change the system – faculty -- have the least incentive to do so. As Grobman notes, it is clear that the injustices in doctoral programs that he illuminates are perpetuated in much the same way that child abuse is handed down inter-generationally.

So readers should be prepared that Grobman has a message to deliver: it is about injustice and insensitivity in doctoral programs in higher education. And, as with his other books, Grobman again reveals his propensity for doing his homework – a thorough job of digging up voices, accounts, and research about his subject matter. This book is not light and easy reading, although the well-spaced cartoons might suggest otherwise, but it is must reading for anybody contemplating doctoral study. We can only hope that it also finds its way into the hands of a small critical mass of those who can make a difference in the subject matter it reports.

Ralph Brower, Ph.D., Associate Professor and Director, Center for Civic and Nonprofit Leadership, Askew School of Public Administration and Policy, Florida State University

Sometimes the deepest truths are most accessible through humor. Dr. Grobman demonstrates this in literary triumph. Doctoral training has drifted far from its lofty origins and Grobman’s book illustrates poignantly, as only humor can capture, the rotten fruits of unaccountable elitism. Despite the humorous vein, however, there is also a serious side to Grobman’s message. There are countless individuals who have been “scarred” by the abusive ordeals perpetrated upon them by the faculty of doctoral programs. Persons contemplating a pursuit of doctoral study should read this to better understand what they’re in for, and what manner of self defense is probably needed to survive with their personhood intact. For many, I would suggest they look into a practitioner doctoral program, rather than a Ph.D., such as a D.S.W., D.P.A., D.B.A., Psy.D., Dr.P.H., and many other degree programs that are aimed at practitioners. These tend to be a bit more competency based, rational, and humane.

Barry L. Nazar, D.P.A., Senior Research Associate; Adjunct Assistant Professor, Temple University

To order JUST DON'T DO IT, call Pathway Book Service toll-free:

1-800-345-6665

or order from our online store.

The Kindle version of this book, published by Science and Humanities Press (http://www.scienceandhumanitiespress.com) is available from Amazon.com. The Kindle version can be ordered for $9.95 at:

http://www.amazon.com/Just-dont-fractured-irreverent-ebook/dp/B002Z13TTQ

The price of the print version is $16.95, plus $6 shipping (in Pennsylvania, add 6% sales tax). If you are not ordering by telephone or online, send a check for $22.95 plus any applicable PA sales tax to:

White Hat Communications

PO Box 5390

Harrisburg, PA 17110

717-238-3787

Online Store: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Click on the menu to the left for additional resources, including free excerpts from the book, cartoons, and interactive discussion with me and other poor slobs who have been traumatized by their participation in the Ph.D. culture.

The forum is now open. Simply click on "Discussion Forum" on the home page to the left of the screen. To post messages, you need to register, but you do not need to register if you are simply reading these posts.

Here is one of the 13 original cartoons in this new book:

copyright 2009, Gary Grobman & John Littleboy. All Rights Reserved.