Writing Dissertation Acknowledgements

The road to earning a Ph.D. is long and arduous, but you probably didn’t walk it alone. Though writing a dissertation can feel like a solitary pursuit, when you look back on it you’ll see there are many people who supported you along the way. The dissertation acknowledgements page is a great place to thank those who helped you on your Ph.D. journey. Here are some people you may want to include.

Dissertation Acknowledgements: Whom to Thank?

While members of your committee may be the first to come to mind, there are many people who have supported you through the dissertation writing process whom you may want to thank.

• Members of your doctoral committee, faculty, mentors, and advisors
• Loved ones and friends
• Colleagues and peers
• Librarians and research assistants
• Editors and peer reviewers
• Professional societies 
• Administrative staff

Tone

The dissertation acknowledgements page offers a rare opportunity for scholars to use a personal and somewhat less formal tone to address their audience. There are not a lot of occasions where a truly personal tone is appropriate in research or scholarship, but the dissertation acknowledgements page is one of them. If you’ve been hoping to inject a little warmth or humor into what can otherwise be a dry and serious document, now is your time to shine. 

Be Concise

While you’re free to soften your tone in your dissertation acknowledgements, keep in mind that you don’t have the space to wax poetic. This section of your dissertation will be allotted one or two pages–at most–so take care to be clear and concise when expressing your gratitude. Like at the Academy Awards, you have a limited amount of time to collect your Oscar and offer your heartfelt thanks before being played off the stage. Make the most of it. 

Start with Faculty

As a professional courtesy to the professors who are now your peers, thanking your faculty is a great place to begin your dissertation acknowledgements. From your dissertation chair and your doctoral committee to your department faculty, mentors, and advisors, many people have invested a lot of time and expertise in your doctoral education. Spend a paragraph or two acknowledging their contributions to your development as a member of the profession. 

Loved Ones 

Don’t forget those who supported your doctoral dreams in other ways. Our family, friends, and significant others are often the ones who sustain us throughout our programs of study. The dissertation acknowledgements page is a good place to show your gratitude to the ones who believed in you before anybody else did, offered you comfort and bolstered your spirits, and  tended to your emotional wellbeing as you navigated the academic gauntlet of your Ph.D. program. 

Colleagues

One of the best parts about going to graduate school is the friends we make there. Even in the most competitive programs, there’s solace to be found with your academic comrades, who are the only people who know exactly what you’re going through. Your peers will also be the core of your professional network for many years to come. 

You will delight in seeing them at academic conferences in the future, and they will be a great source of future collaboration (and maybe commiseration as you navigate the stormy waters of academia). Either way, they’re going to be in your life for a long time, so it’s a meaningful gesture to thank them in your dissertation acknowledgements. 

Librarians and Research Assistants

Though we’re often seduced by the idea of the lone genius working in solitude, it’s simply not true–especially in academia. Research is the beating heart of any dissertation, and as scholars we would be lost without the help of librarians, research assistants, and student work studies. Save some room in your dissertation acknowledgements for the ones who patiently answered your questions and rounded up all those books, articles, artifacts, and translations that seemed irretrievable. 

Editors and Peer Reviewers

While your chair and dissertation committee guided your research, it was your editors and peer reviewers that helped you communicate your ideas with clarity and precision. Whether they fine-tuned the grammar in your journal articles or refined the prose in your dissertation until it gleamed, the people who help us find our voices as writers and give them professional polish deserve high praise indeed. Though editors and peer reviewers are often overlooked in dissertation acknowledgements, we think they’re a shoo-in. 

Administrative Staff

Editors and librarians are not the only silent supporters who merit a mention in your dissertation acknowledgements. As the nerve center of any university, administrative staff are the often-unsung heroes of academia. The department secretary was likely the first friendly face or voice that you encountered at your university, and they’ve logged untold hours of administrative minutiae on your behalf every day since. 

From organizing class assignments and budget requests to carrying out the day to day tasks that kept your life as a grad student running smoothly, they’ve been there every step of the way. Thanks are definitely in order, and probably a bottle of wine. 

Professional Affiliations and Awards 

Finally, don’t overlook professional societies. They are the bridge between your life as a student, and the next phase of your career as a scholar. In your dissertation acknowledgements, take a moment to share your gratitude to organizations that nurtured your scholarly ambitions. Whether they hosted graduate student-friendly conferences that you attended or sponsored travel grants or prizes that funded your research, it’s wise to thank them. In addition to being gracious, it’s also a savvy way to pivot to your future in the profession. 

What’s Next

That’s right–before the ink is dry on your dissertation, you need to not only have a plan for what’s next, but also be prepared to talk about it. The dissertation acknowledgements page is a good place to recognize the hard work you’ve done and your new place as a scholarly peer in your academic field or profession. You may even want to hint at where your research is headed in the future.

Rather than letting your dissertation be the last word in your life as a graduate student, use the dissertation acknowledgements page to make it the first chapter in your career as a scholar. Let the world know that your dissertation may be done, but you’re just getting started.