<html><head><style type="text/css"><!-- DIV {margin:0px;} --></style></head><body><div style="font-family:times new roman,new york,times,serif;font-size:12pt">All,<br><br>Jane's e-mail about listing degrees accurately on CVs prompts me to mention a problem I myself have encountered regarding the official name of my PhD. My degree is from Columbia, where my primary area was theory. The music department always referred to their PhD major as "Musicology," under which students were admitted to separate streams: theory, historical musicology, and ethnomusicology. Thus I thought a PhD in Musicology was what I was technically pursuing. However, when I finally earned my degree I noticed my university transcript said "Music," with no mention of Musicology. Since it is the trustees of the university, not the department, who confer degrees, I have tended (since graduation) to say that I have a PhD in Music, but I can honestly say that I'm not sure what the official
title is, or if there even is such a thing. The paper document of my degree offers no mention whatsoever of Music, Musicology, or Music Theory. I'm all for accuracy; I just don't know who's the final authority.<br><br>At Rutgers, where I now teach, we have a similar situation--the department currently offers majors in composition/theory and musicology, but my understanding is that the graduate school and the university only recognize "Music."<br><br><div>Perhaps these are oddities specific to Columbia and Rutgers, but my hunch is that they are not. Many job offers list a "PhD in Music Theory" as a requirement, and I've
often wondered how many programs officially offer such a degree--or if they even know for certain.<br><br>Best,<br>Chris<br><br></div>--<br>Christopher Doll<br>Assistant Professor<br>Department of Music<br>Mason Gross School of the Arts<br>Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey<div><br></div><div style="font-family: times new roman,new york,times,serif; font-size: 12pt;"><br><div style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><font face="Tahoma" size="2"><hr size="1"><b><span style="font-weight: bold;">From:</span></b> Jane Clendinning <jclendinning@fsu.edu><br><b><span style="font-weight: bold;">To:</span></b> Leslie Kinton <lkinton@primus.ca>; SMT Talk <smt-talk@societymusictheory.org><br><b><span style="font-weight: bold;">Sent:</span></b> Fri, November 19, 2010 8:53:29 PM<br><b><span style="font-weight: bold;">Subject:</span></b> Re: [Smt-talk] Princeton and Theory<br></font><br>
Colleagues,<br><br>Listing the type and area of a doctoral degree inaccurately on a CV or<br>position application is "falsifying credentials", which is quite a serious<br>matter. This type of intentional inaccuracy could be grounds for getting<br>fired (because you were hired under false pretenses) or could get an<br>applicant removed from a job application pool if the falsehood is noted by a<br>committee member ( . . . if someone would lie about that type of<br>information, which can easily be verified by checking to see which degrees a<br>university grants or by calling references, how can the person be trusted on<br>anything else?).<br><br>...<br><br>Jane Clendinning<br><br></div></div>
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