The Basics: General Thoughts About My Area of Inquiry

I am one that has come into this program not being really sure what I want my dissertation to be about. I think I’m honing in on some topics… but it’s still in process. I have a pretty varied sense of interest, which is likely an attribute and a potential difficulty. I will also say that I am still trying to wrap my brain around the idea of a theoretical dissertation.

In thinking about my dissertation, I spent some time thinking about the population that I am passionate to work with and to offer assistance to:

• Immigrants
• Juveniles who are incarcerated
• Professionals working in the helping professions
• Social work college students
• Students with emotional and behavioral disabilities

The various themes are also diverse that I’m interested in. The topic that I’m going to focus my paper on is resilience, but I would say that I have a number of interrelated areas that I would be interested in pursuing a great depth of knowledge around.

You can see the Mindmap that I started compiling information on around potential dissertation ideas.

Author Note

This essay was originally posted a discusson forum for TSD 8125 - Creative Inquiry - Scholarship for the 21st Century at the California Institute of Integral Studies.