Sharing really bad academic research is a goal of Academentia. So before Jill Biden becomes as irrelevant as she should rightly be, I thought I’d have a look at her doctoral dissertation and share it with Academentia readers. I have been intending to review it for some time, but when I went to download it I found that I was late to the party. Very late. When searching for it online, the first reference I ran across was a four-year-old National Review piece[i] by Kyle Smith titled The Contradictions and Conceptual Errors of Jill Biden’s Garbage Dissertation. It is subtitled Walk with me through the vapid pages of her 20,000-word piece of litter-box lining. I can’t do better than that for a title.
As I write this today (October 17, 2024) an article by Bill Donohue[ii] titled Harris and “Dr.” Jill Compete for Honors notes that, with regard to her ‘dissertation’:
“Dr.” Jill got off to a bad start. She writes, “The needs of the student population are often undeserved, resulting in a student drop-out rate of almost one third (my italics).” She obviously meant “underserved.” This was the second sentence on p. 1.
As Donohue notes, Jill is innumerate, as revealed in the following extract: “Three quarters of the class will be Caucasian; one quarter of the class will be African American. . . one seat will hold a Latino; and the remaining seats will be filled with students of Asian descent or non-resident aliens.” And the paper is rife with weird statements and non sequiturs such as “students make friends through their classes and their technologies”. And yet there is even an article titled Preserving the Legacy of Dr. Jill Biden in a Post-Obama Era: Implications for Student Affairs Professionals at Community Colleges.[iii] I didn’t read the article because the publisher wants $53.00 for 48 hours access to the paper, and no one was brave enough to post a free copy online. Money well-saved on my part, I suspect.
Kyle Smith’s article ends noting that, when she asks to be called “Dr.” she ought to be politely told: You’re not even an academic, you teach remedial English to community college students, and your dissertation is kindling.” Her insistence on being referred to as “Dr.” was grating to many. Few people were initially aware in 2020 that Dr. Jill wasn’t a physician. The perpetually ill-informed and, I think, not too swift, co-host of The View Whoopi Goldberg clucked,[iv] “I’m hoping Dr. Jill becomes the surgeon general . . . . She would never do it but, yeah, she’s a hell of a doctor. She’s an amazing doctor”. As Christine Rosen noted in an article about the self-aggrandizement of Jill Biden; “I have seen Capitol Hill staffers (Democrats, all) roll their eyes when asked about Jill Biden’s insistence that she be referred to by the honorific [Dr.], something she did during her tenure as second lady.”[v]
This is all pretty damning, and yet there are defenders of Dr. Jill (and apologists for doctorates in education in general – a topic for another blog.) Nathalie Wexler[vi] is one: “Jill Biden should be celebrated for her dedication to some of our neediest students” Wexler has enthused. With regard to Dr. Jill’s dissertation, Wexler acknowledged that it contains “typos and a few infelicitous phrases, but compared to a lot of academic writing, it’s admirably clear.” I have written numerous journal articles and a doctoral dissertation, acted as an ad hoc reviewer for academic journals, and supervised numerous undergraduate theses. Never have I seen, even from an undergraduate, a piece of academic writing as unclear and generally poorly written as that in Dr. Jill’s dissertation, with its misuse of words, typos, and ‘infelicitous’ phrases.
In closing, although criticisms of Dr. Jill and her dreadful dissertation evoked cries of ‘sexism’, calling out sub-par EdD research and sloppy writing is not reserved for women. Dr. Jill’s ‘dissertation’ is exceptional. It is just terrible.
[i] https://www.nationalreview.com/2020/12/the-contradictions-and-conceptual-errors-of-jill-bidens-garbage-dissertation/
[ii] https://www.catholicleague.org/harris-and-dr-jill-compete-for-honors/
[iii] Hornak, A. M., Ozaki, C. C., Latz, A. O., & Royer, D. W. (2018). Preserving the Legacy of Dr. Jill Biden in a Post-Obama Era: Implications for Student Affairs Professionals at Community Colleges. Community College Journal of Research and Practice, 42(11), 818–823. https://doi.org/10.1080/10668926.2018.1448729
[iv] https://thehill.com/blogs/in-the-know/in-the-know/485976-whoopi-pitches-jill-biden-as-surgeon-general/
[v] https://www.nationalreview.com/magazine/2024/09/the-self-aggrandizement-of-jill-biden/
[vi] https://www.forbes.com/sites/nataliewexler/2020/12/18/whats-really-behind-the-flap-over-jill-bidens-doctorate/