Dr Who?? : UFO PhD dissertations - free online

Given the level of ridicule that surrounds ufology (which explains why I write about ufology under a pseudonym...), I think a lot of people would be surprised by the number of PhD dissertations that have been written relating to this subject. Most of these PhD dissertations have a sociological or psychological focus.

Few of the relevant PhD dissertations get mentioned very often in ufological discussions, presumably partly because most of them have not been easy for non-academics to obtain. So, I thought it worth putting a bit of time and effort into collating relevant details and making more of these dissertations freely available online.

Section A: Introduction

In the last few months, I've collated details of various PhD dissertations relating to ufology which are in English and freely available online. I've also sought permission to upload scans of several relevant PhD dissertations to a free file storage website. The authors of several relevant PhD dissertations have kindly given their permission and their work has been uploaded. I've also contacted a few other authors who are currently considering their position.


This post is split into the following into the following sections:

Section A: Introduction
Section B: Databases of UFO dissertations
Section C: UFO PhD dissertations - now free online
Section D: UFO PhD dissertations - author located, permission sought
Section E: UFO PhD dissertations - author to be located and permission sought
Section F: Postscript


If we worked together, I think we could significantly add to the amount of such literature freely available online. In particular, in Section E below, I've also collated a list of further relevant PhD dissertations (some of which I've obtained, some of which I'm awaiting from a colleague in the USA) where I need to locate contact details for the author and ask if they have any plans to upload their dissertation or are willing to give their permission for me to upload a searchable PDF copy of their dissertation to a free file storage website (such as box.com or minus.com).

Since my time is rather limited (and I'm also working on another couple of ufological projects...), if anyone else reading this thread can find any relevant contact details for any of the authors listed in Section E, that would be great. I can then send them a request for their permission and, hopefully, add their PhD dissertation to the collection of material freely available online.


I'd like to thank another member of AboveTopSecret.com ("FooScience") for getting me to think in more depth about PhD dissertations relevant to ufology and very kindly supplied me with a number of them.

(Dissertations prepared for Masters degrees, and foreign language PhD dissertations, are matter for another day...).

Section B: Databases of UFO dissertations

Before launching into details of individual relevant PhD dissertations, I thought it worth mentioning a couple of relevant databases.
Firstly, Italian researcher Paolo Toselli has been collating details of dissertations (both PhD and Masters level) relevant to ufology for several years. He has kindly given me permission to upload the 2013 version of his dissertation database. I've uploaded a searchable PDF version of Paolo Toselli's spreadsheet to:
app.box.com...


A Microsoft Excel version of Paolo Toselli's spreadsheet is at:
app.box.com...





American researcher Barry Greenwood has also been collecting UFO dissertations (PhDs and Masters) and he has helpfully posted an inventory of his collection at:
www.greenwoodufoarchive.com...





Approaching the matter somewhat differently, I've sought to list references in UFO books to various UFO dissertations on a series of webpages which can be accessed via the link below:
www.isaackoi.com...

Section C: UFO PhD dissertations - currently free online

1970 PhD - Herbert Joseph Strentz "A survey of press coverage of unidentified flying objects, 1947 – 1966" , Northwestern University

app.box.com...

Permission to upload obtained by Isaac Koi



For discussion of this dissertation, see the references listed in the table at:
www.isaackoi.com...

1973 PhD - The controversy over unidentified flying objects in America: 1896-1973, David Michael Jacobs, The University of Wisconsin – Madison

app.box.com...

Permission to upload obtained by Isaac Koi.






David Jacobs has also kindly given his permission for me to upload a searchable PDF version of his book, The UFO Controversy in America based on his dissertation:

app.box.com...










David Jacobs is probably better known within ufology for his subsequent research into alien abductions, discussed by him in the video below:

1975 PhD - Paul Edward McCarthy "Politicking and Paradigm Shifting: James E. McDonald and the UFO Case Study", University of Hawaii

A HTML version of this dissertation is online on the Project 1947 website and also on the NCAS website at the links below:

www.project1947.com...

files.ncas.org...

Tom Tulien of the Sign Historical Group recently obtained Paul McCarthy's generous permission for me to also make available a searchable PDF version of his dissertation (using the Project 1947 website HTML version as a source) so that the dissertation can be downloaded and read/searched offline:

app.box.com...





For references to discussion of this dissertation, see:
www.isaackoi.com...

1982 PhD - Thomas Eddie Bullard "Mysteries in the eye of the beholder: UFOs and their correlates as a folkloric theme past and present" Indiana University

www.jtc-ufo.com...

Permission to upload obtained by Daniel Guenther

1985 PhD - Shirley McIver "The UFO Movement: A Sociological Study of UFO Groups", The University of York

app.box.com...

Permission to upload obtained by Joe McGonagle

1988 PhD - Linda Jean Milligan "The UFO debate: A study of a contemporary legend", The Ohio State University

etd.ohiolink.edu...

1998 PhD, Duncan Day "Psychological correlates of the UFO abduction experience: The role of beliefs and indirect suggestions on abduction accounts obtained during hypnosis", Concordia University

www.collectionscanada.gc.ca...

2005 PhD - Linda Billings "Sex! Aliens! Harvard? Rhetorical boundary-work in the media (a case study of the role of journalists in the social construction of scientific authority)", Indiana University, Journalism.

scholarworks.iu.edu...

2005 PhD - Susan Lepselter "The Flight of the Ordinary: Narrative, Poetics, Power and UFOs in the American Uncanny", University of Texas – Austin

www.lib.utexas.edu...

2006 PhD - Mark Harrison "The Extraterrestrial in U.S. Culture", University of Pittsburgh

d-scholarship.pitt.edu...

2009 PhD - Kirsi Haenninen "The Construction of Self in Finnish First Person Supernatural Encounter Narratives", Ohio State University

etd.ohiolink.edu...

2010 PhD - Shelley E. McGinnis "Dallas, Roswell, Area 51: A social history of American 'conspiracy tourism'", The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

dc.lib.unc.edu...

Section D: UFO PhD dissertations - author located, permission sought

I've found contact details for the following authors of a few further relevant PhD dissertations (using some basic searches on Facebook or Google). Some of them have replied indicating that they will get back to me shortly.

The further authors I've emailed are listed below.

1997 PsyD - Mindy Sue Kopolow “Alien abductees’” Reports of worldview reconstruction (assumptive world theory, coping), Antioch University New England Graduate School.
www.drmindykopolow.com...
(Awaiting copy)

1999 PhD, Stephanie M Kelley "The myth of communion: A rhetorical analysis
of the narratives of alien abductees".University of Kansas.
www.bates.edu...
(Awaiting copy)

2000 PhD - Anne Boyle Cross "A Confederacy of Faith and Fact: UFO Research and the Search for Other Worlds", Yale University
www.metrostate.edu...
(Copy obtained)

2006 PhD, Dean Bertram “Flying Saucer Culture: An Historical Survey of American UFO Belief”, University of Sydney (DASH)
www.facebook.com...
(Awaiting copy)

Section E: UFO PhD dissertations - author to be located

I've also collated a list of further relevant PhD dissertations (some of which I've obtained, some of which I'm awaiting from a colleague in the USA) where I need to locate contact details for the author and ask if they have any plans to upload their dissertation or are willing to give their permission for me to upload a searchable PDF copy of their dissertation to a free file storage website (such as box.com or minus.com).

Since my time is rather limited (and I'm also working on another couple of ufological projects...), if anyone else reading this thread can find any relevant contact details for any of the authors listed in this Section, that would be great. I can then send them a request for their permission and, hopefully, add their PhD dissertation to the collection of material freely available online.

If anyone is minded to do a few searches for relevant contact details, I'd suggest prioritising looking for the contact details for the authors of dissertations that I've already obtained (as indicated in the list below). Where I'm awaiting a copy of the relevant dissertation, contact details are a lower priority.


1973 PhD, Michael K. Schutz, Organizational Goals and Support-Seeking Behavior: A Comparative Study of Social Movement Organizations in the UFO, Northwestern University
(Awaiting copy)

1984 PhD, Peter Michael Rojcewicz, The Boundaries of Orthodoxy: A Folkloric Look at the “UFO Phenomenon” – University of Pennsylvania
(Copy obtained)

1986 PhD, June Parnell, Personality Characteristics on the MMPI, 16PF, and ACL of Persons Who Claim UFO Experiences, University of Wyoming
(Copy obtained)

1990 PhD, Robert Pearson Flaherty, Flying saucers and the new angelology: Mythic projection of the Cold War and the convergence of opposites, University of California, Los Angeles
(Copy obtained)

1992 PhD, Jo Stone- Carmen, Personality characteristics and self-identified experiences of individuals reporting possible abduction by unidentified flying objects (UFOs), United States International University
(Awaiting copy)

1995 PhD, Diana Jean Tumminia, Brothers from the sky: Myth and reality in a flying saucer group, University of California, Los Angeles
(Awaiting copy)

1998 PhD, Brenda Denzler, The Lure of the Edge: Science, Religion, and the Alien Abduction Movement, Duke University
(Copy obtained)

2000 PhD, Andres Zlotsky, Supposed Science, Alleged Fiction: Distortion Patterns in the Transmission, of Cultural Paradigms, in the Twentieth Century , State University of New York – Buffalo
(Awaiting copy)


2001 PhD - Bridget M. Brown "The Terror is Real. The history and politics of alien abduction", New York University
(Copy obtained)

2001 PhD, Carol Suzanne Matthews, Taken: Constructions of ‘Race’, ‘Biology’ and Colonialism in Alien Abduction Narrative in the United States, University of Kansas
(Awaiting copy)

2001 D. Min. – Robert C. Hendrix, Biblical analysis of the UFO/Alien Abduction phenomenon with possible implications for end times deception, Northwest Graduate School of the ministry, Redmond, Washington,
(Awaiting copy)

2004 PhD, Ryan Cook, Weather-Workers, Saucer Seekers, and Orthoscientists: Epistemic Authority in Central Mexico, University of Chicago
(Awaiting copy)

2004 PhD, Arthur C. Fricke, SETI science: Managing alien narratives, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
(Copy obtained)

2005 PhD, Jan Bertil Heilund, Tensions, synthesis and spirituality in the Norwegian UFO movement, especially exemplified by the world outlook of the organization , University of Bergen, Norway (EUROUFO)
(Awaiting copy)

2006 PhD, Zoe Couacaud, How the alien invaded the American mind: a history of experts, entrepreneurs, story-tellers, and a love of the alien in modern American culture, University of Sydney (DASH)
(Awaiting copy)

Section F : Postscript

Just for anyone interested in ufology that entered this thread looking for material on Doctor Who, here is a revised version of the poster in Fox Mulder's office in the "X-Files" created by "Rabittooth":
rabittooth.deviantart.com...

This is some impressive research! Thank you for all your hard work in putting it together!

Excellent thread. S+F

Anything by Peter A. Sturrock?

originally posted by: JadeStar
Excellent thread. S+F

Thanks. I hope this thread will be of use to some researchers, particularly if there is some follow-up of the points in Section E above.

Anything by Peter A. Sturrock?

Peter A. Sturrock's PhD in 1951 related to Astrophysics rather than ufology.

You probably know about Sturrock's UFO book, The UFO Engima. Some references to discussion of that work in various books are listed in a table at the link below:
www.isaackoi.com...


Probably less well-known are the various ufological articles written by Peter A Sturrock in the "Journal of Scientific Exploration", which are available to download without charge on the website of the Society of Scientific Exploration - see the list at:
www.scientificexploration.org...