Graduate School of Arts and Sciences

March 7, 2025

Abigail Arnold | Graduate School of Arts and Sciences

In her dissertation, Shirah Malka Cohen, PhD ‘23 in Near Eastern and Judaic Studies (NEJS), examined the use of classical music in early 20th century Japanese and Hebrew Literatures. She has now turned the dissertation into a book, Music in Modern Japanese and Hebrew Literatures: Weaving Sounds Into Words, which will be published as part of the Routledge Studies in Twentieth-Century Literature series in May. “In viewing music in literature as a nexus for various ideas and meanings,” said Cohen, “the book demonstrates how writers used these interartistic moments to question their cultural and literary identity, their artistic purpose, and their place in the wider literary world.” Cohen, who is currently an adjunct lecturer at the Institute for the Liberal Arts at Doshisha University and Kansai Gaidi University, as well as a research fellow at the University of Haifa, spoke to Brandeis University’s Graduate School of Arts and Sciences about her experience of turning her dissertation into a book.

This interview has been edited for clarity.

How did you go about the process of going from dissertation to book?

When I started the process of turning my dissertation into a book, I first had to take a step back and try to reassess my research from a more objective point of view. A dissertation and an academic book, although they do share many elements, have different purposes. With a dissertation, you are showing the culmination of your years as a graduate student, whereas with a book, your main aim is to contribute new and coherent ideas to your field. So, I had to step back and think what it is I was trying to say through my research and make sure that the book manuscript had a more coherent narrative that clearly underlined what I was trying to say. This is also something that my advisors all stressed to me already at my defense. Achieving that goal involved a lot of restructuring and trimming of unnecessary information. This was probably the most difficult part. There is so much research that goes into a dissertation, so of course you want to show everything you achieved. But when it comes to a book, you must also know what does not need to be included. I also did do some additional research, just to clarify some points and make sure that all the research is up to standard as can be. And since I wrote the majority of my dissertation during the COVID years, there were also resources that had been inaccessible to me and that I could now use. So, it was both a process of trimming down and restructuring and adding some new aspects as well.

What was the timeline of going from dissertation to book? How did you find a publisher?

I was very lucky in how relatively swiftly the timeline went for me. I started working on the book almost immediately after graduating, so after six or so months, I was already in a position where I could start inquiring with publishers. As for finding a publisher, that was the hardest part of the process. I had to find a publisher that issues a series that suited my topic, and, since my topic is very interdisciplinary, this was quite a challenge. I had spoken to some editors when attending conferences and also sat on panels in which editors spoke, so I started by reaching out to those publishers that I met through these opportunities. My first mistake, though, was that at first, I wrote to one publisher at a time. The first publisher took months to get back to me, only to eventually reject the book. So then I wrote to multiple publishers simultaneously. Most of them came back with a reply along the lines of “We do not have a series that will suit this book”. All of these rejections were naturally a bit difficult to take, and it can be demoralizing, but I think the important part is to not give up and continue reaching out to publishers. That’s how eventually I got a positive response from Routledge, who did have a series that could suit my book. They sent the book for peer review, and when that came back with positive feedback, I received a contract for publication. I then got further time to finish up and polish the manuscript before I resubmitted it for the copy-editing process. As my book is scheduled to come out in May, all in all the whole process took about two years.

How did you balance working on your book with your other responsibilities?

At the moment, I am working as an adjunct lecturer at two universities in Japan. (I grew up in Japan and my family is here, so after graduating, I decided to move back.) However, for the majority of the time I was working on the book, I was in the process of applying for these jobs, so working on the book was actually my main focus. In that way, I was rather lucky that I could put so much time into working on it. Now that I am teaching multiple courses, I definitely have less time to devote to research. For example, I had to balance finishing the index for the book and going over the final proofs before publication with the first week of teaching at a new university. That was rather stressful. So, I would say that finding a way to balance research with my teaching responsibilities is something that I am still working on figuring out.

What skills that you developed in your PhD program helped you in the process? Were there any resources from Brandeis that you used?

My advisors, of course, were a great help throughout this process. They helped me find the main viewpoint of the book and also advised me throughout my time finishing the book and submitting it for publication. I was also grateful for the GSAS writing seminars I took during my last couple of years at Brandeis. In my third year, I took a writing seminar offered by NEJS and taught by Professor Alex Kaye, and then in my fourth year I took two GSAS-run seminars taught by Professor Gregory Freeze and Professor Jonathan Decter respectively. We got to hear from publishers and editors in some of those classes, and that helped in giving me an understanding of how the process would look and what it meant to adapt a dissertation into a book. Because of that, when I started working on my book, I could make a clear plan of what to do and not feel lost or unsure of how to proceed.

Do you have a next project you are starting or planning?

I have one project I have been working on parallel to working on my book. It continues some of the ideas from my book, but also ventures into other fields, something that I think is important in my development as an academic. I am currently working on a paper that will delineate some of the main ideas for this project. Whether I can further develop this topic into a book project, I am not sure yet. My focus now would be to get funding to be able to do the research.

What advice do you have for current students who are looking to continue in academia and make books out of their dissertations? What should they be doing while they are still writing the dissertations? Is there anything you wish you knew earlier?

My main advice would be to make use of as many of the resources available to you as possible, both those available at Brandeis and outside of it. Take those writing seminars. Talk with your advisors and other faculty members who have published their own books. Go to conferences and attend editors’ panels. Go and talk with those editors and start making connections. Through that, you can also get a fuller picture of what it means to stay in academia and what it takes to publish a book, which will help you to decide if that is really what you want to do. There are many ways to publish your research, not just as a book. You should do what is best for you. But if you want to publish a book, then making those connections, asking questions, and just persevering even when you get many rejections are going to be most important.