A Reader's Indignant Response to Post-Graduate Thesis Marking

Maria Honey, a book publisher, who has taken a keen interest in the progress of my (Damien Mackey’s) post-graduate thesis, "A Revised History of the Era of King Hezekiah of Judah and its Background", has expressed her “incredulity and disappointment” at the fact that this thesis, although passed by two international examiners, with parts of it recommended for publishing by these, was rejected out of hand by a third (“in-house”) examiner and ultimately relegated to an MA status. What particularly infuriated Maria, as she says in her e-mail (16 March 2009), was the fact that the Assessor (or 4th examiner), who was later brought in to give a final verdict, had exhibited what Maria considered to be such “glib, facile and sloppy work, at no time making any specific reference to the thesis, or to the favourable examiners, but had fawningly agreed with the 3rd examiner”.

Maria’s indignant e-mail has prompted me to post up my complete defence of the thesis (see two previous posts), as invited by the Faculty of Arts (though to no avail), in which one can read the whole story of the marking of this thesis and can form one’s own opinion about the matter.