Doctoral theses and dissertations,1 for many years, have been a relatively stable genre. This has begun to change, however, especially as doctoral degrees are being offered in an increasing range of academic disciplines where alternate scholarly forms are now being accepted for the award of the degree, and when doctoral students need to be prepared for a diversity of careers on completion of their degrees beyond the academy. There has, however, been little research which examines these changes in doctoral degrees and how these impact on the nature of the doctoral thesis/dissertation, the focus of our book. To do this, the book reviews theories of genre change, focusing on the concepts of evolution, innovation and emergence and considers their relevance to an examination of change and stability in the production and reception of doctoral theses and dissertations more broadly, then in the humanities and social sciences. In particular it examines new humanities dissertations, the Doctor of Education, the PhD in the visual arts, the Doctor of Musical Arts and the PhD by publication. The doctoral thesis/dissertation, then, is an evolving genre, the focus of Chapter 2 of our book. We examine the doctoral thesis/dissertation as a distinct research genre and typical dissertation types (see below) and trace their development over time. We also consider the extent to which new technologies and their multimodal affordances are reshaping theses and dissertations.