Til about Dr David Clutton who’s the only person with PhD in Gin, however stupid that sounds.
How do you get a phd in a discipline where there’s no-one to grant you that phd? How was it done in the past?
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It’s actually not quite as hard as it sounds.
Typically, when you get a doctorate you are more of an expert in your specific field of study than your advisor is. Your advisor is less there to literally teach you your field, but more to teach you how to do research. Understandably you’d want an advisor in a field that is still closely related to your discipline, but they don’t have to be an expert in your hyperspecific discipline.
In Clutton’s case; he has a background in analytical chemistry, and if he were to do his PhD today he’d likely refer to it as a PhD in chemistry, specializing in gin flavor. But point being; his advisor (whoever they were) likely was a chemist of some variety, and thus more than capable of guiding them through their doctorate.
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