English Literature Ph.D. Requirements

• Coursework

  
  In their first semester, all students take English 501: Introduction to Graduate Study: Critical Methods and Practice I, a team-taught seminar which introduces them to theories and methods of criticism, as well as to major issues and debates in the profession. Thereafter they may select from the 15-18 graduate seminars offered each year in English, as well as seminars offered by programs such as Comparative Literature (COLT), History, Gender Studies, Critical Studies (CNTV), and the Program in American Studies and Ethnicity (PASE).  [The “Courses” button on the main menu will take you to descriptions of current and typical graduate seminar offerings.] 

  • A normal courseload consists of 8-12 units (two or three 4-unit seminars) per semester. 
  • Students may transfer no more than 12 units of graduate coursework from other institutions.

• Departmental screening procedure

  
  During the first term of the second year, students undergo the departmental Screening Procedure. This is not a formal examination. Rather, the Graduate Studies Committee reviews each student’s performance during the first year and, if necessary, communicates concerns to the student and to the student’s faculty advisor. The Director of Graduate Studies writes a short report on each student, which is made available to the student, the faculty advisor, and is placed in the student’s file. Successful screening and the completion of 30 units of coursework fulfill the requirements for the terminal Master’s degree.

• Field examination

  
  The Field Examinations must be taken in the semester immediately following the completion of coursework. Extensions can be granted only in exceptional circumstances by the Graduate Studies Committee.

  1. The Field Examinations are designed to help students develop a mastery over three fields of critical inquiry before they begin the process of preparing for the Qualifying Examination and the dissertation prospectus.
  2. Students will make an appointment with the Director of Graduate Studies in their final semester of course-work in order to establish a committee of three examiners who will set and grade the Field Examinations in the following semester. The student will choose the examiners. The Director of Graduate Studies must approve the choice. One committee member will serve as chair. One member of the fields committee may, upon occasion, be from another department.  This request should be made on a case by case basis and will be up to the discretion of the DGS.
  3. The student will choose three fields, over each of which one of the examiners will preside. Two fields must be chosen from:
     1. (a) Medieval or (b) Early Modern
     2. (a) Long Eighteenth Century or (b) Long Nineteenth Century, Romanticism, Victorian
     3. (a) Early Twentieth Century or (b) Post-World War II
     4. (a) Critical Theory or (b) Area Studies
     The third field is a free choice and may be any of the above, including another alternative from the four listed (for example, Medieval in addition to Early Modern). Area studies may be any one of the following:
     • Literatures of the US-Mexican border and Latin America
     • Afro-American Literature and African Diaspora
     • Asian-American Literature and the Pacific Rim
     • Literatures of the Circum-Atlantic World
     • Media, Film and Popular Culture
     • Media and Sound Culture
     • Genre studies across historical periods (Romance, Memoir, Travel Narrative, Gothic etc.)
     • Native American Literatures
  4. The student will, in consultation with the presiding examiner, develop a bibliography for each of the three fields. The suggested length of each bibliography is 25 to 30 works. These will include primary and secondary materials, articles and book-length studies. In formulating these bibliographies, the student and individual committee members will agree upon a critical methodology or an area of intellectual, theoretical, aesthetic, or political concern that will unify the student's approach: examples could include (but are not limited to) a focus on material culture, or gender, or cognitive science.
  5. The student and the presiding examiner will together formulate a question for each field. The question must be comprehensive and applicable to many works, but will invite the student to respond in terms of three to five representative works from each list. The question for each field must be different from those for the other two.
  6. The student and committee will set a due date for the examination. It is recommended that the student devote at least ten days (to include two weekends) to writing the final version of his or her answers.
  7. Each question will be answered in an essay of no fewer than 1500 words and no more than 3000 words. The three examiners will read all answers, but each will assign a grade only to the examination over which he or she has presided. The grade may be Pass or Fail. The committee chair will collate the grades and, after consultation with the other examiners, assign an overall grade of Pass or Fail. A student who fails the examination may retake it once only, in the semester immediately following the one in which it was first attempted, with the same committee of examiners (unless an exemption is granted, in exceptional circumstances only, by the Graduate Studies Committee). The examining committee may determine that the student will have to retake one, two, or all three fields.
  8. The result for the entire examination must be submitted to the Director of Graduate Studies by the last day of classes in the semester immediately following that in which the student completed final course-work (unless an exception has been granted by the Graduate Studies Committee). If this is not done the student will be held to have failed the examination.
  9. Within two weeks of the end of the term in which the examinations are taken, each examiner will write a report of approximately one page detailing the strengths and weaknesses of the answer that he or she graded. The Committee Chair will then write a final report summarizing these responses to the student's performance and suggesting avenues of inquiry that could be pursued in the Ph.D. dissertation. The student will read the final report.

  The committee chair is responsible for: coordinating the questions with the student and the other examiners; coordinating the scheduling with the student and the other examiners and reporting it to the Director of Graduate Studies; proctoring the examinations electronically; reporting the grade on the provided sheet to the Director of Graduate Studies by the last day of classes in the semester in which the examinations are taken; writing a final report on the examinations.
  
  Download Field Examination form.

• Foreign language requirement

  
  One term before they take the qualifying examination, students should also have fulfilled the foreign language requirement. Demonstration of proficiency in an appropriate foreign language may be met in several ways, such as designated coursework or a translation exam.

• Qualifying examination and dissertation procedures

  
  During the term following the Field Examination, students take the departmental Qualifying Examination. Students form a committee of at least five tenured or tenure-track faculty members, at least three of whom must be from the Department of English, at least one of whom must be tenured and one of whom must be from outside the department. (Faculty with a joint or courtesy appointment in English cannot act as outside readers.) One faculty member from English will agree to chair the committee. To take the qualifying exam, the student will first sit a three-hour on-campus examination in which the final draft of the dissertation prospectus is produced. No more than two weeks after the completion of the written examination, the student will sit a two-hour oral examination on the prospectus and accompanying bibliography that will be attended by all committee members. After passing the qualifying examination, the student will reduce the guidance committee to three or four members, who will include the director and the outside reader. Led by the director, this committee will oversee the student’s Ph.D. dissertation. English 700: Theories and Practices of Professional Development I, offered yearly, is an elective 2-unit seminar designed for students preparing to take the qualifying exam. Its goal is to facilitate the writing of the dissertation prospectus and the creation of the reading list.
  
  The last date in the fall semester that written exams will be given in November 15, and the last day of the spring semester is April 10. No exams will be given over the summer.
  
  Download the following forms from the Graduate School website:

  • Request to take the Ph.D. Qualifying Examination form
  • Appointment of Committee form

• Dissertation defense

  
  The dissertation is a book-length manuscript that makes an original and substantial contribution to its field of study. Its substance, style, and format must meet professional standards of research. (The requirements for students in the Literature and Creative Writing track are different, since these students produce both a creative project and critical thesis.  Page-length requirements are specified on the Literature and Creative Writing page.) Upon submission of an acceptable manuscript and a successful oral defense, the student will be awarded the Ph.D.