English Ph.D. Requirements

COURSEWORK
THE DEPARTMENTAL SCREENING PROCEDURE
THE FIELD EXAMINATION
FOREIGN LANGUAGE REQUIREMENT
THE QUALIFYING EXAMINATION AND DISSERTATION PROSPECTUS
DISSERTATION DEFENSE
REMOTE PARTICIPATION IN THE QUALIFYING EXAMINATION AND THE DISSERTATION DEFENSE

The English department encourages its graduate students to design individual programs of study, choosing from among a range of courses in English and in other departments. To this end, the structure of the Ph.D. emphasizes faculty guidance rather than formal requirements. Upon enrollment in the graduate program, each student is assigned to a faculty mentor; as the student’s interests take shape, she or he may choose another advisor at any time. The following sections outline the stages of the typical graduate student progress.

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.

THE 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.

THE FIELD EXAMINATION

1. 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.

2. 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.

3.  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.

4.  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, Modernism, or (b) Post World War Two
4.  (a) Critical Theory, or (b) Area Studies

The third field is a free choice and may be any of the above, including the other alternative in 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 Pacific Rim
Literatures of the Circum-Atlantic World
Media, Film, Popular Culture
Media and Sound Culture
Native American Literatures

5.  For each of the three fields, the students must also choose an area of intellectual, theoretical, ethical, or political concern. The following list is representative but not exhaustive:

Aesthetics
Classical Transmission
Cultural Studies
Disability Studies
Empire Studies/Post-Colonialism
Gender Studies
Genre and Genre Theory
Globalism
Historicism
History of the Book
History of Science
Literature and Law
Material Culture
Performance/Theater Studies
Poetics/Poetic Theory
Politics/Political Philosophy
Popular Culture
Queer Theory/History of Sexuality
Race/Ethnicity
Religion (Biblical Studies/Torah/Islam and Christianity)
Rhetoric
Rise of the Novel
Sound Studies
Trauma and Narrative
Visual Culture

Any addition to this list is valid if approved by the examiner.

6.  When the student and committee have agreed on the three fields and the intellectual, theoretical, ethical, or political concern to be taken into consideration for each field, 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.

7. The student and the presiding examiner will together formulate a question for each field. The question must be comprehensive and applicable to many works. The question for each field must be different from those for the other two. The questions will not be formulated to invite the student to demonstrate broad coverage. Rather they will be focused in such a way that the student will discuss in depth three to five representative works from each list.

8.  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.

9. 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.

10. 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.

11. 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.

12. The student is responsible for: contacting the examiners and having the committee approved by the Director of Graduate Studies during the term preceding that in which the examinations will be taken; identifying the areas of specific interest that will be examined and the intellectual, theoretical, ethical, or political concern to be taken into consideration for each field; developing a bibliography in consultation with each examiner; formulating questions with the committee members.

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.

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.

THE QUALIFYING EXAMINATION AND DISSERTATION PROSPECTUS

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. Working with the chair (but also, if desired, with other members of the committee), the student will develop a dissertation prospectus and a reading list. The committee will then formulate a question that engages theoretical and/or methodological issues the prospectus raises. The student will sit a three-hour on-campus examination in response. No more than two weeks after the completion of the written examination, the student will sit a two-hour oral examination on the written component and the prospectus 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.

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. 

REMOTE PARTICIPATION IN THE QUALIFYING EXAMINATION AND THE DISSERTATION DEFENSE

By rule of the Dornsife College, only one committee member can participate remotely in the Qualifying Examination and the Dissertation Defense. He or she must gain permission to do so from the Department Chair or Director of Graduate Studies, from the Dornsife College Vice Dean for Academic programs and from the Vice Provost for Academic Programs. Under no circumstances can the committee chair, the outside reader or the student participate remotely. Under no circumstances can two or more of the other members of the committee participate remotely.

For additional details on departmental and university requirements, see the university catalogue.