Coursework

In the first two years of the program, students take six graduate courses each year. All first-year students also participate in a one-quarter PhD colloquium, which is designed to introduce theoretical and practical questions posed by the study of literature. Students entering with an MA in English from another institution take the full load of courses in their first year and a minimum of two courses during their second year.

While there are no distribution requirements for course work, we believe that both intellectual and professional progress depend on encounters with historical, national, and generic difference as well as competence in an area of specialization. We therefore advise students to become well-grounded in more than a single area of interest and to attend to the different problems of at least one field relatively remote from their major interest. Some of the courses during the first and second year may be taken outside the Department.

Teaching

In the fall of their third year, students take a one-quarter pedagogy course, which introduces them to various approaches to the teaching of literature and composition.

In their third, fourth, and fifth years, students have the opportunity to gain a range of important teaching experience. Students typically teach at least one quarter-long course in each of these years: initially as course assistants in departmental courses for undergraduates; then as lecturers in the departmental methods and issues course for majors, as BA paper supervisors, or as instructors in courses of their own design. Other opportunities for teaching are also available: students may serve as writing tutors, assistants in the College's introductory Humanities and Social Sciences core courses, and instructors in the College Writing Program course in expository writing (which provides its own training in the teaching of composition).

Oral Fields Examination

By the end of their third year, students take the oral fields examination. In consultation with faculty specialists, students specify one major and two minor fields for the examination. A field consists of either a historical period or an otherwise-constituted domain of literary practice, defined by generic, theoretical, or methodological parameters. While the choice of fields should be sensitive to potential areas of dissertation research, we encourage students to express a breadth of interest by preparing fields in more than one literature or chronological period. Under the current funding arrangements, the average time to completion of the oral fields examination is 2.4 years.

Foreign Language Requirement

By the end of their third or fourth year in the PhD program, students must meet the Department's foreign language requirement, in one of the following ways: successfully completing a one-quarter graduate course, or two undergraduate courses, in the literature of one language, taken at this University; passing the Department's proficiency examination in one language; or successfully completing a year of elementary-to-intermediate Latin or Greek. 

Dissertation Proposal Workshop

In the fall of their fourth year in the PhD program, students attend a peer-run Dissertation Proposal Workshop and begin to craft a dissertation proposal.

Dissertation

During their fourth year of the program, students submit a dissertation proposal to potential faculty readers and secure approval of the proposal. Under current funding arrangements, the average time to accepted dissertation proposal is 3.74 years. At this point, students should enter into PhD candidacy. With the support and direction of their faculty committee, students then focus on the writing and research of the dissertation, a project that should constitute a significant contribution to literary or film study. When the dissertation is completed and approved by the committee, the dissertation defense may be scheduled. 

For more information on the graduate program, please e-mail Leslie Singel.