See the Graduate Handbook for details about the PhD degree requirements.
Coursework
During the first three years in the program, students take a variety of graduate seminars, including a required Seminar in Pedagogy and core courses from two of the departmental programs that are part of the PhD (Composition, Film, and Literature). All students take a one-credit practicum, Introduction to Graduate Study, and a one-credit professional development seminar. The remainder of the courses needed to complete the PhD may be taken from a range of course offerings in areas such as early modern literature, postcolonial literature, world cinema, rhetoric and composition, US literature from the seventeenth century to the twentieth centuries, literacy and pedagogy, British and US modernisms, and children’s literature.
Language Requirement
PhD candidates must demonstrate significant acquaintance with one or more languages other than English.
This requirement can be fulfilled through reading knowledge of two languages, undertaking advanced study of one language, or beginning a new language. Language requirements must be fulfilled before a student takes the PhD project examinations, described below.
Comprehensive Exams
In their second and third years, students primarily focus on comprehensive exams. The overarching goal of these exams is prepare students with the breadth and depth of knowledge needed to commence a dissertation, and to immerse them in the issues, questions, and critiques ongoing in the field of English Studies.
To commence the exam phase, etudents will develop a comprehensive exam proposal that outlines the issues and goals of their intended research accompanied by a bibliography of primary and secondary sources that will guide their reading over the course of their exams. This is developed in consultation with a 3-member graduate faculty committee.
Following committee approval of the exam proposal and bibliography, the student then reads through their bibliography in consultation with their Exam committee. They will write a contextualizing introduction along with notes or annotations on each source in their bibliography. A final version of their bibliography and synthesis is submitted to their committee for final review and approval no later than 15 October of the student's third year of residence in the program. The student's exam committee will then devise questions based on the bibliography and synthesis to form the student's written and oral exams.
Dissertation Prospectus
After students have passed their project examinations, they will register for English dummy credits in order to write a prospectus for their dissertation. The student should choose a dissertation director and finalize their dissertation committee at this time. Once a dissertation committee has been formed, the students submit a formal dissertation prospectus to the commitee for approval.
Dissertation
Once students have had their dissertation prospectus passed and have been admitted to doctoral candidacy, they should begin the work of researching and writing the dissertation. Normally students will complete the dissertation during their fourth and fifth year in the program.