Students: Graduate Information
About Our Programs: The PhD program
Overview
The purpose of the Ph.D. program is to prepare students for teaching and research in English Studies, in all its complexity and multiplicity, at institutions of higher education in the United States (and occasionally, abroad). Given the current crisis in the job market, a further aim is to prepare students as well as possible to compete effectively in an increasingly shrinking and demanding market. The Ph.D. program provides students with the opportunity to:- focus towards a particular field of teaching and research expertise;
- sharpen their knowledge of areas surrounding and directly related to their field of expertise;
- enrich and maintain a general awareness of the current questions in the entire field of English Studies and the place of their own work in relation to them;
- enhance their pedagogical skills in as many areas of undergraduate teaching as possible;
- begin making significant contributions to their field in the form of conference presentations and publications in scholarly journals;
- complete a dissertation on the cutting edge of their field.
General Requirements
General minimum requirements include:- 45 hours of course work after completion of the M.A. (or its equivalent);
- a demonstration of a thorough reading knowledge of one foreign language;
- English 903 (5 hours);
- participation in two departmental workshops (one in first two years of Ph.D. study and one in final two years);
- the Candidacy Examination;
- a dissertation followed by a final oral examination.
Residence
The residence and credit-hour requirements for a doctoral degree apply to graduate work taken after the M.A. or, when the M.A. degree is not taken, after the first 45 hours of graduate credit. A total of 90 graduate credit hours including the M.A. must be presented, meeting the following conditions:- 45 hours taken at this university at the Ph.D. level;
- a period of concentrated graduate study at this university during three of any four consecutive quarters with at least 10 credit hours a quarter; and
- 20 graduate hours after admission to candidacy in at least two quarters of registration at this university.
