Portfolio Program
Sample Portfolios
Within two recommended options, students are encouraged to develop a specialization that is unique to their own program of work, but which also accommodates their future career goals, as well as the specific approaches in both disciplines: are they going to import the results of other disciplines into their own work (as in OPTION A), or are they going to try to teach and present research in two different disciplines (as in OPTION B)?
*Note that, in both cases, the student must reach outside disciplines ordinarily represented in their home departments: students of German literature, for example, may not certify in German linguistics, but they may certify in the linguistics of other European nations under OPTION A, or in problems within a discipline not addressed within national or field-specific frameworks, under OPTION B.
OPTION A: Area Studies Concentration
This option requires four courses in area studies that supplement the student's historical-cultural view of Europe.
EXAMPLE 1: PhD Program: German History, 19th and 20th Centuries
Portfolio Concentration Title: German Culture
Courses:
- ARH 384: Topics in Renaissance Art (German)
- GER 386.4: Survey of German Literature, Naturalism -Present
- GER 382M: Seminar in German Cultural History
- PHL 384L: The Continental Tradition
EXAMPLE 2: PhD Program: Linguistics (concentration in sociolinguistics)
Portfolio Concentration: Cultural Contact Borders in the 20th Century (Alsatian Dialect Studies)
Courses:
- HIS 380L: Topics in European Imperialism>
- HIS 381: Topics in World History (Weimar to the Nazi Era)
- GER 381.11: History of the German Language
- SOC 389K.9: Seminar in Demography: Immigration and Immigration Policy
- FR 382L: Studies in the Civilization of the French-Speaking World
EXAMPLE 3: PhD Program: RTF
Portfolio Concentration: Media and Culture in the Caribbean (French and Spanish)
Courses:
- FR 390N: Studies in Francophone Literature
- FR 390M: Studies in French Literature of the 19th and 20th Centuries
- HIS 381: Topics in World History (French History)
- SOC 389K.9: Seminar in Demography: Immigration and Immigration Policy
OPTION B: Concentration in Interdisciplinary Methodology
This concentration allows the student to prove competence in the methodology and praxis of a second discipline while learning how that discipline deals with European themes. Thus the four courses are broken down into two groups of requirements:
- (1) two courses in a disciplinary methodology applicable to the problematics that are the focus of the student¹s Ph.D. Program, but not ordinarily part of that Ph.D. curriculum
- (2) two courses in that chosen second discipline (or in another closely related department) whose content include the European nation(s) of the student's focus
EXAMPLE 1: PhD Program: German Literature
Portfolio Concentration: German Society and Politics
(1) Disciplinary Methodology
- ANT 391.2: Social Anthropological Theory
- SOC 388L: Historical and Comparative Methods
(2) Area Courses
- HIS 383: Seminar in Modern European History (topic: German workers)
- ANT 391: German-Turkish Migration
EXAMPLE 2: PhD Program: Continental Philosophy
Portfolio Concentration: Literary and Cultural Studies
(1) Disciplinary Methodology
- GER 389K.1: Introduction to Literary Studies
- CL 390: Contemporary Literary Theory
(2) Area Courses
- GER 386.3: German Literature Enlightenment through Realism
- CL 381: German and European Romanticism
EXAMPLE 3: PhD Program: Government
Portfolio Concentration: Central European Culture (Italy and Austro-Hungary)
(1) Disciplinary Methodology
- Internship in Italy (e.g. museum studies)
- Internship in Austria (e.g. with ORF, Austrian Radio)
(2) Area Courses
- ITL 381: Readings in Italian Literature
- HIS 383: Seminar in Modern European History (19th-C. Austro-Hungary)