PhD Program
PhD Core and Course Requirements
Students entering the Department for the PhD program must complete the same Core Course Requirements as MA students. As part of their initial registration, they must consult with the Graduate Advisor about what core requirements (if any) they must complete and when they should take the Program's Preliminary Examination. For those entering with the BA, MA/Core Requirements should be completed within four long semesters. Those entering with the MA will generally have less time. Note that the Department will not support students financially beyond four long semesters if they do not complete these requirements.
In consultation with the Graduate Advisor, the PhD student who has filled Core Program Requirements develops a primary and a supporting area of specialization; the primary area is usually the area of the proposed dissertation. These areas should represent professionally acknowledged focuses for research and teaching in the field, defined as the broad spectrum of literar, cultural, and linguistics specializations represented in the major professional organizations. How there fields are defined helps the stdent choose coursework and plan for the Admission to Candidacy Examimation.
Although the PhD is not awarded on the basis of a specified number of courses or credit hours, 30 credit hours (10 courses) beyond the Core Rrogram are a customary minimum. These 10 courses form the basis for a student's minimum competency in the primary area (a minimum of six graduate-level courses) and supporting area (a minimum of four graduate-level courses). Note that additional hours may be required to establish a student's competency to write a dissertation. Students are also encouraged to check the offerings in other relevant departments, such as Linguistics, Philosophy, History, Art History, Musicology, Comparative Literature, or Foreign Language Education
Other Requirements
Students must also fulfill the following requirememts in conjunction with their coursework:
- take the Preliminary Examination and be evaluated by the Graduate Studies Committee as qualified to enter the doctoral program;
- demonstrate reading competence in two foreign languages other than German or the language of concentration;
- near the completion of coursework, pass the Admission to Candidacy Examination;
- present the dissertation proposal to the faculty and students within two long-session semesters of being admitted to candidacy or early in the fall after returning from approved study abroad; and
- defend the dissertation in a final oral examination.
Preliminary Examination
The Preliminary Examination is offered once each long semester, ordinarily in the third week of October and in the week following Spring Break. Students who enter the program with an MA in an area of Germanic studies usually take the examination in their second long semester of study at UT (but in no case later than their fourth long semester.
Admission to Candidacy Examination
Approximately four semesters after the M.A.--or after core requirements have been fulfilled --,students will have to pass an Admission to Candidacy Examination in partial fulfillment of the requirements for Ph.D. candidacy. The purpose of the examination is to test the student's preparedness to proceed to the writing of a doctoral dissertation.
Prospectus Presentation
After the student has been admitted to candidacy, s/he will be expected to present their Prospectus to the Department within one calendar year of the date of their admission to candidacy. Students who are returning from a grant for study abroad are required to present as soon as possible in the Fall Semester after they return from the grant (usually September). Students who expect to be abroad for more than one year should arrange to present their Prospectuses before they leave.
Language Requirement
For the Ph.D., the student will need to prove reading competence in a second language other than English and the language (usually German) of the student's major field of study (a language different than the one offered for the MA). This language requirement must be fulfilled before students apply for Ph.D. Candidacy. Note that this means that each student will normally have German or English, and TWO other languages by the time they are Ph.D. candidates; students with English and a Germanic language other than German are strongly encouraged to make German one of their FLs, since this will increase their chances at employment.
NOTE: For more extensive procedural information on all program policies, please ask the Graduate Coordinator for copies of the Academic Guidelines and the Teaching Guidelines.
