Doctoral Degree Program

General Information

The ILAS doctoral program is dedicated to providing a flexible yet rigorous course of study for a very limited number of students who need to achieve real competence in more than one discipline. The ILAS Graduate Studies Committee (GSC) must approve requests for admission to the doctoral program. The doctorate is regarded primarily as a research degree and, since Latin American Studies has no methodology specific to it, the reason for a doctoral degree must be made obvious to the committee. Applicants must provide a convincing rationale that a doctoral program in a more traditional department or college will not fulfill their needs.

The principal criteria for acceptance in the PhD program of LLILAS is that the program of study be truly inter-disciplinary, i.e. such that it could not easily be carried out within the confines of a discipline-based program; that it be focused on a theoretically and empirically important topic in Latin American Studies; and that there be evidence of communication with at least two UT faculty members who express strong interest in working with the student on the specified project. Applicants must also provide a statement of their career aims and a tentative interdisciplinary dissertation proposal.

Students must have completed a master's degree before admission to the program, but may submit requests before the degree is formally granted.

After admission, the graduate adviser in consultation with the student will select a committee of five professors to approve a plan of studies. One faculty member will serve as chair of the committee and will be responsible for coordinating the program of studies with the student and the ILAS graduate adviser. Coursework (interdisciplinary to the extent feasible) and other requirements for the degree will be decided on jointly by the student and the committee. Normally, the student will be expected to develop a high level of competence in reading and speaking either Spanish or Portuguese. He or she must also be able to use, although with somewhat lesser competence, the other language or some alternate language appropriate to the program and approved by the committee.

In the social science fields, the student is expected also to become proficient in the appropriate methodologies (e.g., statistics, theory, scope, research methods). The nature of the comprehensive examinations will be determined by the committee in consultation with the student.

The student enrolled in the doctoral program in Latin American Studies must submit a dissertation of an interdisciplinary nature. For supervising the work, a dissertation committee of at least five professors will be constituted by the Graduate School when the student is advanced to candidacy.

Membership on the program and dissertation committees may overlap.