Students must successfully complete at least 27 graded credit hours of graded coursework beyond the MA/MFA degree with an overall GPA of 3.5 or better; pass the preliminary examination formally admitting them to candidacy for the doctorate; submit and obtain approval for a prospectus; complete a minimum of 24 dissertation hours; and successfully defend a doctoral dissertation.
Though all PhD students must take a minimum of 27 hours of coursework beyond the MA, any specific course requirement listed below may be waived, based on an evaluation of MA/MFA coursework. A maximum of nine MA/MFA hours may be used for such waivers.
A. General Literature Requirements
1. Gateway theory course: Issues in Literary and Cultural Studies (ENG 5079)
2a. Rhetoric and Composition students must take an additional 9 graded credit hours of literature courses, at least three of which must be a course whose chief organizing principle is alterity (i.e., a course that focuses on race, class, gender, ability, sexual orientation, or ethnicity).
2b. Creative Writing or Literature, Media, and Culture students must fulfill the following distribution requirements:
• One course pre-1660
• One additional course pre-1800
• One additional course 1660-1900
• One literature course whose chief organizing principle is alterity (in this one instance, the course fulfilling this requirement may, as well, fulfill another distribution requirement)
3. Students holding teaching assistantships must take LAE 5370: Teaching English in College.
4. All candidates for the PhD degree must demonstrate proficiency in a foreign language; see University Requirements for the MA/MFA Degree, Section 2.
5. Students should choose a major professor by the midterm of the Fall of Year 2 but must do so, with the entire supervisory committee in place, no later than their second annual review (Spring of Year 2)
B. Areas of Concentration
1. Major Area
In preparation for a PhD Preliminary exam in the major field, students must take a total of 18 credit hours (9 for those delivering a creative dissertation) in an Area of Concentration chosen from the approved list of eligible concentrations or another area approved by the ACGS and the Graduate Committee. Subdivisions within the general Areas of Concentration, listed below, will be detailed by individual caucuses composed of faculty specializing in the Area requirements:
• Medieval and Early Modern British Literary and Cultural Studies (through 1660)
• British and Irish Literary and Cultural Studies: 1660-1900
• Post-1900 Literary and Cultural Studies (American, British, or Irish)
• American Literary and Cultural Studies to 1900
• African-American Literary and Cultural Studies
• History of Text Technologies
• Feminism, Gender, and Sexuality Studies
• Colonial, Postcolonial, and Transnational Literary and Cultural Studies
• A Literary Genre (for example, “Poetry as a Genre” or “Fiction as a Genre”)
• Rhetoric and Composition
2. Minor Area
In preparation for a PhD Preliminary exam in the minor field, students must take a total of 3 credit hours in that area. Areas include all those above in B.1 above as well as those detailed in The Preliminary Doctoral Examination, Section C. A DIS may count for these 3 hours if approved in advance by the ACGS on the grounds that Department offered no classes in that area during the two years the student was taking coursework.
3. Individual Areas of Concentration may involve additional requirements set by the caucus composed of faculty in the Area of Concentration. To view these area-specific requirements, go to “Areas of Concentration” the Graduate Curriculum Canvas site.
4. A student’s supervisory committee may determine that additional work in a relevant foreign language is necessary for a student’s graduate program and scholarly interests.
C. Preliminary Exam
Students must pass a major and a minor preliminary exam based on reading lists drawn from the Areas of Concentration above. Students may not sit for a major exam in an Area of Concentration unless they have fulfilled the requirements of that area. Students may not sit for a minor exam in an Area of Concentration unless they have completed at least one course in that area. Please see The Preliminary Doctoral Examination.
D. Dissertation
No later than the semester after passing prelims, the student must get a dissertation prospectus approved. The student must complete 24 dissertation hours and defend and submit a dissertation. Please see The Doctoral Dissertation.