Overview
The Ph.D. program in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese explores the dynamic fields of Latin American, Luso-Brazilian, Latinx, and Iberian studies in all their rich and diverse linguistic, literary, and cultural traditions, and adopting multiple intellectual approaches. The Ph.D. program encourages students to engage with related disciplines in the humanities and social sciences, including Black Studies, Anthropology, Comparative Literature, Film and Media Studies, History of Art, Medieval Studies, Philosophy, and Early Modern Studies (formerly Renaissance Studies), as well as emerging multidisciplinary fields such as Race, Indigeneity, and Transnational Migration; Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies; and Digital Humanities. As a Ph.D. student and candidate you will be working with our core faculty during your course of study.
The department participates in a combined Ph.D. program in Spanish and Portuguese and Black Studies, Film & Media Studies, and Early Modern Studies. Ph.D. students are also encouraged to obtain certificates from programs and areas complementary to their teaching and research interests; at Yale, such certificates exist in connection with the programs in Film and Media Studies; Public Humanities; Digital Humanities; Computing and Society; Translation Studies; and Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies.
The program is typically five or six years long. The first two years are devoted to course work and the fulfillment of the two language requirements; the third year, to the Qualifying Examination and the preparation of the Dissertation Prospectus; the fourth and fifth (or fourth through sixth) years, to the writing of the dissertation. The student participates in the Teaching and Pedagogy Program during years two through four, taking the required course in modern languages pedagogy in the second year, and teaching one course per semester in the department’s basic language sequence during the third and fourth years. Assisting in literature courses is offered as available. No teaching is done during the two years of course work or during the dissertation fellowship year.
All Ph.D. candidates at Yale can receive six years of full funding. This consists of a 12-month stipend in each of years one and two, during which students complete their course work, a 12-month stipend in each of years three and four, during which students are expected to assist in teaching in one course each semester, and a 12-month stipend during the year (usually year five) in which students take the dissertation completion fellowship. With progress on the dissertation confirmed, Yale guarantees again a 12-month stipend in the sixth year typically through teaching assignments. The University also covers the premiums for basic health care and hospitalization at the University Health Service for students, 50% of that premium for spouses, and 100% for families with children during the entire period in which a student is registered, even if registration is extended beyond the five years of the financial aid package.
Program Requirements
Course requirements consist of 14 courses taken over a two-year period in addition to SPAN 5000 and 9211/9212/9213 described below. Students are encouraged to consult regularly with the DGS throughout their coursework years. Below is a list of required courses:
- 14 elective seminars, at least 10 of which are taught by department faculty. These courses must include a minimum of one course in each of the following to ensure comprehensive training:
- Medieval or Early Modern Iberian Studies
- Indigenous, Colonial, or Nineteenth-Century Latin American Studies
- Modern or Contemporary Iberian Studies
- Modern or Contemporary Latin American Studies
- Luso-Brazilian Studies
- SPAN 5000: Principles of Language Teaching and Learning (taken in the fourth semester)
- SPAN 9211, the Doctoral Workshop
- SPAN 9212/13, the Professional Workshop
4 of the 14 seminars may be taken outside the department, and may be taken as auditor (no exam or paper required), with the approval of the instructor.
Proficiency in two languages in addition to the language of the student’s major concentration (Spanish or Portuguese) is also required. One of these must be one of the other languages taught in the department (currently Spanish, Portuguese, and Catalan).
The above requirements apply to students enrolled in the standard Ph.D. program in Spanish and Portuguese. Students may also pursue a combined degree in Spanish and Portuguese with Black Studies, Film and Media Studies, or Early Modern Studies; these combined programs have their own degree requirements.
Special Admissions Requirements
Thorough command of the language in which the student plans to specialize (Spanish or Portuguese) and a background in its literature.
Application must include a personal statement and an academic writing sample in the language of the proposed specialization, not to exceed twenty-five pages in length. GRE scores are not accepted.
Students whose native language is not English must submit scores of the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL).
For more information on the application process, please consult the website of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences: https://gsas.yale.edu/admission