Fields of Study
Fields include Spanish Peninsular literature, Spanish American literature, Portuguese and Brazilian literatures.
The doctoral program offers: (1) a concentration in Spanish specializing in a single field of study (medieval, Renaissance/Golden Age, modern Spanish Peninsular, colonial Spanish American, contemporary Spanish American); (2) a joint concentration in Spanish and Portuguese offering the student the opportunity to work in both the Luso Brazilian and Spanish/Spanish American fields, with a specialization in either of the two fields. In addition, the department participates in (1) a combined Ph.D. program in Spanish and Portuguese and African American Studies offered in conjunction with the Department of African American Studies and (2) a combined Ph.D. program in Spanish and Portuguese and Renaissance Studies offered in conjunction with the Renaissance Studies Program.
Special Admissions Requirements
Thorough command of the language in which the student plans to specialize and a background in its literature, as well as command of at least one of the two additional languages in which the student will need to fulfill requirements, are required.
Application must include GRE scores, a personal statement, and an academic writing sample in the language of the proposed specialization, not to exceed twenty-five pages in length. Students whose native language is not English must submit scores of the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL).
Special Requirements for the Ph.D. Degree
The department requires two years of course work, sixteen term courses, a grade of Honors in at least two of these courses each year, and a minimum grade average of High Pass. Course work includes two required courses, SPAN 500, History of the Spanish Language, and SPAN 790, Methodologies of Modern Language Teaching, and four courses taken outside the department. Also required are a reading knowledge of Latin and a second language, which may be Portuguese or another language-literature. In the third year, the student is expected to pass the qualifying examination (written and oral components) and submit and receive approval of the dissertation prospectus. Upon completion of all predissertation requirements, including the dissertation prospectus, students are admitted to candidacy for the Ph.D.
Participation in the department’s teaching and pedagogy program is a degree requirement. It consists of taking the required course SPAN 790in the second year and teaching four courses during the third and fourth years of study. At least three of these must be courses in the beginning language sequence; viewed as an integral part of the course of study for the doctorate, this program includes supervision by the director of the language program and course directors. The fourth course may be a literature or culture course taught through a teaching fellowship.