The Doctor of Philosophy is a research degree. It signifies that the recipient is able to conduct independent research and has both a broad basic knowledge of Spanish and Spanish American or Brazilian language and literature and a comprehensive knowledge of one in particular.

Degree Requirements: A student must satisfactorily complete graduate studies totaling at least 72 points (at least 32 in residence at New York University) with at least a B average, pass the Ph.D. candidacy requirements, and present an acceptable dissertation. There are four required courses: an Introduction to Theory course, Methodology of Spanish Language Teaching (G95.1120), an Independent Study with the dissertation adviser, and the yearlong Doctoral Seminar: Dissertation Proposal Workshop (G95.3545). Also required is a course in Luso-Brazilian literature (for Hispanic literatures students) or a course in Hispanic literature (for Luso-Brazilian literature students). A reading knowledge as well as aural comprehension of Portuguese for Spanish majors and Spanish for Portuguese majors is required for admission to graduate courses in Spanish and Portuguese. Students may acquire this knowledge on their own. Also, undergraduate language courses in the department are available for this purpose, and the graduate course Portuguese for Spanish Speakers (G87.1104) is offered once a year.

Foreign Language Requirement: Reading knowledge of a research language is required for admission to the doctoral program and should be demonstrated by the end of the third semester of full-time graduate study. The choice of that language (exclusive of Spanish or Portuguese) should be consistent with the student’s interest and contemplated field of specialization (e.g., Latin for a medievalist, Italian or German for a scholar of early modern Spain, French for a contemporary Hispanist, etc.) and should be decided upon in consultation with the director of graduate studies. Reading ability in these languages is tested by the methods outlined in the Degree Requirements section of this bulletin.

Ph.D. Candidacy Requirements: These requirements may be fulfilled only after the completion of 64 points. The candidacy requirements consist of four Ph.D. projects: (1) the Annotated Bibliography on the principal field of inquiry, which is mainly drawn from the department’s Ph.D. reading list; (2) the Dissertation Project Paper; (3) the Annotated Bibliography on the theoretical and critical debates pertaining to the dissertation project; and (4) a course syllabus for a lower division undergraduate course on an area that covers the principal field of inquiry but not the dissertation project. In addition to being subject to the dissertation adviser’s approval, the first three Ph.D. projects serve as the basis of an oral examination by a faculty committee. The fourth project must be turned in to the dissertation adviser in the semester following the oral examination.

To prepare for these Ph.D. projects, the student must enroll in an Independent Study with the dissertation adviser as well as in the two-semester Doctoral Seminar (G95.3545), a workshop designed to guide the student in the preparation of the dissertation project paper. For more detailed information about these candidacy requirements, the student will be provided with the department’s Graduate Rules and Procedures.

Admission to Candidacy: Students applying to the doctoral program must have either a B.A. or an M.A. degree in literature and are admitted to the Ph.D. program on the basis of an evaluation of their undergraduate or graduate record by the director of graduate studies and a departmental faculty admissions committee. A writing sample of literary criticism is required for the Ph.D. program. It may be a term paper, a master’s thesis, or a published article and should be written in Spanish or Portuguese.

Completion of Doctoral Requirements: To fulfill the requirements for the doctoral degree, students must complete all course and language requirements, satisfy the Ph.D. candidacy requirements, and write a doctoral dissertation under the supervision of a thesis adviser. When the dissertation is completed and approved by the candidate’s adviser and readers, an oral examination is held at which the candidate presents and defends the results of the research before a faculty committee.

No more than ten years may elapse between matriculation in the program and the completion of all doctoral degree requirements. If the student enters the department with an M.A. degree from another institution, he or she will have a maximum of seven years to complete the doctoral degree.

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