The PhD program at SIUC is designed to develop well-trained professionals who earn their peers' respect as scholars, critics, and teachers. Course work is offered and dissertations directed in the full range of literary areas and in rhetoric and composition.
The PhD program is designed as a four-year program for full-time students, the majority of whom receive valuable training as teaching assistants. Its residency requirement is satisfied by completion of twenty-four semester hours of graduate credit before the qualifying examinations, followed by twenty-four semester hours of dissertation credit. To ensure a comprehensive background, the program rests upon a series of prerequisites, most of which may have been fulfilled by thorough training on the Master's level. Otherwise the doctoral student's course work is developed in consultation with an advisory committee to suit his or her particular needs. The doctoral program also has a flexible research-tool requirement involving either two foreign languages or only one and the possibility of course work in a related field of study.
The PhD qualifying examination ("the preliminary examination") includes one major and two minor areas chosen by the student in consultation with an advisory committee. Normally the major areas are in literary historical periods, rhetoric and composition, or more embracing "studies" (American, British, Irish, Multi-Cultural/Comparative), while minor areas often include theory, cultural studies, or some other non-historical field. Upon successful completion of the qualifying examinations, doctoral students proceed directly to the preparation of the dissertation prospectus and the writing of the dissertation.
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Last Updated: 12 February 2000 |