The doctoral curriculum is designed to permit students to focus on two to three particular areas of specialization in preparation for writing a dissertation. The Ph.D. is intended to place primary stress on research work. The program allows for two years of course work beyond the MA degree, and five quarters to take the general exams and prepare the dissertation. Holders of teaching assistantships must abide by the graduate school and departmental requirements for assistantships.

Admissions:

Outside applicants who hold the MA degree are reviewed by the Graduate Committee with other new applicants, normally in February of each year. Students completing the MA at the University of Washington must request permission to proceed to the Ph.D. no later than the day of the MA exam. A form for this request may be obtained in the main office. This request will be considered by the entire faculty at the department’s annual review of students in early February.

The permission-to-proceed decision is based on the following criteria:

1) The students’ overall performance in the MA program as indicated by the faculty comments on their work and by their cumulative graduate GPA.

2) The quality of the critical MA paper as indication of students’ potential for Ph.D.-level work.

3) The results of the students’ initial MA examinations. In case of marginal performance on the MA exam (one or two low passes or failures) a student may not continue to the Ph.D. program unless a two-thirds majority of the faculty votes to admit him/her.

 

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Advising:

A doctoral supervisory committee shall be appointed for each student in the doctoral program early in the second year of doctoral course work, and at all events no later than one quarter before exams will be taken. This committee is to be formed in cooperation with the candidate and the Graduate Coordinator and with the consent of those faculty who will constitute its membership; the committee chair is normally the primary thesis advisor and carries primary responsibility for approving the dissertation prospectus and administering the student’s comprehensive exams. The doctoral supervisory committee is responsible for the student’s comprehensive exams and for reading the dissertation prospectus. It is normally reconstituted as the reading committee after the exams by the Graduate Coordinator with the same or reduced membership (three minimum); it is then responsible for advising during preparation of the dissertation, evaluating the dissertation, and conducting the dissertation defense. The doctoral supervisory committee should include at least three members in addition to the Graduate School representative at the oral exam.

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Graduate School Requirements for the Ph.D. Degree:

Students who intend to work toward advanced degrees must meet the requirements of the Graduate School as outlined in the University of Washington Catalog:

1) The doctoral candidate must present a minimum of three academic years of study, two of which were spent in residence, and one of the two years must be spent in continuous full-time residence (three out of four consecutive quarters).

2) Although the normal course load carried by graduate students is ten to twelve credits per quarter, a load of not less than ten credits per quarter is considered full-time (and the Department of Germanics requires ten credits per quarter for teaching assistants).

3) Ph.D. candidates must register for a minimum of 27 dissertation credits over a period of at least three quarters. With the exception of summer, students are limited to a maximum of 10 credits per quarter of dissertation (800).

4) Graduate students are required to be continuously enrolled in the Graduate School. Students who will be out of town must petition for on-leave status.

5) Every student, whether in absentia or in residence, must be registered on a full or part-time basis for the quarter in which degree requirements are to be completed.

6) The candidate must complete all work for a doctor’s degree within ten years of commencing graduate work.

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Department Requirements:

With the exception of 411, 451, 452 ,497, 498 and 499 (if these have not already counted toward the MA), candidates for the Ph.D. shall complete 60 credit hours at the 500 level or higher, complete the foreign language requirement, submit two Ph.D. papers and a dissertation prospectus (or three Ph.D. papers), write three doctoral examinations, pass an oral examination, and complete a dissertation.

1) The sixty hours of course work are selected at the student’s discretion with an eye toward developing distinct areas of specialization, though students are encouraged to define their areas broadly. All courses taught by Germanics faculty count toward the degree, regardless of the department in which they are listed. Students may count up to 20 credits of graduate course work in other departments toward the degree. Exceptions to this limit may be made at the discretion of the Graduate Coordinator. The 60 credit hours for the Ph.D. begin to accumulate as soon as the 40 hours for the MA have been completed. In the last quarter before the exams students may sign up for 5 credits of independent study to prepare the dissertation prospectus.

2) Ph.D. Papers: Graduate students have the option of submitting either two doctoral papers and a dissertation prospectus (all to be submitted before the written examinations); or three doctoral papers with the prospectus being submitted one quarter after the examinations. Any material submitted before the examinations shall be in the candidate’s file by the time the written examinations are scheduled.

The doctoral papers should be in different areas.

The first doctoral paper must be submitted by the beginning of the student’s second doctoral year.

Some specific criteria for the doctoral paper are: (i) that it be ca. 20-25 pages, (ii) that it contain a critical apparatus, (iii) that it pose a significant thesis to be situated and defended within the context of the relevant critical literature, (iv) that it demonstrate the candidate’s potential to carry out professional research, (v) that it evince conceptual clarity, and (vi) that it be prepared according to the MLA style-sheet.

The dissertation prospectus should be submitted to the student’s doctoral committee. It must be approved formally by the chair of the committee and a copy must be placed in the student’s file. The prospectus should be 10-15 pages with sections that (i) define the problem to be investigated and the questions to be posed, (ii) explain why the problem is significant and the questions worth answering, (iii) situate the topic and approach in the context of past and current scholarship and/or theory in order to define the intended contribution of the project, (iv) identify the sub-divisions of the topic into possible chapter divisions, (v) discuss what the candidate has already accomplished on the topic, and (vi) establish a preliminary bibliography. A prospectus is a description of a process to be undertaken; it is not a description of a finished product. The student is not expected to draw definitive conclusions in the prospectus.

3) Reading Lists: Guided by the Ph.D. reading list, the students shall prepare their own reading lists for each of the three examination areas of the general examination in consultation with the members of the Ph.D. supervisory committee. After the committee members have approved the reading lists for their particular areas, the students shall submit copies to their committee members and have one copy placed in their file. Students need to gain approval of their reading lists at least one quarter prior to the quarter in which exams are to be taken.

4) Knowledge of a foreign language other than German must be demonstrated before the student may take the general examination by completion of a literature course--with readings in the language--with a grade of 3.0 or higher, or by standard examinations in the target language approved by the Graduate Program Coordinator.

5) After students have completed the required 60 hours of course work, met the language requirement, and had the dissertation prospectus approved they may register for 800-level course-work.

6) Students must write three four-hour examinations organized in consultation with the supervisory committee according to one of the following patterns:

• one period exam, one genre exam, one special topic exam
• two period exams, one genre exam
• two period exams, one special topic exam
• one period exam, two special topic exams (for students specializing in linguistics)

The period examination is intended to test students’ advanced competence within a period of literary history that spans approximately one century. The reading list for the period exam should cover its primary authors, the relevant materials from the intellectual, historical and social context and the pertinent scholarship and criticism on the period, its literature and culture.

The genre examination deals with a specific literary genre, including its formal and historical dimensions. For the purposes of this exam a literary genre may be broadly defined (the novel or drama, for instance) or more narrowly (bourgeois drama, for example); it should not, however, be defined so narrowly that it is represented only by a very small repertoire of texts. The reading list for the genre exam should cover representative texts from a particular genre and the relevant critical literature.

The special topic examination is intended to test students’ ability to treat complex issues and topics in a field related to their dissertation project. The reading list for the special topic exam should include all materials that are relevant to a given field.

The written doctoral exams are to be taken within a two-week period. The purpose of the exams is to enable students to develop focused areas of expertise as a basis for future scholarly development and for the beginning stages of their teaching careers, as well as to enable them to demonstrate advanced control of the body of knowledge in the field. Each exam is normally written by one or more members of the committee, as chosen in consultation between the student and the committee. The normal format offers the student a choice of three questions from which to write two essays. Students are encouraged to discuss the format of exams with their examiners beforehand. Copies of previous exams may be consulted in the main office. Students should note that examinations are not given in the summer.

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After the committee members have evaluated the student’s performance on each examination, the chair of the supervisory committee will inform the student of the results, and the readers’ comments on examinations will be made available to the student. A student may retake a failed examination only once, and may not proceed to the oral examination until a failed exam has been retaken and passed. At the request of any member of the committee the chair of the supervisory committee shall call for a meeting and he/she may ask the committee members to read all exams. The committee can impose additional requirements (such as a qualifying paper or a course) before the student may retake a failed exam and set a time for doing so.

1) Three weeks after successful completion of the written doctoral examinations, students take a two-hour oral examination covering all major fields of German literature and civilization. Upon successful completion of this examination the student shall officially become a doctoral candidate. It is the responsibility of the chair of the supervisory committee to have in hand all evaluations of the comprehensive exams, to obtain the final determination of the committee on the student’s performance, to obtain all signatures for the warrant, to inform the student of the result, and to return the signed warrant to the department office.

2) After approval of the prospectus by the student’s supervisory committee (if the prospectus has not already been approved as one of the three Ph.D. papers, the student shall prepare a dissertation in consultation with the chair of the committee, who is the principal dissertation advisor. Students are expected to consult other members of the committee as the writing progresses; as a minimum requirement, committee members are to be given completed chapters to read as soon as they have been approved by the committee chair. After the dissertation has been approved in writing by the advisor, it may be submitted formally to the committee. Dissertations are normally written in English and oral examinations conducted in English at the University of Washington. Exceptions can be considered upon petition to the Graduate School.

3) The dissertation defense may be scheduled no sooner than five weeks after the submission of the completed dissertation to the reading committee to allow readers two weeks to read the dissertation before signing the request for final examination, which must be submitted to the Graduate School three weeks before the defense. It is the student’s responsibility to ascertain that the members of the reading committee are available in the quarter the dissertation will be submitted and to obtain the signature of all members of the supervisory committee on the request for the final examination. If necessary, adjustments to the committee membership can be made in timely consultation with the Graduate Coordinator. At the conclusion of the defense the advisor shall obtain the necessary signatures on the warrant and return it to the department office. The Graduate School requires that the student submit two complete official copies of the dissertation within 60 days of the defense and that the student must be registered during the quarter in which the dissertation is submitted. Students should obtain the Graduate School’s Style and Policy Manual for Dissertations directly from the Graduate School or consult the Graduate School web-page at: http:// www.grad.washington.edu. With the dissertation the student shall also submit to the Graduate School a completed survey of earned doctorates and a receipt for fees paid through the Graduate School. The student needs to obtain the signature of all members of the reading committee attesting to the fact that changes requested at the defense have been made in a satisfactory manner.

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