SUMMARY OF THE FOURTH YEAR
- Registration: 2 Extended Residence
Units
- Teaching:
1 section of University Writing per semester; OR,
1 section of Literature and Humanities per semester
- Dissertation Prospectus: Submitted by
November 1
- First chapter of Dissertation: Submitted by April 1
to qualify for dissertation fellowship in the fifth year
- Participation in one conference recommended
Submission of one essay for publication recommended
- Participation in a relevant doctoral seminar or
dissertation group
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SUMMARY OF THE FIFTH YEAR
- Registration: 2 Extended Residence
Units; or, Matriculation and Facilities
- Teaching or Dissertation Fellowship:
1 section of University Writing per semester;
OR,
1 section of Literature Humanities; OR,
Dissertation Fellowship
- Satisfactory Progress on Dissertation:
For students who failed to complete a chapter in year 4, at least
two one chapter submitted and chapter meeting scheduled by September
15th; a second chapter submitted and chapter meeting scheduled by April
1st. Submission of two chapters will constitute the academic progress
needed to qualify for a dissertation fellowship in year 6.
Students on dissertation
fellowship in year 5, who
already completed at least one chapter in year 4, are expected to draft
two additional chapters by the end of year 5, for a total
of three
drafted chapters by the end of year 5. Drafts should becompleted
and chapter meetings scheduled by Nov. 1 in the fall and April 1
in the spring.
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SUMMARY OF THE SIXTH YEAR
- Registration: 2 Extended Residence
Units; or, Matriculation and Facilities
- Teaching or Dissertation Fellowship:
1 section of University Writing per semester;
OR,
1 section of Literature Humanities; OR,
1 section of Literary Texts, Critical Methods (ENGL W3011) in one
semester; OR
Dissertation Fellowship
- In year 6, the department expects continued progress on the dissertation, which should be substantially completed by the end of
year 6.
- Participation in two national conferences
Submission of an essay for publication
- Participation in a relevant doctoral seminar or
dissertation group
- Dissertation Defense
Note: for those not defending their dissertation in the sixth year, a
Dean's Progress Report must be filed by May 30
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REGISTRATION
After having completed 6 "residence units" (RU), i.e., 2
semesters of full tuition for 3 years, Ph.D. students may then register
for either an "extended residence unit" each semester or a unit of
"matriculation and facilities" each semester. These registration units
are defined as:
Extended Residence Unit
M.Phil/Ph.D. students who have completed six residence units and either
hold a teaching appointment or plan to take courses register for
extended residence. Extended residence confers "full-time" status to
students, and allows them to take unlimited classes. The cost is
covered for students on teaching appointment. If you have questions
about what to apply for, please contact the Department Administrator.
Matriculation and Facilities
Advanced M.Phil./Ph.D. students who are neither on a teaching
appointment nor are planning to take courses should register for
matriculation and fees, "M&F." Students who are dissertation
fellows, for instance, should register for M&F. If questions arise
about what to apply for, please contact the Department Administrator.
— M&F F/T: "Full-time" status, no classes.
— M&F P/T: "Part-time" status, no classes, loans may
become payable
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TUITION FOR COURSEWORK
Graduate fellowships include tuition for strictly
limited coursework after orals. If doctoral Teaching Fellows need more
coursework, for example to improve on languages needed for the
dissertation, a letter from the DGS may be required to explain why
coursework is continuing during the doctoral years. In the summer
before taking the Dissertation Fellowship and in the year of the
Dissertation Fellowship, tuition for coursework is not provided.
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TEACHING
There are several options
for teaching after students have completed the M.Phil. requirements:
University Writing
Students continue to teach one section of University
Writing in the fall semester, and another in the spring of their fourth
year. The Writing Program is associated with the Department of English
and Comparative Literature, but is run separately. Consult the
University Writing Program webpage for a more detailed description of
the program. For about six of the Department's students in their third
year of UWP instruction, one semester of University Writing will be
replaced with a seminar section of the Department's introductory
course, Literary Texts and Critical Methods.
Literary Texts and
Critical Methods
This one-semester course is a required introduction
to the undergraduate major. Students meet once a week in a seminar
session following a single weekly lecture from a faculty member on
points of fundamental importance of literary study such as genres and
forms, narrative and poetic techniques, and critical traditions. Close
attention is paid to developing students' abilities to write papers on
literary issues.
Columbia College Core
Curriculum
M.Phil.
students
frequently
apply
for
two-year
appointments
as
preceptors
in
Literature
Humanities, or less frequently in Contemporary Civilization,
two-semester course sequences in which Columbia College students
undertake intensive study and discussion of some of the most
significant texts of Western culture. "Core preceptors," the title
given to students who teach Lit Hum and CC sections, must hold the
M.Phil. before beginning to teach, but may apply for the Core's
two-year commitments in anticipation of holding the M.Phil. in time to
take up an appointment if it is offered. Please consult the Core
Curriculum website for more details: http://www.college.columbia.edu./core/.
Summer
Session Courses
M.Phil. students can
propose courses to be offered in the Columbia Summer Session. See the
Summer Session website for dates and kinds of courses offered: http://www.ce.columbia.edu/summer/?PID=1.
For
questions
about
the
application
procedure,
watch
for
the
fall
semester workshop on proposing courses, or ask the Director of Graduate
Studies or Department Administrator for more information
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THE DISSERTATION PROSPECTUS
Aims
Because it describes work that
you have yet to complete, the dissertation prospectus is an unfamiliar sort of
academic genre. So what should you try
to accomplish in this document?
Put most simply, the
dissertation prospectus should offer a provisional account of (1) what your
argument is, (2) why it matters, and (3) what body of evidence you will draw on
to substantiate it. Your “argument”
might be expressed as a focused research question, as a hypothesis, or as a
tentative thesis. In explaining why it
matters, you should outline how your dissertation will contribute to, or
change, the existing scholarship on the topic.
And in describing a body of evidence, you should indicate which primary
and secondary texts are essential to your project.
In addition to these general
aims, your prospectus should provide answers to the following questions:
- Why are you
addressing this topic? How does it build upon your previous work and how is
your approach, archive, or perspective significant?
- Do you make use of
any special methodological or theoretical perspective? How is it appropriate to
your topic and body of evidence?
- What is the proposed
organization of the dissertation?
Contents
If these are its intellectual goals, what practical elements
should the dissertation prospectus include?
- A title. Don’t be too
cute: it should indicate the topic and emphasis of your project.
- The body of the
prospectus. This should describe your project, outline its potential interest
and scholarly significance, and identify your core objects of study.
- A chapter breakdown:
write tentative accounts of each chapter, dedicating a page or less to each.
- A timeline, outlining
what you intend to complete and when.
- If applicable, a
description of special needs: e.g., do you need to travel or conduct specific
archival research, develop new linguistic or technical skills, or use special
equipment?
- A working
bibliography. Although this might
include a few important works you have not yet read, it should mostly represent
the research you have done so far.
Length
Your prospectus should be
between 1500-3000 words or 7-10 double-spaced pages in length, not counting the
tentative schedule, description of special needs, and working bibliography. Longer
prospectuses will not be approved.
Prospectus meeting
You should complete a first
draft of the prospectus by September 15 of your fourth year and submit it to
your dissertation committee to review.
When the student and committee are agreed that the prospectus is in the
nearly final draft, the student should take the initiative to schedule a
prospectus meeting. This meeting, to be attended by the student and her/his
entire committee, should occur not later than October 14. The purpose of the prospectus meeting is to
provide you with a forum for discussion of the dissertation's conception and
development. It is not a defense of the prospectus. Rather, it is an occasion
for the student to get coordinated feedback before he/she completes a final
revision.
Committee Approval
Before filing the prospectus with the department, you need
to complete any essential revisions recommended at the prospectus meeting and
have your committee members sign the Prospectus Approval Form (available from the Graduate Coordinator, Virginia Kay).
If one or more of your committee members is off campus, an email to the DGS
will suffice in lieu of their signature. You must complete this step in time to
file the prospectus by November 1.
Filing the Prospectus and Final
Approval
Once your prospectus has been
approved by your faculty advisors, the next step is to file it with the
department. Bring the Prospectus Approval Form and a copy of the prospectus to
the Graduate Coordinator before November 1. The DGS will read your prospectus
and decide whether to approve it or recommend further revision. You will be
notified of the DGS’s decision via email.
Timeline
- May-September: Independent work on
dissertation prospectus
- September 15: First draft to be submitted
to dissertation committee
- October 14: Deadline
for prospectus meeting
- November 1: Deadline
for filing approved prospectus with the DGS
Sample Prospectuses
Several prospectuses have been selected as examples of
the genre. They have been chosen from a variety of fields and represent the
diversity of methodological and theoretical approaches to doctoral research in
English and Comparative Literature at Columbia.
These
prospectuses have been uploaded to a collaboration site for graduate
students in Courseworks (ADMN 1069.001 Resources for Graduate
Students). Please request access from the English Department
administrator.
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THE DISSERTATION
The culminating product of graduate work, the doctoral dissertation is
likely to be by far the longest piece of writing a student has ever
done, and it becomes the most important piece of evidence on the
academic job market, the fullest and most visible expression of a
candidate's intellectual values and accomplishments.
It is useful for you to be aware from the outset what a dissertation is
not. It is not a book, though it may eventually become one at a
subsequent phase: dissertations are typically shorter and more
selective in scope than books. Nor is a dissertation the kind of
magisterial summing-up that a scholar can try out following the
award of tenure-a speculative or deeply personal work addressed
essentially to a very general audience, or to oneself, but not focused
on any particular audience of intermediate size.
Generally, the dissertation should accomplish two
things:
• It should address an issue that
intrigues you deeply and that gives you an opportunity to work on
authors you find compelling and who will repay extended study-not by
someone else, but by you.
• The dissertation should also
demonstrate the various skills that assistant professors in literary
studies are expected to have: skill at analysis of literary texts,
sophistication in historical and/or theoretical framing of issues, and
engagement in an ongoing scholarly conversation concerning important
issues of current concern.
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LENGTH, SCOPE, AND FORMAT
A typical dissertation these days runs between 250 and 300 pages,
divided
into
four
or
five
chapters,
often
with
a
short conclusion
following the final full-scale chapter. There is no set minimum or
maximum length, but anything below about 225 pages will likely look
insubstantial in comparison to others, while anything over 350 pages
may suggest a lack of proportion and control of the topic, and would
probably take too long to write. For guidelines on formatting, students
should consult the GSAS Dissertation Office website
(http://www.columbia.edu/cu/gsas/cs/diss-office/pages/wel/index.html).
The goal should be to have a full draft of the
dissertation completed by October 1 of the sixth year (fifth M.Phil.
year). This will enable you to spend the fall of that year on the
job search, and to assure interviewers in December that your work is
complete apart from some minor revision and the actual defense.
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DISSERTATION COMMITTEE
Helping guide you through the process of writing the dissertation is
your dissertation committee, a group of three faculty members. One
member is designated the dissertation Sponsor. The Sponsor must be a
faculty member of the English Department, is directly responsible for
overseeing your schedule, and ensures that regular chapter meetings
take place, although the responsibility for scheduling those meetings
lies with the student. Your faculty Sponsor is also responsible for
filling out departmental and GSAS progress reports. The other two
members are the Second and Third Reader, faculty members from inside
or outside the department who each act as full advisors. All three
committee members should review your draft prospectus and will need to
sign off on the final version of the prospectus.
As you contemplate potential committee members, you should talk over
your ideas with the DGS to help you decide what combination of people
will be most useful to you in terms of specific knowledge as well as
of general approach and interaction. The dissertation Sponsor is
responsible for the composition of the defense committee: the three
members of the student's departmental committee plus two examiners who
are typically from other departments. In special circumstances,
examiners may be faculty from other universities, in which case the
potential examiner's curriculum vitae must be sent to the Graduate
Coordinator for submission to the Dissertations Office for Dean's
approval.
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CHAPTER REVIEW MEETINGS
The department strongly encourages students to take advantage of our
customary practice of having the entire dissertation committee convene
to discuss each completely drafted dissertation chapter. These
meetings have the advantage of providing students with coordinated
feedback on each dissertation chapter.
It
is the student's responsibility to contact faculty to schedule these
meetings, which usually take place in the office of a dissertation
committee member. Typically students email faculty members a draft of
a chapter and at that time also begin the process of scheduling a
chapter meeting. (Some faculty may request hard copies of chapter
drafts.) When scheduling meetings, keep in mind that faculty typically
take two to six weeks to read drafts of chapters. Students should
consult committee members and the DGS about any significant divergences
from this timetable. Committees vary in terms of how polished they
want drafts to be, so seek explicit instruction from your committee
members about their expectations.
TIMELINE
The following dates should be kept in mind:
|
Date
|
Event
|
| September 15 (4th Year) |
Submit first draft of prospectus to dissertation committee |
| October 14 (4th Year) |
Prospectus meeting: 45-minute
conversation with at least two prospective dissertation committee
members to discuss a draft prospectus.
|
November 1 (4th
Year)
|
Prospectus should be
submitted by November 1. |
| April 1 (4th Year) |
One dissertation chapter must be
drafted and submitted by April 1 to qualify for a dissertation
fellowship in the fifth year. |
| May 15 (4th Year) |
One-hour conversation with your
dissertation committee, discussing the first chapter or the progress
towards its completion. The office will keep track and make sure that
the meeting is being held; the DGS will receive a brief email report
from the committee's Sponsor. |
| 1 Time/ Semester |
Visit each of your three committee
members. You can be in contact via email if direct meetings are not
possible. Faculty will return chapters within two weeks. |
Thursdays, 1-2 pm
all semester |
Time reserved for meetings with
committee members. Notify the M.Phil. Coordinator when you have
completed a chapter and circulated it. Only one formal meeting is
required per chapter. |
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CONFERENCES AND PUBLICATIONS
If you haven't done so already, you should begin to be active in the
wider scholarly discussion beyond campus. This can be done in two ways:
through conference participation and through publication of articles
and book reviews. These modes of professional interaction are
invaluable, but spending too much time working on articles or preparing
conference presentations can impede the completion of your
dissertation-a hindrance that offers only a marginal benefit. One
article and one or two conference presentations per year will amply
serve the purpose.
Conference Participation
The department provides some funding to help cover the
cost of conference travel for people presenting papers. These funds are
available to students in the fourth year and beyond. The Graduate
School of Arts and Sciences provides additional funds for post-orals
students. To receive such funds, you need to give the Graduate
Coordinator a one-page description of your paper, a copy of the letter
of acceptance from the conference organizer, and a budget of expected
expenses (car rentals, hotel reservations, etc). Please pay attention
to the deadlines that are posted for receiving funding. Reimbursements
are processed when original receipts are submitted to the department's
financial assistant. Departmental funds for travel to conferences are subject to
availability. In order to make awards available to the greatest number of
students possible, priority in making awards will be in inverse proportion to
previous support: the more money you have previously received for
conference travel, the lower your priority will be for receiving a new award in
any given year.
Your orals examiners and dissertation advisors are
excellent resources for advice on what professional organizations to
join; by the fourth or fifth year, every graduate student should become
a member of one or two relevant leading professional organizations.
Even if you are not giving a paper, it's a good idea to begin attending
their annual meetings. Apart from such annual meetings, special-topic
conferences are constantly issuing calls for papers; PMLA and the MLA
Newsletter list many such calls, and the Graduate Coordinator maintains
a folder of fliers that come to the department.
Publication
Publication is highly desirable-in moderation-and is
most useful when you're able to turn an existing draft (seminar paper
or dissertation chapter) into an article. Seminar papers will often
need to be expanded somewhat, while dissertation chapters will need to
be cut down. The MLA Guide to Periodicals gives a very useful listing
of journals and their requirements on length and format.
Consult with your advisors about sending out submissions
and have them read drafts of articles before submitting them. An
article should be sent to one journal at a time, and should be
accompanied by a short cover letter on English Department letterhead.
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DISSERTATION FELLOWSHIP
Dissertation Fellowship
The department makes available to all students who have
completed the M.Phil. degree a full year of funding in either their
fifth or sixth year in the program-funding free from any teaching
obligation. Students are expected to use this "free year" to make
significant progress on their dissertation, aiming to have a full draft
of it done by the end of the year. Students must have completed
their prospectus and one chapter to be eligible to take the
dissertation fellowship. Note: Effective 2012, students applying for a 6th-year dissertation
fellowship must have drafted at least two chapters of the dissertation.
Drafts must be at least 40 pages
GSAS requires students to apply for external funding for
their fifth and sixth years. A list of fellowships can be found on the
GSAS website at http://www.columbia.edu/cu/gsas/ps/fin-aid/pages/fellowship-sch/index.html.
Sample applications that have won financial awards in
past years: http://www.columbia.edu/cu/english/posters/proposal_samples.htm
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DOCTORAL SEMINAR AND DISSERTATION
GROUPS
During the extended period of dissertation work, it is important to
keep in contact with other students as well as your advisors. To this
end, the department sponsors several dissertation seminars; you are
strongly encouraged to attend the seminar of most use to you, beginning
in the fall of your fourth year.
Dissertation Groups
Most of the areas in the department conduct
dissertation seminars throughout the year. These seminars meet between
3-4 times a semester and are not for credit. Since students and faculty
usually attend, these groups are invaluable ways of getting a great
deal of input from colleagues other than your advisors on work in
progress.
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DISSERTATION DEFENSE
The culminating rite of passage of graduate study, the defense should
be, and usually is, a very satisfying experience. Your three
advisors are now joined by two outside committee members who can read
your work with fresh eyes, and if all goes well, the defense will
be a congenial two-hour discussion from which you emerge with a new
sense of how your work looks to a variety of serious readers and where
you might take it next.
Defense Preparation
Applications for defense, available from 107 Low Library or the GSAS
website
(http://www.columbia.edu/cu/gsas/cs/diss-office/pages/wel/index.html),
should be filed with the department at least 3 months before your
anticipated defense date. This provides ample time for your Sponsor to
contact the prospective outside committee members and for all relevant
information to be sent to the dissertation office.
After doing this, the main thing you can do to insure a
successful defense is to make sure your three primary advisors feel
that your dissertation is complete and ready to defend. After seeing
the final version you intend to distribute, your committee Sponsor must
formally certify to the department that it is ready to defend. Once you
distribute the dissertation to the five members making up your defense
committee-at least one month in advance of the defense date-you then
contact the defense coordinator in Low Library; the coordinator will
officially set the time, date, and location of the defense.
The registration requirement for the dissertation defense depends on
the date of distribution, not on the date of the actual defense. If you
distribute before the first day of classes of the new semester, you do
not have to re-register.
At the Defense
Bring a copy of your dissertation and a notepad to your defense. Unlike
the orals examination, which is purely focused on discussion, the
dissertation defense is geared towards helping you think critically
about your project, and it is recommended that you take notes to that
end.
The two-hour defense ordinarily begins with the Sponsor of
your committee inviting you to spend five minutes or so describing the
genesis of your project, your thoughts on what you've achieved, and
your plans for future developments. The examiners then take turns
giving comments and asking questions for 15-20 minutes each. You are
then excused for a few minutes while the examiners confer, and then you
are brought back in to the room for the result. Your examiners may give
you back their copy of your dissertation, if they've made comments in
the margins, or may have already made all of their comments in the
defense.
Defense Results
Dissertations can receive the following grades:
— PASS (minor revisions): Correction of typos, and any fine-tuning the
committee may suggest. This is the result in the great majority of
cases, and usually involves just a few days' work at most.
— INCOMPLETE (major revisions): Substantial work still to be done
within a specified period of time. At the end of that time, a
subcommittee of three examiners must read and approve the revised
version.
— FAIL: It rarely, if ever, happens that a dissertation whose advisors
have approved it for defense receives a failing grade.
Dissertations that pass with minor revisions can also be granted
Distinction, if all five examiners agree. By Columbia rules, only 10%
of dissertations are to receive the grade of Distinction.
Following the award of a Pass with minor revisions, the
candidate has six months to complete any final revisions and deposit
the dissertation at the dissertation office in Low Library. A schedule
is set each year for the last date to deposit in time for an October,
May, or January degree. Even if you have not actually deposited the
dissertation by the time of Commencement, you should be sure to come to
the graduate Convocation and share in the champagne and strawberries
that follow.
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