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Degree Requirements

The requirements listed below are special to this department and must be read in conjunction with the general requirements of the Graduate School.

For the M.A. Degree and the Free-Standing M.A. Degree

Part-Time Study

The M.A. degree may be earned through a program of part-time study. The requirements are the same as for the full-time M.A. degree, except that part-time students may take up to four years to complete the degree. Programs should be planned in consultation with the chair or DGS.

Full-Time Study

Program of study: To be approved by the chair or DGS during registration.

Length of program: Usually one to two years.

Required courses: Two Residence Units and ten courses, six for a letter grade, four for R credit. At least three of the courses taken for a letter grade must be assessed through seminar papers. The remaining three may be assessed by means of various shorter paper formats or take-home exams. Students must also rewrite one seminar paper prior to taking the M. A. exam. The function of the rewrite is not for students to write a master’s thesis, but to learn how to isolate key questions, introduce original arguments and research, and situate an argument within existing discussions of literary scholarship. Students are expected to have a thorough bibliography and familiarity with the critical literature on their topic.

Languages: A reading knowledge of a foreign language (in addition to German) for the M.A. Proficiency must be demonstrated by a written examination at the appropriate point during graduate study.

Examination: The M.A. exam must be taken at the latest by the first week of the fourth semester. The exam consists of a Klausur and an oral exam. The Klausur includes five questions that test a student’s knowledge of the terminology of literary criticism and one question that requires close analysis of a selected passage. The exam is expected to take approximately five hours.

The oral examination, conducted in German, takes place on a separate day after the Klausur and lasts one hour. It is directed by two examiners. It is intended to test how students, in a more spontaneous setting, engage with more specific questions concerning literary history.

For the M.Phil. Degree

Required courses: Students must also complete ten courses, six for a letter grade and four for R credit. At least four of the courses taken for a letter grade may be assessed through seminar papers. The other two may be assessed by means of shorter paper formats or take-home exams.

Languages: A reading knowledge of one other language (in addition to the one for the M.A.) to be chosen after consultation with the chair or DGS.

Teaching requirement: Participation in the instructional activities of the department for three years. Normally, in the second, third, and fourth years of study, students gain exposure to teaching through participation in the language program. Students who are interested in broadening their teaching apprenticeships are eligible to teach in the Core Program once they have received the M.Phil. Students may only apply to be a preceptor if they have or expect to have the M.Phil. by the May prior to being appointed as a preceptor, and if they are not past their sixth year of registration during the first year of the preceptorship. Students may not hold instructional appointments after year seven.

Participation in the language program is considered an important part of training in the profession. Students teaching for the first time are required to take an introductory workshop before teaching and a language pedagogy course during their first semester of teaching. They are supervised by the director of graduate student teaching. Students are not expected to start teaching until the beginning of their second year of study. Conscientious participation in the language program is essential for maintaining good academic standing as well as for preparation for the job market.

Examination: The function of the M.Phil. exam is not to test a broad exposure to German literary history as with the M.A. exam, but instead to test students on their ability to isolate an area of research. The exam is intended to help students bridge the transition to the dissertation stage by identifying a set of research interests and a preliminary dissertation interest. In preparation for the exam, students are expected to elaborate three fields of interest, one of which must be a theoretical field. Students are expected to be able to define the bounds of their project and argue why they have made those distinctions. They are expected to be able to articulate the theoretical positions that inform their methodology. Students must not only be able to defend why they have made certain choices, but also why they have excluded others. Finally, students are expected to situate their project within both the historical context of their field of interest and the body of relevant scholarship that surrounds it. The M. Phil. exam consists of a take-home exam to be completed over one weekend and a 90-minute oral examination. Both the take-home and the oral portions of the exam are directed by two examiners chosen by the student in consultation with the department. The take-home portion of the exam covers the student’s major field; the oral portion of the exam covers all three fields.

For the Ph.D. Degree

After the completion of all requirements for the M.Phil. degree, the student must write and successfully defend a dissertation in English. The dissertation proposal contains a bibliography of relevant primary and secondary works and a relatively detailed overview of the proposed topic. The prospectus should give a working title for the thesis and each of its chapters. Wherever possible, precise information about chapter topics, existing critical debates, and the student’s particular line of argument should be included. The prospectus is to be discussed in a meeting with the first and second readers (who are usually the examiners for the M. Phil.). The Ph.D. is awarded after the dissertation is successfully defended and deposited.

Incompletes

Students are expected to write papers for at least two courses each semester and should turn in their written work before the start of the next semester. Incompletes, where unavoidable, must be completed by September 1. First-year students must submit at least one paper per term. Please note that this supersedes the GSAS rule of incompletes.

Study and Research Abroad

The department strongly urges all non-native speakers to spend a full year in a German-speaking country for dissertation research, usually following completion of the M. Phil. degree. Students should apply for outside grants (e.g. DAAD or Fulbright) a year before the expected terms abroad; deadlines for most grants are in September. Department funds allotted for summer stipends may be used toward study and research abroad.

Deutsches Haus

The programs at Deutsches Haus are meant to supplement graduate education by exposing students to different perspectives and approaches of the discipline. Fairly regular attendance is expected. In addition to lectures scheduled during the academic year, the department holds colloquia for graduate students to present their work—for example, a dissertation chapter, dissertation prospectus, or seminar paper—to the entire department, students and faculty. The forum is meant to give students a wide range of feedback while providing an opportunity to practice elaborating their ideas, addressing questions, and responding to a public discussion of their work.

Yiddish Studies

For a description of the Interdepartmental Committee on Yiddish Studies, see under Yiddish.

Financial Aid

A comprehensive program of financial aid, including fellowships and appointments in teaching, is available to Ph.D. students. After the first year, all Ph.D. students admitted to the program receive annually full funding, which includes the prevailing stipend and appropriate tuition and health fees through the fifth year, provided that they remain in good academic standing. If students receive a year of advanced standing, they are entitled to only four years of fellowship funding.