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 inquiries into the Department and the Graduate degrees offered please contact 212-854-2308 or italian@columbia.edu.
Graduate School of Arts and Sciences
Part-Time Study
The M.A. degree may be earned through a program of part-time study.
The course and language requirements are the same as for the full-time
M.A. degree. All part-time students must complete the M.A. degree
requirements within four years. Programs should be planned in
consultation with the DGS.
For the Free-Standing M.A. Degree
Courses: A total of ten one-term courses (two Residence Units): (1)
eight graduate literature/culture courses within the department taken
for a letter grade, of which at least three must be in the period
before 1600 and at least three in the period after 1600; substitutions
of courses from other departments must be approved by the DGS; (2) one
one-term course from another department for R credit, chosen in
consultation with the DGS; (3) at least one of the following three courses: Italian W4000 - Stylistics; Italian W4012 - Laboratorio di Scrittura; Italian W4018 - Laboratorio di Traduzione, which may be taken for R
credit.
Languages: a reading knowledge of Latin, or German or a Romance
language other than Italian, satisfied by passing a written proficiency examination
or by completing an approved course (Intermediate II level or higher) with a minimum grade of B-.
For the M.A./M. Phil./Ph.D. Degrees
Course requirements: A total of ten one-term courses (two Residence
Units): (1) eight graduate literature/culture courses within the
department taken for a letter grade, of which at least three must be in
the period before 1600 and at least three in the period after 1600;
substitutions of courses from other departments or from the Interschool
Doctoral Consortium must be approved by the DGS; (2) one one-term
course from another department for R credit, chosen in consultation
with the DGS; (3) at least one of the following three courses: Italian W4000 - Stylistics; Italian W4012 - Laboratorio di Scrittura; Italian W4018 - Laboratorio di Traduzione, which may be taken for R
credit
Languages: A reading knowledge of Latin, or German or a Romance
language other than Italian, satisfied by passing a written proficiency examination
or by completing an approved course (Intermediate II level or higher) with a minimum grade of B-.
The M.A./M.Phil./Ph.D. program is designed to allow a well-prepared
student to earn the M.A. degree within one academic year of full-time
study. A student who postpones completing the requirements for the M.A.
degree while accumulating Residence Units toward the M.Phil and Ph.D.
degrees does so at his or her own risk. Continuation of study beyond
the M.Phil. degree is authorized by the Executive Committee of the
department.
For the M.Phil. Degree
Required courses: Students who earned the M.A. degree elsewhere must
fulfill the same requirements during their first year of residence as
Columbia M.A. candidates. Students holding the M.A. degree in Italian
from Columbia take eight one-term courses of which six must be taken
within the department taken for a letter grade. Substitutions of
courses from other departments or from the Inter-University Doctoral
Consortium (see GSAS Ph.D. Student Handbook, Research, Teacher
Training, and Other Professional Development Resources, section IV)
must be approved by the DGS. PEDG G4000. International Language
Pedagogy, the autumn seminar (taken Pass/Fail), is required for
students who, in the second year of the program, are beginning the
teaching fellowship in the Italian Language Program and are responsible
for teaching Elementary Italian to undergraduates. The seminar does not
fulfill any other M.Phil. course requirement.
Languages: A reading knowledge of Latin and either German or a
Romance language other than Italian, satisfied by passing written proficiency
examination or by the completion of approved courses (Intermediate II level or higher) with a minimum
grade of B-.
Teaching requirement: Participation in the instructional activities
of the department for three years. As a rule, 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.
Examinations: On completion of all course work and at least two
Residence Units beyond the M.A. degree, and satisfaction of the
language requirement, the candidate takes the pre-oral and oral qualifying examinations on Italian literature. The M. Phil. Exam in the Italian Department is intended to help the students transition from a general acquaintance with Italian literature and culture, as acquired through course work and independent reading, to the definition of some specific research interests, which may include the preliminary idea of what will become the dissertation. The revised general Reading List of the Italian Department may serve students as an auxiliary and optional tool for the identification of the above-mentioned interests. Each student will prepare three individual reading lists pertaining to three different fields. One field will have a broadly conceptual and methodological dimension; the other two will be chronologically complementary, meaning that if two of the three fields fall before 1600 the third will fall after 1600, and vice versa. The M. Phil. Proposal, then, contains the titles of the three fields and a bibliography for each one. The bibliography is a specialized reading list of primary and
secondary texts; the secondary texts reflect the critical methodologies that the candidate has found
particularly important. The bibliographies are intended to be the platform for a
discussion of the ideas that have proved most
significant in shaping the critical voice of the candidate.
Three faculty members chosen by the student will oversee the whole exam. For the pre-oral part, each professor will provide the student with two questions, of which the student will choose one. The student will then write three take-home papers, with a minimum length of five pages each, all three to be written over the course of ten days. The oral part of the exam, covering all three fields, will be taken at a date between
two and twelve weeks from the successful completion of the pre-oral.
Upon
passing successfully the oral examination and having completed six
Residence Units in the Graduate School (including any advanced
standing) the candidate is certified for the award of the M.Phil.
degree.
In accordance with GSAS regulations all work for the M.Phil degree must be
completed within four years (unless the student receives two Residence Units of
advanced standing, in which case all degree requirements must be completed
within three years).
For the Ph.D. Degree
Candidacy for the Ph.D. degree is contingent on the fulfillment of
all M.Phil. requirements and approval of the proposed dissertation.
Required courses: Students, if they have not done so prior to
completion of the M.Phil. degree, should register for one of the
following courses: ITAL G9102. Research in Late Medieval and
Renaissance Literature or ITAL G9103. Research in Modern and
Contemporary Literature. Students register for this course, which may
be taken for R credit, during the semester when they prepare the
dissertation proposal (prospectus) under the supervision of a potential
sponsor.
Dissertation: No later than six months after successful completion
of the M.Phil. degree, the student submits the dissertation prospectus
(no more than ten pages, plus annotated bibliography), to be approved
by a committee of three faculty members including the sponsor and
second reader from the department. The dissertation is to be prepared
and examined according to the regulations of the Graduate School of
Arts and Sciences. For more information on the policies and procedures please visit the Dissertation Office website.
