Programs of Study and Required Coursework
The Ph.D. program in Slavic languages and literatures at Northwestern ranks among the very best in the country. Historically dedicated to the interdisciplinary training of students in the various periods, the program is also distinguished by its strong commitment to Russian Modernism.
The research and teaching of our faculty exhibits particular strength in the areas of nineteenth and twentieth-centuries prose, literary criticism, and intellectual thought; Russian poetry; Russian avant-garde culture; and Russian and Soviet film and visual culture across periods.
Our Department combines a great deal of individual attention with reasonable flexibility in designing a course of study. All students specialize in Russian literature, although we have the capacity to offer interested students courses in Czech, Polish, South Slavic, and Ukrainian literature and culture.
Doctoral students who are funded by the University must be registered as full-time students. Students are considered to be full-time if they take courses earning three to four units of credit: most courses carry one unit of credit; therefore a student must take three to four courses to be considered full-time.
(For more information on the general requirements implemented by TGS see http://www.tgs.northwestern.edu/studentsvcs/doctoral/)
Before being advanced to Candidacy, graduate students complete 18 graduate-level courses. As Northwestern is on a quarter system, this works out to three courses per quarter for two years.
Of these, at least 12 must be taken in the Department: there are 7 required courses (listed below), plus any five graduate-level courses (seminars) of your choice.
You can take the remaining 6 courses in or outside of the Department: at least three courses generally constitute a coherent minor area of specialization consistent with the student's interests, while the remaining courses are free electives.
Students in this program are also encouraged to participate in The Graduate School’s Interdisciplinary Initiative program, and to investigate The Interdisciplinary Cluster for Russian, East European and Jewish studies (ICREEJ), closely related to our Department. For more information on how you can have a second intellectual “home” outside of your department or program please visit the Interdisciplinary Initiative page.
REQUIRED COURSEWORK:
- SLAV 340 History of the Russian Literary Language
- SLAV 405 Russian Teaching Methodology
- SLAV 411 Proseminar
- SLAV 360 19th cent. Russian Poetry
- SLAV 361 20th cent. Russian Poetry
- SLAV 434 18th cent. Russian Literature
- SLAV 430 Old Russian Literature
MINOR-FIELD REQUIREMENT:
3 courses and one Independent Study (for grade) credit constitute a coherent minor area of specialization consistent with the student’s interests. Minor areas can include Second Slavic language or CompLit, Russian, East European, Jewish Studies (also possible to have an individualized minor-- Philosophy, Film, Visual Art, Theatre, and so forth). Students plan their course of study with the DGS, and in order to be approved for the chosen minor, students have to submit to DGS 1-2 pages proposal of their project. After the completion of the required coursework outside of dissertation field, student has to submit a syllabus to a course directly related to his or her project. This syllabus read and evaluated by 3 faculty members, assigned by DGS.
Student cannot be qualified for the admission to Candidacy unless he has his minor-field project completed and approved.
FOREIGN LANGUAGE in addition to Russian desired and encouraged, but not required.
Each first year student has to take a diagnostic RUSSIAN LANGUAGE placement test, prepared and administered by the language coordinator and 1-2 other faculty members.
MA Degree Requirements:
To be completed by the end of the spring quarter of the student’s second year.
Each student, in order to qualify for the MA degree, must complete all the required coursework, including an independent study with his or her adviser. The minimum residency requirement for the Master of Arts degree is the equivalent of three quarters of full-time registration in courses authorized by the Graduate Faculty for graduate credit. (3 courses each quarter, altogether 9 courses).
(For more information on the general MA requirements see https://www.tgs.northwestern.edu/studentsvcs/masters/)
Master’s Exam
Student must register for the independent study (at least for 1 quarter) with his or her adviser the same academic year his Master's exam is scheduled. Under the adviser's supervision, a student selects his original topic, develops his arguments, and writes his thesis. Master's thesis committee includes an adviser and 1 or 2 readers.
During this period, a student may consult with his reader(s) as well.
After a thesis is finalized and submitted to the committee and to other faculty members (1-2 weeks prior to defense), a student should prepare his presentation, which constitutes the Master’s examination.
Master's exam presentation is evaluated on the 3 criteria:
1) written paper (based on the Master's thesis submitted); we expect students to write their paper as if it would be a potential publication;
2) oral presentation (20-25 min long) — including the projection, etc (Saul's thing: speak loudly and slowly, etc.);
3) ability to answer questions and argue his/her points in the following discussion
Master's exam is passed upon the approval of two more faculty members (outside of the Master's committee), assigned by DGS, due no later than a week after the presentation. The same faculty members are supposed to provide a feedback to student in writing.
The Exam is evaluated as High Pass, Pass, Low Pass, or Fail. If student fails this exam he is not allowed to continue towards PhD degree.
PhD Degree Requirements
To be completed by the spring quarter of the student’s third year.
Each student, in order to qualify for the admission to Candidacy, must receive an MA degree, complete all the required coursework, including a minor-field project, and pass both written and oral exams.
(For more information on the general requirements see: https://www.tgs.northwestern.edu/studentsvcs/doctoral/)
WRITTEN PhD Qualifying EXAMS:
There are 4 written exams (4 hours each) designed to evaluate the student’s knowledge of the major chronological periods in the History of Russian Literature:
- ORL and 18th cent. exam
- 19th cent. exam
- 20th cent. exam
and student’s general knowledge of the primary sources:
Each written exam generally consists of 2 sections, comprised of 2 essay-length questions in each section. The student selects one question for each section. Short answer questions are also possible in addition to the essays. Although every faculty member is required to participate in preparation of the questions for these exams, the final version of the exam is completed and prepared by DGS and is administered by a departmental assistant. These exams must not be available to students prior to the scheduled examinations. These exams are read by all the faculty members, and are evaluated as Pass/Fail. In order to pass, the student must receive passing votes from at least 2/3rds of the faculty members reading a given exam, with a minimum of two passing votes. If a student fails any individual section of the written exam, he/she has the opportunity to take that section a second time, approximately one month after the first exam. If the student fails the written exam a second time, he/she will be considered to have failed to make adequate academic progress and will be dismissed from the doctoral program. Students are not allowed to proceed to the oral exam unless and until they have passed all four sections of the written examination.
ORAL EXAM (1-1.5 hour):
The student should prepare 2 syllabi for undergraduate courses covering 19th and 20th cent. Russian Literature (if desirable, a syllabus may include a few readings related to Old Russian Literature or the 18th century literature.) Secondary literature is not required, but can be included as desired. Students are no longer required to include in such courses all possible literary genres: such as drama, poetry, etc. During the exam, the student may be asked about possible secondary sources, as well as be required to name additional primary sources, which could diversify such a course. To avoid the typical boring survey, we want to see interesting, conceptually original courses, focused on a wide variety of primary sources (not just "one book" courses).
This exam is evaluated according to 2 criteria: 1) the student’s ability to conceptualize, explore and put into practice his/her knowledge of the literary material proposed and material related to it; 2) the student’s ability to argue his/her points and to defend his/her ideas against other possible ways of conceptualizing the course.
In order to pass, the student must receive passing votes from at least 2/3rds of the faculty members present at the oral exam, with a minimum of two passing votes. If a student fails the oral exam, he/she has the opportunity to propose different syllabi and retake the exam a second time, approximately one month after the first exam. If the student fails the oral exam a second time, he/she will be considered to have failed to make adequate academic progress and will be dismissed from the doctoral program.
Upon completion of all these requirements, students are approved by the Department for the admission to Candidacy and are supposed to proceed to the work on their Dissertation proposal (prospectus).
Dissertation Prospectus
(to be completed and approved by the spring quarter of the student’s 4th year):
Students must have a prospectus (dissertation proposal) approved by their dissertation committee no later than the beginning of the fifth year of study to remain in good academic standing. Any student not meeting this milestone will be considered not in good standing and therefore will not be eligible for fellowships, traineeships, teaching or research assistantships, and scholarships. Students who do not meet published requirements of satisfactory academic progress may be excluded from TGS. (For more information see: http://www.tgs.northwestern.edu/studentsvcs/doctoral/prospectus/)
PH.D DISSERTATION:
Students must submit an original and significant contribution to Slavic Studies; it must be written in English.
The dissertation faculty committee consists of an adviser and 2 readers; one of them can be an “outside” reader who holds a recognized academic position at a different department or different university.
After the dissertation committee has approved the dissertation, it is considered accepted and defended. The procedure is followed by a colloquium presentation (20-30 min) for graduate students and faculty, scheduled as a part of Graduate Students and Faculty Workshop.
Back to Graduate Main Page
|
