Requirements for the Combined Ph.D. in Spanish and Portuguese-Film and Media Studies

Program of courses

Course requirements consist of fourteen term courses taken over a two-year period. In addition, students take SPAN 5000: Principles of Language Teaching and Learning (in the second year), SPAN 9211: The Doctoral Workshop (in the third or fourth year), and enroll regularly in SPAN 9212/9213: The Professional Workshop. Students should consult the DGSs of both Spanish and Portuguese and Film and Media Studies (FMS) prior to making final course decisions, especially if they have any questions about whether a given course might count toward fulfilling the Spanish and Portuguese and/or FMS requirements. In some cases, a candidate may be allowed to take up to two courses in the third year of study while preparing for the oral examination.

A. Requirements in FMS: Six courses.

1. FILM 6010 Foundations of Film and Media Studies (offered every other Fall term).

2. Five additional seminars in FMS, including courses cross-listed with FMS.

B. Requirements in Spanish and Portuguese: Eight courses.

Eight graduate seminars taught by faculty members in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese, including at least one course in each of the following areas. Students may audit up to two of these eight courses (no exam or final paper required).

a. Medieval or Early Modern Iberian Studies

b. Indigenous, Colonial, or Nineteenth-century Latin American Studies

c. Modern or Contemporary Iberian Studies

d. Modern or Contemporary Latin American Studies

e. Luso-Brazilian Studies

Up to two course credits may be waived with the approval of the DGS of both departments and the Graduate School.

Teaching

Students are expected to teach two years of L1-L4 language courses as PTAI in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese. All students will teach in the language program in their third year. After the third year, students will be offered TF positions in Film Studies or Spanish and Portuguese if no language sections are available.

Languages

A. Fluency in English upon admission.

B. Demonstrated near-native proficiency in either Spanish or Portuguese.

Qualifying Oral Examinations

The candidate will meet with the DGS of each unit in the third semester to agree on the rubrics of four or five examination areas, with two devoted to film and media studies topics. By the end of the fifth semester this examination will be administered by a faculty member designated as chair of the orals committee and that committee will include at least one member representing each unit.

Dissertation Prospectus

In the sixth term, a student must submit a prospectus and present it in a colloquium involving the Dissertation Prospectus Committee, which must include at least one member from Film and Media Studies and one member of Spanish and Portuguese. The full FMS executive committee receives the finalized prospectus for ratification by the end of the sixth term. It is presumed that the dissertation will give evidence of methods and materials important to both disciplines.

A Defense of Method

A Defense of Method occurs in the semester preceding submission of the dissertation. Of the three official readers of the dissertation mandated by the Graduate School, at least one must be member of Spanish and Portuguese and one other a member of Film and Media Studies. See the “Defense of Method” section on the page “Applying to and Going Through the FMS Program.”