G-ROM-PHD - Romance Studies - PhD

The PhD requires 14 graduate courses for students entering with a BA. Eight of those must be taken within the department. The remaining six maybe taken in other departments. Students may take up to two independent study courses; additional independent studies may be approved by the Director of Graduate Studies (DGS). Students who enter with the MA only need to complete 10 graduate courses provided that 4 of their previous graduate courses are in the field of study or a closely related field.  Of those 10 courses, at least six must be taken within the Romance Studies Department; the others can be taken in other departments.  Students who wish to pursue this accelerated option need the approval of the DGS.  Required courses for all doctoral tracks include ROMST 501S: Methods and Theories of Romance Studies and ROMST 700: Theories and Techniques of Teaching Foreign Languages.

In order to complete the PhD, reading proficiency in a language other than the major(s) one (and other than English) is required by the time the student takes the Dissertation Prospectus Workshop. For students in the Romance Studies PhD track, a high level of scholarly competency is required in two Romance languages. The faculty believe strongly in the utility, beauty, and importance of linguistic competences beyond English and the language(s) of specialization. Other departments at Duke offer opportunities to learn or improve languages through credited or audited courses, which we encourage students to explore.

Students must pass The Graduate School’s Preliminary Exam, which takes the form of a Portfolio: a dossier of written work, bibliographies in major and minor fields, and an oral examination. The purpose of the exam is to allow students to establish their competencies in those fields for teaching and other professions, and to demonstrate their readiness to undertake independent dissertation research. Students are also required to complete a Dissertation Prospectus Workshop, including a document of approximately 15-20 pages outlining the topic, approach, and implications of the dissertation project. During a 2-hour workshop, the student’s committee responds to the prospectus in order to refine the project, and assess its scope and contributions. The prospectus must be approved by the committee before full-time research and writing on the dissertation can begin. The dissertation committee meets one final time for a defense of the completed thesis. This vigorous engagement of the research helps students identify future directions of study. The committee may request some edits to the thesis prior to final submission to the Graduate School.