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College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences

Doctor of Philosophy in Spanish

Degree Requirements

The Ph.D. in Spanish requires that, beyond the achievement of the master's degree, students complete a minimum of 36 semester hours of approved graduate courses and 6 semester hours of dissertation as follows:


Required core courses9 hours
Elective courses27 hours
Dissertation6 hours

Core courses. Students are required to take SPAN 7301 (Methods of Study in U.S. Hispanic Literature and Language), SPAN 7304 (Studies in Critical Theory), and SPAN 7393 (Methods of Study in Spanish Linguistics).

Elective courses. Ph.D. students must enroll in all 7000-level courses available (exceptions may be authorized by the Graduate Advisor). The 6000-level Spanish courses listed in the Graduate and Professional Studies catalogue and courses in other departments will be chosen in consultation with the Graduate Advisor.

Language requirements.Reading knowledge of two languages in addition to Spanish and English is required (in addition to the 42 hours referred to above). Reading knowledge may be demonstrated in one of the following ways:

  1. Four college semesters at the undergraduate level (or equivalent proficiency as demonstrated by testing) in another Romance language.
  2. Reading knowledge of Latin or any other approved language, as demonstrated either by satisfactory scores on the Educational Testing Service examinations for that language, or the completion of two semesters of graduate reading courses in the language chosen with a grade of B- or higher.

Ph.D. Comprehensive Exam. A written examination over different areas in literature and linguistics as well as an oral examination must be successfully taken before admission to candidacy.

Ph.D. Dissertation. The student must develop a dissertation on a topic in literature which can be considered to be original and of significance to scholarship.