Ph.D. in English
At Notre Dame, the Ph.D. program in English prepares students to enter the academic profession. Our program is flexible and dynamic, while structured enough to help students to move smoothly towards dissertation projects.
The Ph.D. program begins with course work designed to ensure that students gain a comprehensive knowledge of literary criticism and British and American literature. Students then begin preparing for examinations through a combination of classroom courses, individualized reading courses, and independent study.
In the third year, students take written and oral exams in their major field of specialization, a secondary field, and literary theory and methodology. The exams are structured to ensure that students acquire in-depth knowledge of these three fields and a thorough preparation for writing the dissertation as well as for future teaching. The literary theory and methodology component helps students establish the core methods and problems of the dissertation project.
After exams, students participate in area seminars, which focus on student research and facilitate close work between faculty and advanced graduate students. In year four or five, students take “Writing for the Profession,” a one semester practicum on forms of professional writing such as grant applications, teaching portfolios, and article writing. Students take a practicum on the job market in the fall semester of the job search. The program requires approximately three years of course work (two beyond the M.A.) and takes five to six years to complete.
Program of Study
Course Requirements
Foreign Language Requirement
Field Examinations
Candidacy Examination
Dissertation
Program of Study
The following overview assumes a student entering with no previous graduate school experience; students who enter with an M.A. can choose to begin with the second year of the program. For all students in the program, year one and one semester of year five are service free.
Year 1: 7 courses, no teaching
- Introduction to Graduate Studies in the fall, plus 6 other courses
Year 2: 6 courses, plus teaching
- Complete course distribution requirements and continue work on areas of specialization
- Fulfill foreign language requirement
Year 3: 3 courses, plus teaching, research assistantship, or teaching assistantship; summer funding upon successful completion of exams
- Complete course work
- 1-2 reading courses (recommended)
- 3 written and oral field examinations in spring semester
Year 4: Dissertation work plus teaching, research assistantship, or teaching assistantship
- Oral candidacy examination in fall semester, based on a short dissertation proposal and a draft of a chapter
- Participate in area seminar
- Commence dissertation
Year 5 or 6: Complete and defend dissertation plus teaching, research assistantship, or teaching assistantship (to receive funding in year six, students must apply for two external fellowships, at least one of which must be a major fellowship)
- Participate in area seminar
- Take "Writing for the Profession" and "Job Market Practicum"
- All students have one service free semester in year five
- After the candidacy exams, students are eligible for competitive dissertation year fellowships
Course Requirements
48 credit hours of classroom courses, including:
- Introduction to Graduate Study
- Courses in five to seven major historical periods (same as examination fields below)
- One course in literary theory
Students must demonstrate proficiency in two foreign languages or fluency in one, as appropriate to the dissertation field. Students can demonstrate proficiency through advanced coursework in the language or by taking exams offered by the foreign language departments. Students can demonstrate fluency by taking an upper-level or graduate course in which all readings, discussion, and written work are in the foreign language.
Three Field Examinations
Written examinations, followed by an oral exam in:
- One historical field (from among Old English, Middle English, Renaissance, Restoration and Eighteenth-Century, Nineteenth-Century British, Twentieth-Century British, Early American [to 1865], Middle American [Civil War to 1930], Post-1930).
- Either a second historical period or a genre (poetry, fiction, drama, non-fiction prose).
- One examination in the field of literary criticism and theory. One of the fields is designated as the major field.
The exam committee is made up of a chair and three examiners.
Candidacy Examination
An oral examination on the proposal for the dissertation and a sample chapter. The committee for the candidacy exams as well as for the dissertation is made up of a chair (or, in certain circumstances, two co-directors) and two readers.
A work of literary criticism demonstrating the student’s readiness to participate fully in the profession as a scholar and literary critic.