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Home > Graduate Studies > Degree Programs : Ph.D.

Doctor of Philosophy

• Ph.D. Forms & Procedures
• Ph.D. Progress Checklist

Degree Overview

The Ph.D. is a research degree in which your professors in English and other university departments prepare you to do original research and writing. You are encouraged and even required to see your research in a multi-disciplinary perspective. This might include exploring theories from such disciplines as philosophy, anthropology, psychology, and cultural studies, or immersing yourself in the history and ideas of the culture in which your primary texts reside.

In addition, candidates are offered a variety of teaching experiences during their six years of study. Students begin instruction as recitation leaders in large lecture courses, then teach stand-alone sections of composition and courses of their own design in their chosen research area.

The Ph.D. in English is a 42-credit, 14-course degree in which you weave together courses, written and oral exams, and a scholarly dissertation. You will link your knowledge of two general areas of English studies with an in-depth study of an original research topic.

Minimum Course Requirements

The minimum course requirements for a Ph.D. in English at Minnesota include the following:

• Two foundation courses, Introduction to Methods in Literary Studies (EngL 5001) and Introduction to Literary and Cultural Theory (EngL 5002). Try to take these during your first year.

• A total of four English courses (12 credits), distributed among four of the below areas—not including your area of focus. The distribution requirements are intended to expand the range of your reading and writing background, either historically or conceptually. You might consider studying in areas where you had no courses as an undergraduate for no other reason than that as a future professor you will likely teach undergraduate survey courses.
• Medieval
• Early Modern to 1800
• 19th Century
• 20th Century
• Rhetoric, Literacy, Language
• Criticism, Theory
• Creative Writing

• A total of four English courses (12 credits) that will serve as an area of focus.
• As an example, you could focus on the History of the Book:
• Illustrated Victorian Periodicals (Hancher)
• How 19th-Century American Authors Learned their Trade (Ross)
• Cultural History of Literacy in America (Augst)
• The First American Novels (Griffin)
• Another area of focus might be Multicultural American Literature:
• Harlem Renaissance (Wright)
• Poetry and Film (Rabinowitz)
• Drama of American Minorities (Lee)
• Women Language Poets (Damon)
• Literature of the American Prairies (Bales)

• A number of courses usually outside the department, constituting either a "supporting program" or a formal minor. A minor usually requires a minimum of four courses (12 credits). Declaring a minor in another department means that you will follow that department's requirements for the minor. A rich variety of minors are offered through University departments and centers. A supporting program requires a minimum of two courses (six credits). Both options are intended to enrich your area of focus. They might, for instance, add to your background in history and art, involve theory courses from other departments, or provide intensive study of another language and its literature. As an example, if your focus was Medieval Literature, you could take the following courses as a supporting program:
• Gender in Medieval Culture (History)
• Classics of Early Christian Art (Art History)
• Art and Science in Early Modern Europe (History of Science)
• Origins of European Fairy Tale (German)

Please note: The courses offered at a research university change from year to year as different faculty teach new courses or revise old ones, based on the changing practices and knowledge in their fields. Therefore, what you wind up with in your program will necessarily be a blend of what you want to study, which professors you wish to work with, and which courses are available. While you are taking courses, make sure you are keeping up with Ph.D. forms and procedures.

Language Requirement

Ph.D. students must demonstrate proficiency and achieve certification in one foreign language or a reading knowledge of two foreign languages. The general goal is for students to be able to use the language(s) to read imaginative literature, criticism, or theoretical texts as part of their scholarship. Most students fulfill this requirement in one of the following ways:

• For proficiency in modern languages, by taking two courses (8 semester credits) at the advanced undergraduate level or one graduate course with grades of B or better. Latin requires one course at the graduate level.
• For a reading knowledge, by taking currently, or having taken within the past 5 years, 8 semester credits of undergraduate language courses with grades of A or A-, or 12 credits with grades of B- or higher.
• For a reading knowledge, by passing a summer language reading course, currently offered in French and German.
• By arranging for an aptitude test with one of the University's foreign language departments or successfully completing a translation as approved by the Director of Graduate Study.

Preliminary Examinations

In preparation for your dissertation and for teaching in your area of specialization, you will be required to complete both written and oral preliminary examinations. These examinations should be taken after you have completed a substantial part of your coursework. Please see Ph.D. forms and procedures for a more complete description of the process.

Dissertation

A doctoral dissertation, in the words of the Graduate School, is based on original research that makes a significant contribution to knowledge in English studies. It needs to show your originality and ability in conducting an independent investigation, your mastery of the research literature of your subject, and your familiarity with the sources. It must be presented with a satisfactory degree of literary merit.

In the English department, dissertations are typically from three to six chapters long (20-30 pages each). They begin with a statement of your conclusions, claims, or results, then position the research in its field or fields. The middle chapters often illustrate your basic claims by showing how they work out in several literary, historical, or theoretical texts. Our list of dissertation topics by recent graduates of English is a testimony to the diverse scholarship taking place at Minnesota.

Dissertation work generally falls into three stages: proposal, writing and evaluating, and oral defense. At your oral defense, you present your thesis to the academic community. The defense takes the form of a seminar, in which you briefly discuss your project then answer questions about your work posed by members of your committee. Please see Ph.D. forms and procedures for a more complete description of the dissertation stages.