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Doctor of Philosophy in German
Admission into the Ph.D. program will be granted to students who have demonstrated scholarly interest in German culture and literature as well as the ability to conduct research. They must have maintained a 3.0 grade point average and received an M.A. degree in German from the Department of Germanic and Slavic Languages and Literatures at the University of Florida. Students from other accredited American universities who have received an M.A. degree in German and have maintained a 3.0 grade point average will normally also be admitted. Students from foreign countries must have the equivalent of an American M.A. degree in German and must submit documentation to show they have taken the ARE and TOEFL examinations and that they have the equivalent of a 3.0 grade point average.
General Requirements and Individual Progress
90 hours of formal course-work on the graduate level are required. The courses taken during the M.A. studies count toward the Ph.D. requirement. No more than 30 hours of a master's degree from another institution will be transferred to a doctoral program. All courses beyond the master's degree from another university to be applied towards the Ph.D. degree, must be taken at an institution offering the doctoral degree.
Transfer credits are subject to the approval by the Department and the Graduate School.
Candidates for the doctoral degree must satisfy the minimum requirements for a period of concentrated study. Beyond the first 30 hours of graduate courses usually completed with the M.A. degree Ph.D. candidate must be registered for either 30 semester hours in one calendar year, or 32 semester hours in no more than four semesters within a period of two calendar years on the University of Florida campus.
Candidates for the Ph.D. degree are not only expected to be highly motivated, but also to have identified or to be close to identifying one or a related set of areas for their Ph.D. studies and dissertation. Whereas the M.A. program aims to give graduate students a broad knowledge of German cultural history and theoretical approaches to the fields of German studies the Ph.D. program is structured to build a broad and solid foundation for the special area of research chosen by the student.
In the course of their Ph.D. studies students are not only expected to develop an area of expertise, but also encouraged to make themselves known for their area of specialization within the profession. For them, it is imperative to attend and if possible to participate actively in local or nearby conferences, to strive in-their research papers to reach standards for publishable articles, and to make contacts with journals and magazines for book reviews, etc.
In consultation with the graduate advisor Ph.D. students must choose as soon as possible the members of their supervisory committee suitable to their area of specialization. A Ph.D committee consists of 5 members, one must be from outside the department, however, not more than two can be from outside the department. The Dean of the Graduate School is an additional ex officio member of all Ph.D. committees and has to be notified in writing of all oral examinations conducted by the committee, especially of the dissertation defense. The supervisory committee is formally nominated by the department chair, approved by the Dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, and appointed by the Dean of the Graduate School. The nomination of the committee should be completed no later than the end of the second semester.
In order to become optimally competent in their field of specialization the Ph.D. student and her/his supervisor have to develop an individualized plan of studies and courses covering all the relevant primary and secondary areas of studies (theoretical, historical, genre- and media specific). Up to 15 credits can be earned in courses outside the department provided that these courses serve to develop competence in support of the primary field of study and research. In cases in which a special discipline is of major importance for the student's research project The may even be asked to seek a minor in this field.
Since the department does not offer special courses for Ph.D. students they are expected to pursue special research projects in the graduate courses they take. Their course work should be oriented towards in-depth studies on topics related to their field of specialization.
Foreign Language Requirement
Before a Ph.D. student files for candidacy in the Doctoral Program s/he has to demonstrate solid knowledge in a language other than English or German. This may be done:
- By having completed the undergraduate freshman sequence for a language (10 credit hours), with the last course taken at least within six year of filing;
- by taking a special reading course in a language, tailored for graduate students at the University (usually 6 credit hours);
- by taking two graduate literature courses in a language;
- by passing a departmental reading examination given by the appropriate language department;
- by taking a standardized SATII examination through the Office of Instructional Resources
Latin or French are recommended, though other languages essential to a student's program may be substituted with the approval of the graduate adviser. Latin is required of all students who are specializing in the Medieval and Baroque periods as the primary area of concentration. Credits for courses taken to fulfill the foreign language requirement do not count toward the total needed for the degree.
As far as competence in German or English is concerned Ph.D. candidates are expected to work continuously on the improvement of their German or, in the case of German native speakers, on the improvement of their English. Ph.D. students should be aware that most job offers in German departments ask for native or near-native fluency in German and in most interviews applicants have to converse in German. Therefore, Ph.D. students and candidates will participate in an informal colloquium in which they have to give short, prepared speeches on general topics in German or, in the case of German native speakers, in English.
Qualifying Examination and Doctoral Candidacy
There is no Ph.D. reading list. As the test for admission to Ph.D. candidacy the Qualifying Examination forms the penultimate stage in the progress of a student toward the Ph.D. It reflects the expectation of the Department that doctoral students both increase and deepen their broad knowledge of German literary history and also begin defining an area of specialized research as soon as possible in their post M.A. work.
A student wishing to take the Qualifying Examination is required, no later than three months before the proposed date of that test, to submit to her/his supervisory committee a portfolio of research papers written for courses taken subsequent to the M.A. degree. Where the committee is not satisfied as to the breadth of general knowledge of German literature and culture, a candidate may be required to submit further written work before being allowed to proceed to the Qualifying Examination proper.
Once a candidate is deemed to possess adequate knowledge of the subject s/he submits to her/his committee a bibliography of her/his research area and a dissertation prospectus of cat 10 pages. From this material the supervisory committee members develop a set of questions, one of which the candidate selects. The candidate has one week to write a paper of not more than 25 pages (including scholarly apparatus), which is read by the entire committee. Members of the committee provide the candidate with written comments before the oral examination, if the candidate is allowed to proceed.
The oral examination (of two hours) is the final test in the process of determining a student's ability to embark on the dissertation project. While the major focus of the examination is on the paper and the dissertation prospectus, it may also rightly include related questions of a more general nature where members of the committee feel that the context of the dissertation needs improvement.
Provided the student is in good standing at the end of the semester, in which the Qualifying Examination is successfully completed, he or she will be a candidate for the doctoral degree. Admission to candidacy signifies that the student is judged to be properly prepared to undertake work on the dissertation. The dissertation is a scholarly contribution to knowledge in the student's areaof specialization. By researching and writing a dissertation, the student is expected to demonstrate a high level of knowledge and the ability to function as an independent scholar. The candidate will meet with her/his Supervisory Committee in order to reach an understanding about dissertation content, research methods, and submission procedures.
A draft of a dissertation unit (or of the entire dissertation) may not be distributed to a candidate's supervisory committee without the permission of the chair of the committee. Members of the supervisory committee must be given at least four weeks before the draft-approval deadline to read and comment on a dissertation chapter or complete draft. All members of the committee must present to the candidate an oral and/or written evaluation of a dissertation chapter or complete draft within two weeks of its receipt. Exceptions to the above are permissible only by unanimous agreement between the Supervisory Committee and the candidate.
Final Oral Examination
A Final Oral Examination (Dissertation Defense) of approximately two hours is open to all members of the Graduate Faculty of the Department, to graduate students, and the public. Those who attend must be present for the entire examination. Only the members of the Supervisory Committee may be present for discussion of the candidate's performance and the decision about its outcome. The student is considered to have completed the Final Oral Examination successfully when the Supervisory Committee registers a unanimous vote of satisfactory.
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