RESIDENCE, REGISTRATION AND COURSE REQUIREMENTS

Full-time PhD students will be charged a flat rate each semester for tuition and registration.  Tuition is charged for six consecutive semesters for students entering with a BA and five consecutive semesters for those entering with an MA.  After that, students are assessed only a registration fee each semester until they graduate.  Tuition will not vary with the number of courses taken.

The Romance Studies requirements for the PhD are 18 graduate courses in the major and related fields, fulfillment of the language requirement, and completion and defense of the dissertation.  Included among the 18 courses are two independent study courses (one for preparation of the Preliminary Examination and one for preparation of the PhD Dissertation Examination [PhDDE]).  In the first year of study, the student should have breadth of coverage primarily in mind.  He or she should try to take as many courses as possible in areas of least previous preparation and try to cover most of the basics including some introduction to criticism and the second language (see Foreign Language Proficiency below).  In the second year and beyond, it is expected that the student will concentrate more on developing a firm background in the area of the anticipated dissertation.

Of the required 18 courses, up to four may be taken in related fields, such as another Romance literature, the Graduate Program in Literature, Art History, Anthropology, History, Philosophy, Women's Studies, Latin American Studies, or Medieval and Renaissance Studies.  We strongly recommend that during the first year students take no more than one course per semester outside the Department.  If you decide to take any of these courses at a nearby university, if it is taught in the language you are studying, then it is considered as an inside course.

Students may occasionally take a special reading course (numbered 399) on a topic of interest to the student for which there may not be appropriate departmental seminar offerings.  The student must apply to a graduate professor to direct and grade the work, and must, at pre-registration, present in writing for approval by the Director of Graduate Studies (DGS) a course proposal approved by the professor.  The DGS may refuse approval if he or she thinks the request is not fully justified by the programmatic needs of the student.

Exposure to the thought and research of both the Duke faculty and visiting writers and critics is deemed essential to graduate education.  Students are expected to attend department-sponsored lectures and are strongly urged to enroll for 391/392 courses offered by visiting faculty.  Students entering with an MA may apply for credit for five courses from their previous graduate program upon completion of graded course work totaling four courses at Duke.

Assuming that five courses are credited from the previous program, students entering with an MA have a minimum departmental requirement of 13 courses, of which up to three may be in related fields.  Note that credit for previous course work does not modify the Graduate School requirement that incoming students with an MA pay five semesters of full tuition.  Note also that credit for such course work will not appear on the student's Duke transcript.

                  "RESPONSIBLE CONDUCT OF RESEARCH"

                             (RCR) MANDATORY COURSES

Since Summer/Fall 2003, ALL matriculating Ph.D. students at Duke University are required to complete 12 hours in RCR training for the Humanities area.  To accomplish this, each Ph.D. student must attend ONE of three Fall Only RCR Orientations (6 credits) AND should attend at least three (3) RCR Forums (2 credits) within the first three years of his/her program to meet the number of training hours required for the degree.  If you do not take these courses, you will not graduate.

For more information on the RCR training, please go to www.gradschool.duke.edu and go to RCR Forum Schedule.

FOREIGN LANGUAGE PROFICIENCY

Reading proficiency in one foreign language other than the major is required by the time the student takes the PhD Dissertation Examination (PhDDE). This may be satisfied in one of the following ways:
(1) a 76-level course in the department or its equivalent in another department. Language courses at this level do not count toward the 18 courses required for the PhD degree.

(2) a 100-level or above literature course taught in the language. This course does not count toward the 18 courses required for the PhD degree. A course at the 200-level or above would count as a related field course. Similar courses taken prior to matriculation at Duke may also satisfy this requirement.

The student's advisory committee may also prescribe other foreign languages necessary for scholarly competence in a particular field.

PROGRAM MODIFICATIONS

Recognizing that the special abilities and intellectual interests of certain graduate students may call for flexibility in application of the program rules, the graduate faculty may recommend and, with approval of the DGS, implement exceptions to stated program requirements, such as allowing more than the usual number of outside courses or independent studies. Extensive modifications may, however, require a petition to the graduate faculty that must be approved prior to undertaking the modified program for which the student petitions.

TEACHING POLICY

Teaching is an integral part of our program, and it is the department's policy to see that students are both trained and experienced in instruction in order to be well qualified for employment. Concurrent with their first semester of teaching (normally in the fall semester of the second year), all students who teach will be expected to enroll in SP 306 or RS 306 unless they have taken an equivalent course previously and requested a waiver. SP 306 and RS 306 count as one of the required courses in the PhD program. All teachers in the department will be required to attend a workshop ("Teaching Foreign Languages") a week before the beginning of the Fall semester. In their second year, most students will assume responsibility for part-time instruction for which they will be compensated. Normally, this entails full responsibility for teaching one section of a language course, under the direction of the language supervisor.

GRADES

Beginning with the fall 2004 semester, grades in the Graduate School are as follows: A, B, C, F and I.  A grade of F in a major course normally occasions withdrawal from a degree program not later than the end of the ensuing semester or term; a grade of F in any other course occasions at least academic probation.  The grade of Z indicates satisfactory progress at the end of the first semester of a two-semester course.  These grades can be modified with pluses and minuses.  In addition to the grade, a Course Performance Evaluation from each professor for each course taken is placed in the student's file.  These evaluations are not distributed automatically to the student as are grade reports, but they may be consulted in the departmental office by request to the graduate secretary.

In order to be certified as making satisfactory progress towards the degree, the Graduate School requires that graduate students must maintain at least a 3.0 (B) cumulative grade point average Any lower cumulative grade point average will place the student on probation for a semester. Two consecutive semesters below a 3.0 cumulative grade point average will result in an automatic dismissal from the program.

In addition, the graduate faculty of Romance Studies will evaluate the satisfactory progress towards the degree, and timely completion of the preliminary exam. In the case of two consecutive semesters with a cumulative grade point average below 3.2 in the core courses the faculty may recommend that authorization to continue towards the degree not be granted.

INCOMPLETES

A student may occasionally need additional time and may request an incomplete in order to complete a course paper, but this should be exceptional.

(Graduate School Policy -  I (incomplete) indicates that some portion of the student's work is lacking, for an acceptable reason, at the time the grades are reported. For students enrolled in the Graduate School, the instructor who gives an I for a course specifies the date by which the student must make up the deficiency.  If a course is not completed within one calendar year from the date the course ended, the grade of I becomes permanent and may not be removed from the student's record.

For unclassified graduate students enrolled in the summer session, a temporary I for a course may be assigned after the student has submitted a written request.  If the instructor of the course approves the request, then the student must satisfactorily complete the work prior to the last day of classes of the subsequent summer term.

JOINT DEGREE

The Department encourages students interested in interdisciplinary research to look into the various Joint Degree Programs. A Joint Degree Program involving the MA in Romance Studies and the JD in Law School is already in place. In the JD-MA program, the department requires that the student take 10 courses. Eight courses are chosen from departmental offerings, and the department awards the student credit for 2 law courses. The 2 law courses need not be specifically selected for their relevance to the Romance Studies specialty and are awarded upon successful completion of the JD degree.

GRADUATE COMMITTEE

The Graduate Committee discusses issues of interest to the graduate students in the program. The committee is chaired by the DGS who, in consultation with the Chair, will appoint four additional faculty members, two from his/her Unit (French or Spanish/Latin American Studies) and two from the other graduate Unit. The sixth faculty member of the committee will be the Associate Director of Graduate Studies. Four students (two in French Studies, two in Spanish/Latin American Studies) are elected members of the Committee. The student members of the Graduate Committee are elected by secret ballot by the graduate students during an open meeting. No more than one first-year student may serve on the committee. There should also be a GPSC liaison student designated by the graduate students in the department.