French and Francophone Studies

                      Graduate PhD Dissertation Exam (PhDDE)

The PhD dissertation must be based upon original investigation and demonstrate mature scholarship and critical judgment as well as familiarity with the tools and methods of research. It should be a worthwhile contribution to knowledge in the student's special field. Students are advised to familiarize themselves thoroughly with the various Graduate School rules governing the format and deadlines for the dissertation.

Once past the Preliminary Exam, the student should focus as quickly as possible on a probable dissertation area and begin conferring with a faculty member likely to direct the dissertation.  Together, they will recommend to the DGS the three other members of the dissertation committee, one of who must be from outside the program area (i.e., from a related field.  The Graduate School must approve the composition of the committee.  Once you have confirmed the committee members give those names to the DGS secretary to fill out the appropriate form.

The PHDDE Examination, which must be taken before full-time dissertation research will be funded, is essentially a seminar conducted with the dissertation committee in order to complement and refine the ideas and references the student brings to the project. It is administered as an oral exam by the members of the PhD dissertation committee and lasts about two hours. In preparation, the student compiles a starting bibliography and begins background readings of essential sources. This is done as an independent study for credit in the second semester of the third year. For the exam, the student submits this bibliography to the committee along with an essay of about 20 pages. The essay should address the following questions: How is the subject to be situated? What approaches can be used? What scholarship exists on this subject/field (theory, archival materials, history, literary history)? What contributions will the dissertation make? What criticism can be made of the chosen topic? What are its strengths and weaknesses? These are the questions that frame the discussion during the PHDDE, which thus serves principally to critique the problematic put forth by the candidate, to help shape the dissertation research, and to provide new information that can help the candidate further the dissertation project as rapidly as possible.

Prospectus.  Taking into account the input received during the PhDDE Examination, the student revises the examination document and draws up a possible organizational framework for the dissertation itself.  This should be 8-10 pages long and is submitted to the doctoral committee as the dissertation prospectus within two or three weeks after the exam.  It is the director's responsibility to inform the DGS when the prospectus has been approved.  The prospectus is intended to help guide the student's approach to the research and its outline will normally be modified as the work progresses.

Timetable. Students will be expected to have developed bibliographies acceptable to their PHDDE Committee by April of the third year (sixth semester) of graduate studies. The oral examination should take place at that time or, at the very latest, at the beginning of the fall semester of the following year. Departmental funding for dissertation research abroad is contingent upon successful completion of the PHDDE.


Outcomes of the PhD Dissertation Examination: The committee either allows the student to continue on toward the dissertation or informs the student of areas that need further preparation and sets any conditions necessary to assure that the student completes the additional required preparation.

                            Spanish/Latin American Studies

                    Graduate PhD Dissertation Exam (PhDDE)

The PhD must be based upon original investigation and demonstrate mature scholarship and critical judgment as well as familiarity with the tools and methods of research. It should be a worthwhile contribution to knowledge in the student's special field. Students are advised to familiarize themselves thoroughly with the various Graduate School rules governing the format and deadlines for the dissertation.

Once past the Preliminary Exam, the student should focus as quickly as possible on a probable dissertation area and begin conferring with a faculty member likely to direct the dissertation. Together, they will recommend to the DGS the three other members of the dissertation committee, one of whom must be from outside the program area (i.e., from a related field). The composition of the committee must be approved by the Graduate School on a form available from the DGS.

Once the Committee is formed, the students will work with three of the four faculty members compiling a bibliography for three interrelated topics framing the dissertation topic. Suppose that a student would like to work on the reception of Galdós novels. He/she will: a) compile a bibliography of the major novels by Galdós plus a secondary bibliography; b) compile a bibliography on a general area relevant to the main topic (for instance, the socio-cultural history of Spain in the nineteenth century; or, if the student is more interested in the novel as a genre, the second area could be nineteenth century novel); c) compile a bibliography well organized around a relevant theoretical topic (in the case in point, reader response criticism and/or aesthetic reception, for example, would be appropriate).

When these three bibliographies have been approved by the members of the committee, the student will write three statements, one for each topic and bibliography, describing the rationale for the bibliography selected for each topic, indicating the main issues he or she plans to treat in the dissertation.

The Committee, now in possession of the bibliographies and of the student's statements, will organize the written portion of the PhDDE.  The three-committee members who collaborated with the student in formulating the bibliographies will devise two or three questions for each of the three bibliographical areas.  The student will answer one of these questions for each area.  The organization of the exam will be as follows: 1) The student will pick up the first set of questions from the DGS Secretary; 2) one week later, the student will hand in the written essay answering one of the first set of questions and will at that time pick up the second set, for which she or he will again have one week to write an essay on one of the questions.  The same mechanism will be applied for the third set of questions.  Each answer will be a maximum of twenty pages.

After the three questions (one per topic) have been completed, the student will then have one week to write the Prospectus. Students should be aware that the three written essays just completed should lead naturally to the Dissertation Prospectus. The Prospectus is not an essay in which a question has to be answered, but a project for future research. During the week following the completion of the prospectus, a 2 hour oral examination will take place and will be conducted by the members of the PhD committee. The oral examination will consist of a scholarly conversation about the three written essays and the prospectus and will last about two hours. The total duration the PhDDE Examination will be six weeks: three weeks to answer one question per topic or area, one week to complete the prospectus, one week for the committee to read and the final and sixth week, to take the oral examination.

Prospectus

The Prospectus should be a précis that raises a series of questions and it should suggest how the dissertation may be structured around topics and chapters. This should be a concise, 10-15 page statement of the problems, methods and organization plans for the dissertation, accompanied by a bibliography sufficiently ample (a selected bibliography based on the three already prepared) to indicate the directions of the research. More specifically, the Prospectus should address the following issues:

Specific Issues to be explored. Outline the issues to be explored. State the significance of those issues. Specify the relationship of your research to other research in the field and identify the gaps that the proposed thesis is intended to fill by relating the specific aims of the thesis to previous work in the field. Briefly describe the most significant previous work in relation to the issues you are going to explore.

1) Approach, Methods, Techniques. Describe the special aims of your thesis and the theoretical perspectives from which you will address the issues you are supposed to investigate, the existing but unsolved questions, or the questions you yourself will be asking. State why the proposed methodology is particularly appropriate for your investigation.

2) Basic texts selection according to parts or chapters of the dissertation. Briefly outline which basic texts or documents are that you will be studying and how they will be organized in your thesis into chapters or parts.

3) Limitations/Pitfalls. Indicate the potential or possible limitations and pitfalls to the approaches and methods you are proposing as well as the difficulties presented by the issues you propose to investigate.

4) Thesis time table; travel (if needed). Indicate how your time will be organized to complete the different stages of your thesis research and writing. If your thesis requires you to conduct research outside of Duke University, provide details and justification. Indicate whether you have competence in the foreign languages needed for using the primary and secondary material that will be used in the project.

Timetable

Students will be expected to have developed bibliographies acceptable to their PhDDE Committee by the beginning of April of the third year (sixth semester) of graduate studies. The actual writing of the three essays and the prospectus, as well as the oral portion of the exam, will take place during the final two months of the third year or at the beginning of the following fall semester.

Outcomes of the PhD Dissertation Examination

The committee either allows the student to continue on toward the dissertation or informs the student of areas that need further preparation and sets any conditions necessary to assure that the student completes the additional required preparation.

DISSERTATION

The student and the dissertation director will designate a second reader from the department faculty or from a related field, who along with the director, will read drafts and advise the student as the dissertation progresses.  With the approval of the DGS, a student may have two faculty members as co-directors in lieu of a second reader.  In addition, a penultimate draft of the dissertation should be sent to the other two readers well in advance of the defense in order to anticipate any problems and take into account relevant criticisms in preparing the final version of the dissertation.  The student should check with the Chair of their committee to see how far in advance the complete draft should be sent before the exam. 

The dissertation must be completed within four years of the Preliminary Examination.  When it has been completed to the satisfaction of the director, it is submitted to the Graduate School.  It is essential that the student obtain and follow the technical rules for dissertation form provided by the Graduate School, otherwise the dissertation may have to be re-edited or reprinted.  Refer to the "Guide for the Preparation of Theses and Dissertations" found on the Graduate School's website.

The final composition of the student's doctoral committee should be given to the DGS secretary to fill out the Final committee form.  The Graduate School enforces the policy of turning in the Final Examination committee form two months before taking the exam.  If it is not turned in two months before the oral exam date, they will delay the exam.  If any of the Defense committee members change before the Examination date, you must give the DGS secretary the names of the new committee members so a new form can be submitted to the graduate school.  This part does not fall within the two months rule.

Along with the committee form, an "Intention to Receive Degree" form must be filed out online (Graduate School website).  It will be forwarded to the DGS for approval and then forwarded to the Graduate School for their approved at least a month before the dissertation is presented to the Graduate School office, and the composition must follow Graduate School guidelines.  At about the same time, a dissertation defense will be scheduled.

Deadlines for the "Intention to Receive Degree" to be filled out:

One month before the dissertation is presented and no later than the following dates,

 the student must file online a declaration of intention to receive degree.

January 25 preceding the May commencement,

July 1 for a September degree, and

November 1 for a December degree,

This form should indicate the approved title of the dissertation and be approved by both the director of graduate studies of the student's major department and the professor who directs the dissertation.  Intent forms do not carry over from one semester to the next, so you will be required to file another form for the next graduation.  When you fill out this form, send the title of your dissertation to the DGS secretary so the departmental Intent to Defend schedule form can be submitted to the Graduate School before you Defend.