Information for Graduate Students
Director of Graduate Studies: Marina S. Brownlee
Graduate / Conference Administrator: Silvana Bishop
Phone: (609) 258-7161
Graduate Liaison Committee: Ana Sabau, Javier Patino, Elizabeth Hochberg
The aim of the Department of Spanish and Portuguese Languages and Cultures is to train students to become effective teachers and scholars of Spanish and/or Portuguese language and culture. Instruction and supervision are so arranged as to ensure that students acquire a broad understanding of the whole field of Spanish and/or Luso-Brazilian studies as well as a specialized grasp of one of its subfields, and are well prepared to develop independently as scholars.
General Entrance Requirements
To qualify for graduate work in the department, the candidate must show evidence of a comprehensive knowledge of Spanish and/or Luso-Brazilian literature and basic competence, written and oral, in the target language. A broad training in the humanities is advantageous.
A 15-25 page essay on any literary topic, written in Spanish or Portuguese, must accompany the student's application for admission.
Please visit the Graduate School website for complete information regarding application and admission.
By the end of the second year of graduate study, all students must demonstrate the ability to read simple Latin prose, and must also demonstrate the ability to read French, German, or Italian. Students are urged to fulfill these requirements in the first year of residence. All language requirements must be satisfied in order for the student to be authorized to take the general examination.
Academic Requirements
- A total of at least 15 course units at the graduate level (14 for letter grade credit, and one that may be an audit in the third year)
- Two to three course units in graduate courses other than Spanish and Portuguese (with an absolute maximum of five), usually in an allied field pertinent to the student's area of specialization
- A reading examination in Latin and in one modern language other than Spanish or Portuguese
- An Oral Presentation in the first year
- A comprehensive General Examination
- A completed Doctoral Dissertation and its Oral Public Defense
Please visit the Graduate School website for complete information about Princeton University's degree requirements.
Timeline
Year One
Students take three courses per semester. In December they prepare and deliver an Oral Presentation to the faculty. They teach five hours per week of a language course during the spring semester.
Year Two
Students take three courses per semester. They teach five hours per week of a language course during the fall semester. They do not teach in the spring so that full attention can be devoted to the preparation for the General Examination in May. During the summer, students participate in a seminar designed to help develop the dissertation proposal.
Year Three
In the fall semester, students take three courses, one of which may be audited. Third year students will be permitted to take one of the last two required seminars in the spring semester of the third year, if they wish to do so. This is the first year of intensive dissertation research and writing. In this year, students begin the first of three years during which they are expected to teach six hours per week in the Fall semester. In addition, opportunities exist for travel abroad in connection with dissertation research.
Year Four
During this year students continue progress on the research and writing of the dissertation.
Year Five
Students are expected to complete the dissertation and to present it in a final public defense.