PhD Degree Requirements and Timeline

All PhD students are required to take a total of 36 hours of coursework. ENGL 503: Proseminar is the only required course. PhD students may count up to two 400 level courses (8 hours)  toward the total 36 hours of coursework. Students can take any course from the English department offerings to fulfill the remaining hours of coursework. PhD students may count up to two  500 level courses (8 hours) from outside of the department. Credit toward the PhD is not given for any course in which the student receives a grade of less than B. All courses are four (4) credit hours except ENGL 591, 592, 594, and 599.

PhD students in English Studies should take coursework consisting of seminars and/or independent study. Students can take  creative writing workshops with the consent of the Director of the Program for Writers. However, only 1  workshop (4 hours) may be counted towards the required 36 hours of coursework.

As part of their required 36 hours of coursework, PhD students in Creative Writing are required to take three workshops (12 hours), not including translation and publishing workshops;  students in fiction, must take 12 hours in fiction workshops, students in poetry must take 12 hours in poetry workshops, and nonfiction writers must take 12 hours in nonfiction workshops.

Students admitted to the Program for Writers shall take their required three workshops in their designated genre.  To ensure that all students in the PhD and MA can enroll in their own genre, students who wish to enroll in a workshop outside their genre (as an elective beyond the required three) must request permission from the Director of the Program for Writers.  The workshop in nonfiction does not require permission.

To fulfill the remaining hours of coursework, creative writing students must take at least 12 hours of seminars (500 level only). 

Note: see below for information about the Chicago Metropolitan Exchange Program (CMEP) and UIC’s Cotutelle Program with Macquarie University near Sydney, Australia.

You can find the Progress to Degree Checklist form on the Forms page.

Normative Timeline for the Prelim Exam

• Spring Year 2: Assemble your committee and lists. Failure to assemble a committee may be grounds for dismissal.
• Summer Year 2: Exam Reading
• Fall and Spring Year 3: Write research exam paper and study lists
• 3 weeks before exam (Friday Week 7): Submit Committee Recommendation form to DGS Office
• 1 week before exam (Friday Week 9): Questions due to DGS Office via Box
• Week 10, Friday 10 am: Exam questions released
• Week 11, Monday 10 am: Written exams due via Box
• Weeks 11 & 12: Oral exam takes place

Registration

Register for ENGL 592 with your preliminary exam committee chair while you prepare to take the preliminary examination.  Typically students take ENGL 592 in the Fall and Spring of their third year to take the exam in the Spring. You may register for anywhere between one and twelve credit hours of 592, but be aware that at least four credit hours are required to graduate.

Departmental Form

At the start of the semester, you must complete ENGL 592 – Preliminary Examination Research Registration Details on how to complete this form are available on the ENGL 592 Form page.

Committee Recommendation Form and Examination Report

At the beginning of the semester in which you plan to take your exam, complete a Committee Recommendation Form. This form lists all five members of your committee and their departments. The Committee Recommendation Form must be submitted no later than three weeks before the exam weekend (i.e., Friday of Week 7). Once your chair signs the form, bring it to the Office of Graduate Studies to be signed by the DGS, who will then submit it to the Graduate College. The Graduate College will return an official examination report to the DGS who will keep it in your file until your defense as well as a letter from the Dean requesting formally that your committee members serve on your committee. The examination report MUST be present during your oral examination. NOTE: Students who do not complete the degree requirements within five years of passing the preliminary examination must retake the examination or petition the graduate college for an extension.

Structure of the Examination

The UIC English PhD Preliminary Examination consists of three written examination papers and an oral examination on those papers.

Two of the papers are known as “field examinations.” Each field exam is based on a reading list  drawn up in consultation with one of your field exam directors (i.e., members of your committee). The field exam directors write the questions for their students’ exams and discuss readings with them leading up to the exam weekend, in addition to devising the list.

The third paper, known as the research examination, is written in the form of a submitted research paper. Unlike the field exams, the research exam does not begin from a reading list but rather culminates in a bibliography that is submitted with the research paper. The research paper is the basis for the dissertation prospectus.

Two professors direct the writing of the research examination paper: this paper is researched and completed throughout the PhD exam preparation year, and is due at the same time as the other two written exams. One of the directors of the research paper will, in most circumstances, be the proposed director of your dissertation. In most circumstances, this professor will also be the chair of your examination committee.

After the three written examination papers are completed, they are distributed to the five members of the committee.

Samples of examination questions and reading lists are available digitally on Box. Contact the Graduate Studies Program Coordinator for access.

Content of the Examination

Field Exams

The two field exams consist of broadly defined teaching fields. These may include work in rhetoric, literature, critical theory, and cultural studies. Each reading list should cover the basic primary and critical texts that a scholar in the field would be expected to know, supplemented by works that would reflect your specific interests.

Successful field examinations will display a thorough knowledge of the field on which you are being examined, a grasp of secondary texts pertaining to that field, and a coherent argument—an argument supported by particular readings or accounts of the texts for which you are responsible, and articulated in relation to the relevant critical and/or theoretical writings assigned on the reading list. Field exams are generally 10 pages long.

Research Paper

The research exam paper should be an extended commentary toward a Dissertation Prospectus and should create a coherent set of arguments about a thesis. It is the summation of a year’s directed reading in potential themes and critical materials that pertain to your current and extended research interests. The research exam paper should facilitate a prompt draft of the Dissertation Prospectus. For PhD candidates in the Program for Writers, the research exam paper may examine influences, authors, genres, or narrative strategies that contribute to their creative work. The paper also results in a growing list of primary and secondary texts that culminate in a working dissertation bibliography at the end of the research exam paper process (in contrast to the field exams, which require a list of texts at the beginning of the process).

Successful completion of the written part of the research examination is dependent upon a clearly articulated argument about a chosen group of works or issues, acknowledging and responding to relevant critical and theoretical views of those works or issues. The choice of works—the basis for the working bibliography accompanying this paper—should be guided by your anticipated dissertation topic. The paper itself should demonstrate your familiarity with creative and/or scholarly conversation and debate about the works you are studying, and it should make the contribution of the paper to the topic of field of inquiry as clear as possible.

A successful working bibliography should include primary and secondary texts that are relevant for your chosen dissertation topic, and it should represent a thorough knowledge of the full range of works related to that topic. Since this paper is expected to form the basis of a Dissertation Prospectus, it may take the form of a prospectus, examples of which are available in the Office of Graduate Studies.

Oral Exam

The oral examination is based on the three written examination papers, the Field Exam lists, and the student’s working dissertation bibliography. Generally speaking, this part of the examination will last no more than two hours, with separate parts of it devoted to each of the three papers. At the Chair’s discretion, the time is generally divided along the following lines: one hour for the field examinations and lists and one hour for the research examination and bibliography.

A successful oral examination displays your ability to discuss, and respond to arguments about, the content of the written examinations (both the field and research papers). Committee members may ask you to explain answers more fully, or may challenge your conclusions: the aim is to provoke further discussion and debate about the readings and assertions contained in the written work. You will be expected to display a thorough understanding of the works you have chosen to study, and a thorough understanding of the relevant critical and theoretical discussions about those works; you are also expected to be able to address materials contained in the reading lists and working bibliography that are not addressed in any of the written components of the examination.

Composition of the Committee

All members of the committee, including the fifth member, review the field exam lists and the questions pertaining to them; all members of the committee read the three examination papers and bibliography before the oral examination. As described above, your committee will consist of five members. Two members devise lists and submit questions for the field exams, a third and fourth direct the research exam paper, and a fifth serves on the oral examination committee.

The Graduate College requires three of your committee members to be full members of the graduate faculty and two  to be tenured. Three of your committee members must be from the Department of English. An outside member is recommended but not required.

According to the Graduate College, Emeritus faculty cannot chair a committee without the approval of the Graduate College. However, Emeritus faculty can sit on committees, put together reading lists, submit questions for the field exams, direct the research exam paper, and be fifth readers. Emeritus faculty do not count as full or tenured members of committees in determining whether the committee makeup satisfies Graduate College requirements.

Scheduling

Consult with professors about your examinations in the second year of your degree. By the end of the Spring semester of your second year, you should have a good sense of the makeup of your committee and you should have your field examination lists prepared.

Written examinations are conducted ONLY in Week 10 of each semester. You will receive your written questions on the Field Exams at 10 a.m. Friday morning of Week 10 and you must return the answers by 10 a.m. Monday morning of the following week.

The field examinations and research examination, bibliography, and lists are submitted to the Graduate Coordinator via Box (contact the Graduate Coordinator with questions about this process). The Graduate Coordinator then distributes electronic and hard copies of the three exams to the five members of the committee.

The chair of the examination committee is responsible for scheduling the oral examination no more than two weeks after the exam.

After successful completion of the PhD Preliminary Examination, you will be relieved of teaching one course in the  spring after the examination is completed.

Requirements/Expectations for the PhD Prelim Exam

Before scheduling an Oral Examination, the Chair of the Examination Committee consults with all members of that committee and determines whether performance on the exam merits proceeding with the oral component of the exam. If any part of the exam has been failed, the committee may decide that any part of the examination needs to be revised or rewritten; it may decide to resubmit new questions to be answered; it may decide that failure on any part of the exam prohibits progression to the Oral Examination. If a student does not progress to the Oral Examination, he/she may not continue on to PhD candidacy, and is dismissed from the PhD program and from the Graduate College.

The committee discusses the student’s performance on the Oral Examination immediately following that exam. The committee may decide that any part of the examination needs to be repeated; it may decide that failure on any part of the exam invalidates progression to PhD candidacy. Students who do not continue on to PhD candidacy are dismissed from the PhD program and from the Graduate College.

Re-examination on any part, or both parts, of the PhD Prelim Exam can only occur once, and only within one calendar year of the first examination. Any changes to the exam committee must be approved unanimously by the original committee and by the DGS.

The prospectus colloquium is the next milestone after passing prelim exams. It is internal to the English Department (i.e., not regulated by the Graduate College like exams and dissertation defense). Ideally it should serve as an opportunity to get further feedback on your plan for the dissertation: it may be helpful to think of it as a springboard for jumping toward what you most want to achieve. The goal is to demonstrate that your dissertation is a feasible project and explain why readers should care about it.

Registration & Forms

You should register for ENGL 591 – Prospectus Research Registration with your committee chair after you pass your prelim exams. You should register for no more than four hours total. Submit an ENGL 591 form each semester that you register.

Turn in to the DGS Office a copy of the signed Prospectus Colloquium Report form after your successful colloquium with a copy of your prospectus (pdf or Word document preferred). The Colloquium Report form must be signed by your committee.

Committee Composition

In consultation with you and the DGS if necessary, your dissertation director will appoint a four-member dissertation committee, consisting of the dissertation director and three other readers. One of these readers may be from outside the English department (and may be from outside the university). If any subsequent changes are made to this committee or to the defense committee, the changes must be approved by the dissertation director and by petition to the DGS.

For the dissertation defense, a fifth member is added to the committee; one of the readers must be from outside the department. This fifth member or outside reader may participate in the prospectus colloquium as well, but it is not required.

Format & Timing

The prospectus should be at least 10 pages; it should include a bibliography where applicable, and should have content appropriate to your chosen concentration. It should be titled with your best go at the dissertation’s eventual title, and it should have chapter breakdowns and tentative accounts of each. Ideally, you should prepare this document no later than the semester following your preliminary examination. The prospectus should be circulated to all members of the dissertation committee at least two weeks prior to the colloquium date. The colloquium date is set by the dissertation chair in consultation with the members of the committee.

One purpose of this milestone is to help you envision a timeline for the dissertation; while such a timeline is not required in the document itself, you should have one in your mind.

Genre

The prospectus is a blueprint for the dissertation, not a contract, and the prospectus colloquium is an advising session.

There are a few different forms this blueprint can take. You should strategize with your advisor and decide based on what kind of paper you wrote for the long portion of the exam, and what kind of feedback you received.

For most students, if you regard your exam paper as something like a draft of a sample chapter in the dissertation you want to write, it will make sense to treat the prospectus like a draft of a dissertation introduction.

For other students, perhaps who wrote more theoretical, methodological, or surveying papers for the exam, it will make sense to treat the prospectus like a draft of a dissertation chapter, for which the exam paper would have been a sample introduction.

Students in the Program for Writers should offer a thorough description of the style of their project – genre, structure, significant features and themes, as well as the creative and critical concerns driving it, and the place you see it occupying in contemporary literary landscape.

For students in the Program for Writers who elect for the dissertation option that has a 30-page critical paper incorporated, a 1-2 page description of the paper should be included in the prospectus; you are allowed to have a separate director for that portion of the dissertation. You should also consult with the director of the preliminary exam committee for advice on appropriate faculty directors.

Whether your prospectus is critical or creative, whether it is a sample chapter which sets itself up the way chapters do or a sample introduction which elaborates these points at greater length, there are some key points for the plan to hit:

• Name and define the problem or question you’re working on.
• Offer a hypothesis about the conceptual solution or why the form you’re producing is a solution.
• Discuss the theories or methods you’ll employ and the body of evidence / the essential primary and secondary texts you’ll engage.
• Discuss the organization you anticipate, ideally with a sense of why the chapters are in the order they’re in.
• Identify the conversation partners, influences, and antagonists (ie concise literature review, showing field depth perception).
• Reach for the upshot, the so-what, the stake.

Prospectus Colloquium

After you have registered, assembled the committee, and written the prospectus, you will discuss your prospectus in a colloquium with the members of your dissertation committee.

You must successfully complete your colloquium by the week that grades are due (for fall: 3rd week of December; for spring 3rd week of May). After the colloquium, committee members generally give feedback on the scope and length of the project and discuss time to degree particulars. After the colloquium, you or your dissertation director will submit the approved prospectus along with the completed Prospectus Colloquium Report form to the DGS Office, as described above under “Registration and Forms.”

If you make any major substantive changes to the approved prospectus or to the subsequent dissertation (including a change of direction, focus, methods, or materials covered), the dissertation director, at her discretion, may ask for a revised prospectus and request that you follow all the above procedures again.

Dissertation Leave 

PhD students who have passed the prospectus are entitled to one semester of dissertation leave, which can only be taken in the spring semester. If the prospectus is passed in Year 4 fall semester, the leave may be taken in Year 4 spring. If the prospectus is passed in Year 4 spring semester, the leave may not be taken until the following (Year 5) spring.

Note: Students cannot accept additional assistantship appointments on campus during their dissertation leave semester. However, hourly appointments that advance students’ professional interests and that do not exceed 4 hours weekly are permissible.

Please consult the DGS for more information on work appointments during dissertation leave.

Registration & “Zero Hours”

Register for ENGL 599 with your committee chair in any term in which you are working on your dissertation, including the term in which you write your prospectus, if applicable. (You must take a minimum of 32 credits of ENGL 599 in order to graduate.) Submit an ENGL 599 – Doctoral Thesis Research Registration each semester you register.

You must be registered for the term in which you defend.  If you have already met the 32 hour registration requirement, you may register for “zero hours.” Zero-Hour Registration Option A is for students who will still be using campus facilities; Zero-Hour Registration Option B is for students who live far from campus and will not regularly be using on-campus resources. You may register for zero hours via the online Graduate College Petition process.

At the start of the semester in which you plan on defending your dissertation, you must also apply to graduate with the Graduate College.

Writing & Formatting the Dissertation

Doctoral candidates in English Studies write dissertations presenting research in such areas as rhetorical theory and history, literature and literary theory, pedagogy, and language and literacy. Doctoral candidates in Creative Writing are expected to produce as a dissertation one of the following: a novel, a volume of short stories or poems, a full-length book of creative nonfiction, or a collection of essays.

The format of the completed dissertation must meet the minimum requirements set by University Microfilms and the UIC library for archival purposes.

These include:

1. Maintenance of a 1″ margins on the left side, and margins of no less than 1/2″ on the other three sides. Proper margins are necessary for binding and microfilming purposes.
2. Consecutive numbering within the prescribed text space of pages, notes, and tables, with no missing numbers.

Students must also consult and follow the UIC Thesis Manual, available for download at the Graduate College website. Other formatting features are at the discretion of the dissertation director, in accordance with standards and practices of the discipline. If no other formatting changes are specified by the dissertation director, students are expected to follow the UIC Thesis Manual.

The faculty of the English department has agreed on the following formats:

• Dissertations in English Studies should follow the Graduate College format, the MLA Style Manual, the APA Style Manual, or the Chicago Manual of Style. The dissertation director will decide which style is followed.
• Dissertations in Creative Writing shall follow a format appropriate to the material, as determined by the director of the dissertation.

The necessary forms that accompany the completed thesis can be found on the Graduate College website’s Thesis Page.

Committee Recommendation Form

You must download, type and print out a Committee Recommendation Form. It is due to the English Department’s Office of Graduate Studies (2002 UH) three weeks prior to the anticipated date of defense. It requires the signature of the committee chair and Director of Graduate Studies. The program code for the doctoral program in English is 20FS0311PHD.

Once the committee has been approved, the Graduate College will deliver the forms that must be present during the defense. This paperwork, the examination report, must be signed by the entire committee immediately after the successful defense of the dissertation. The examination report is returned to the Office of Graduate Studies (2002UH).

Deadlines for submission are available on the Graduate College’s Academic Calendar.

Committee & Defense

You defend your completed dissertation before a committee of professors with graduate standing. The committee must be comprised of two full members of the graduate faculty, two tenured faculty, and one outside reader. Typically (but not always), the committee is the four members of the Prospectus Defense Committee plus a fifth reader.

The Graduate College defines an outside reader as a full member of the graduate faculty with full-time appointment outside the English Department. According to the Graduate College, Emeritus faculty cannot chair a committee without the approval of the Graduate College. However, Emeritus faculty can sit on committees, put together reading lists, submit questions for the Field exams, direct the Research Exam paper, and can be fifth readers. Emeritus faculty do not count as full or tenured members of committees in determining if the committee makeup satisfies Graduate College requirements.

Dissertation Submission

You must submit your dissertation to the Graduate College electronically in PDF format. Visit the Grad College’s Electronic Thesis and Dissertation page for a complete breakdown of the submission process.

There are also choices regarding the publication fee:

• Doctoral students who choose traditional publishing through ProQuest will pay $37.50, which includes the $25 ProQuest fee and a $12.50 library publishing fee. NOTE: The decision to choose traditional or open access through ProQuest is separate from open access for the UIC Library.
• Doctoral students who choose open publishing through ProQuest will pay $132.50, which includes the $120 ProQuest fee and a $12.50 library publishing fee. NOTE: The decision to choose traditional or open access through ProQuest is separate from open access for the UIC Library.
• It is recommended that you choose traditional publication through ProQuest and open access through the UIC Library. The charge for traditional ProQuest publication is much lower and the document will be available as open access through UIC.
• Candidates are asked who in the department should be emailed in regards to format approval. Those should go to the Graduate Studies Program Coordinator.

Summer Defense

If your are a doctoral student registered for course hours in spring (as you should be), and you defend before the add/drop deadline for the 9-week summer term, you do not need to register for ENGL 599 in the summer. If you are on a visa, you should consult with OIS.

For a complete review of the defense process, please consult the Graduate College web page on Dissertation Defense.

Gender and Women’s Studies

Students earning a graduate degree in English may complement their courses by earning a concentration in Gender and Women’s Studies. Students pursuing this concentration must apply to the director of the Gender and Women’s Studies program and obtain approval from a GWS faculty member within the department of the degree, who becomes the student’s GWS advisor. 16 hours of graduate course work are required for the concentration, including GWS 501 and GWS 502 plus eight additional hours of GWS or cross-listed courses at the graduate level. Up to four of these hours can be directed study or thesis research on an appropriate topic approved by the student’s GWS advisor.

For more information, please contact Professor Judith Keegan Gardiner.

Latin American and Latino Studies

Students earning a graduate degree in English may complement their courses by earning a concentration in Latin American and Latino Studies (LALS). Students must take at least 16 hours of course work approved by the student’s advisor for the concentration, of which 4 hours must be the core seminar LALS 501. The remaining 12 hours may come from courses offered by or cross-listed with LALS, from English courses with Latin American or Latino content, and from independent study courses chosen in consultation with the advisor. Up to 8 hours may be taken in the English department and counted towards the LALS concentration, although students are encouraged to take advantage of the multidisciplinary nature of the concentration. Doctoral students may not apply dissertation credit (ENGL 599) toward concentration electives. Doctoral students are encouraged, but not required, to elect a dissertation topic related to Latin America or Latinos in the United States.

For more information, contact Professor Ralph Cintron.

Black Studies

This concentration offers Masters and Ph.D. students a unique opportunity to complement the graduate coursework in their home department with interdisciplinary training. It is designed to provide graduate students a deeper understanding of scholarship and research methods in Black Studies and to foster participation in an interdisciplinary community of young scholars engaging with faculty experts. The concentration will enable researchers and practitioners with a wide range of intellectual and professional interests to develop expertise in race, culture and politics before they embark on their careers.

Black Studies is a robust interdisciplinary area of study that is informed by traditional disciplines including history, literature, sociology, philosophy, political science, and psychology, as well as newer and emerging fields including gender studies, postcolonial studies, disability studies, and Asian American, Latinx, and indigenous studies. Drawing on hybrid and innovative methodological and theoretical approaches, the department provides courses across historical periods and locations—from a focus on the city of Chicago to black cultures and communities in the Caribbean, Africa and Europe, as well as North America.

For more information, contact African American Studies at aast@uic.edu.

Second Language Teaching

The Interdepartmental Concentration in Second Language Teaching is intended for those graduate students whose primary research and teaching interests lie in literary, cultural and linguistic studies in English, Spanish, French, German, and other languages. It will provide them with advanced education in the processes of language learning and approaches to language teaching, including the teaching of composition.

The concentration is an option in addition to the student’s regular course of study and is not intended as a replacement for requirements in individual degree programs. It consists of four courses that are chosen from particular areas of study useful to the development of the student’s knowledge and skill in language teaching. These areas are Introduction to Language Teaching, Foundations in Second Language Acquisition, and Specific or Special Topics in Language Teaching.

Those interested in the Interdepartmental Concentration in Second Language Teaching must take a total of four courses to be distributed in the following way:

• one course from Category A: Introduction to Language Teaching
• one course from Category B: Foundations in Second Language Acquisition
• one course from Category C: Special or Specific Topics in Language Learning and Teaching
• one additional course from either Category B or C

The Chicago Metropolitan Exchange Program (CMEP) allows graduate students in a doctoral program to enroll at one of the three participating institutions to take advantage of academic courses at any of the other participating institutions that are not available at their home institution. The three institutions in the program are the University of Chicago, Northwestern University and the University of Illinois at Chicago. UIC students are permitted to take a total of three quarters of classes through the CMEP program at the University of Chicago and Northwestern University.

UIC students who would like to take courses at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign or the University of Illinois at Springfield may do so as a concurrent registrant through the UIC Registrar’s Office, and would not be part of this program.

Approved applicants for the Chicago Metropolitan Exchange Program will be referred to as Exchange Scholars. Exchange Scholars pay for class(es) taken at the host institution at the home university, and at the home university rates. Students show proof of payment they made at the home campus, or bill from the home campus, to the host campus liaison.

Please visit the Graduate College’s CMEP page for more information, including application procedures.

UIC PhD students who have passed prelim exams are eligible for the cotutelle with Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia. Please see our cotutelle page for more information.