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Doctoral Program

Important information you will need during your academic studies at the Centre. For more detailed information, please refer to the .

1. Course Requirement
2. Language Requirement
3. Qualifying Examinations
4. Dissertation Requirement
5. Satisfactory Progress
   

Course Requirements

Ph.D. students are required to take six half-courses or equivalent, at least four of which must be taken at the Centre to ensure that there is an adequate coverage of theoretical figures and issues. Students will normally take four courses in the first year and two in the second. Since this distribution is intended to ensure that all course work and qualifying examinations are completed during the first two years of the program, permission to do fewer than four courses in the first year must be sought from the Graduate Studies Committee.

Graduate courses in other programs concerned with theory and criticism may also be approved, with the permission of the Director and Graduate Studies Committee (GSC). Students may take up to two such half courses, provided that they are relevant to the program of study. Students should submit a formal request, including the course syllabus, outlining how the course is relevant to their research at the Theory Centre.  Requests should be submitted no later than the start of term (September 1/January 1/May 1).  In order to ensure a place in the course, students must also submit a Course Outside Home Program form.

In exceptional circumstances, students may fulfill one of their six course requirements by taking a Directed Reading course. Students should, however, be aware that instructors receive no credit for teaching reading courses and may therefore be unwilling to offer them. Reading courses are given on a Pass/Fail basis, must meet for the same number of hours as a regular course, cannot be specifically oriented to the student's thesis, and will not be approved if there is a regular course that covers approximately the same material. Requests for reading courses, including syllabus, marking scheme, and letter of consent from the instructor, must be submitted no later than six weeks before the start of the term in which the course is to be taken. Please consult the Director for further details.

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Language Requirement

In order to be sufficiently equipped to pursue advanced study in the discourses of Theory, students will be required to demonstrate a reading knowledge of a language other than English which should be relevant to their proposed program of research. Students may complete this requirement by passing a translation test or by completing course work.

In addition, students whose proposed program of doctoral research involves sustained work with texts originally written in a language or languages other than English will be required, after consultation with the Director and their supervisor, to demonstrate competency in the language(s) necessary for the dissertation.

Satisfactory completion (70% or above) in an undergraduate language course beyond the level of senior matriculation (numbered 1900 - 4999) will normally be regarded as meeting the language requirement. Students who have already satisfied this requirement through previous post-secondary studies should consult with the Director at the beginning of the year.

There are three ways of satisfying the language requirement:

1. Placement Test - For those who are fairly fluent but whose proficiency is not reflected in formal course preparation. The language department administers a test to determine students' proficiency. The test is computerised and takes approximately one hour. Once completed, the results should be printed and returned to the Director of the Centre for evaluation. More information.
2. Undergraduate Course - A grade of 70% or higher in a full year undergraduate course that is above the level of senior matriculation (eg: French 1900E, French 1910 or French 1999). *Note* registration in an undergraduate course requires the appropriate form, which must be submitted to SGPS before the add/drop period.
3. Previous Studies - Students who have already satisfied the language requirement through previous post-secondary language studies may apply these credits toward the language requirement.

 

Please Note: Students enrolling in language courses other than French through the Department of Modern Languages may take those languages Pass/Fail. You must indicate that you wish to take the course Pass/Fail at the time of enrollment (registration status cannot be changed retroactively). If you have questions, please consult the Centre.

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Qualifying Examinations

Ph.D. candidates are required to pass the Core Examination and Field Study before proceeding to the doctoral dissertation. These are to be completed during the second year of study.

The Core Examination is to be taken during the second year of the Ph.D. There are two annual options for sitting the Core Examination: the first in September, and the second in February. It consists of a written examination based on a reading list of 50 books or equivalents (chapters/articles). The exam is assigned both a Pass/Fail and a numeric grade, the latter to be recorded only internally within CSTC. The student is notified of the results of the exam by the Chair of the examining committee. A candidate may fail and retake the Core Examination once. A candidate who fails the Core Examination a second time will be required to withdraw from the program.

The Field Study is an opportunity to define an area of interdisciplinary theory related to the student’s dissertation project.  It involves submission of a written text followed by an oral hearing in which this text is discussed with the student by a committee. Candidates have until May 15 of their second year to submit the written components, with the oral hearing to occur within 2-3 weeks of submission. Working with his/her supervisor and any other potential members of the advisory committee, the student will submit a dissertation proposal, including bibliography. This proposal will be examined as part of the Field Study and is assigned a Pass/Fail. A candidate may fail and retake the Field Study once. A candidate who passes the Core Examination but fails the Field Study twice will be required to withdraw from the program.

A short, 4-5-page Thesis Proposal will be due 2 weeks after the Field Study Hearing. The Thesis Proposal, in the form of a chapter outline, will be the subject of a meeting between the candidate, his/her supervisor, and second reader. Final approval of the Thesis Proposal by the Graduate Studies Committee will be understood as the Program's approval for the candidate to proceed with the proposed dissertation project.

Summary of Schedule - Core Exam:

May 31 (Term 3) Date by which candidate must declare intention to take examination
November 15 (Term 4) Date by which the candidate must meet with chair of examining committee
September (Term 4) or February (Term 5) Examination to be taken during designated week

Summary of Schedule - Field Study:

May 31 (Term 3) Date by which candidate must declare intention to take examination
May 15 (Term 6) Date by which candidate must submit the written components of the Field Study. The hearing date to be determined by the candidate, in consultation with supervisor and second reader. Candidate must communicate hearing date to Program Coordinator at least six (6) weeks beforehand.
Two weeks after the Field Study hearing the thesis proposal must be submitted and discussed in a meeting between the candidate and his/her committee prior to submission to the Graduate Studies Committee for approval.

Follow these links for complete guidelines and regulations:

• Ph.D. Qualifying Examinations: Guidelines and Regulations
• Core Qualifying Examination Reading List

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Dissertation Requirements

Year II, Fall term (September - December)

During the first term of the second year of the program, the student, with the help of the Graduate Studies Committee, must choose an area of study for dissertation research and an appropriate supervisor. Although every effort will be made to accommodate a student's research preferences, the program cannot guarantee a particular supervisor. The supervisor must be a core faculty member of the Centre with the appropriate level of supervisory membership for overseeing Doctoral thesis research.

Year II, February & May

Qualifying examinations are to be completed between the beginning of Term 4 and the end of Term 6. The thesis proposal will be due 2 weeks after the Field Study, and will be the subject of a meeting between the candidate, his/her supervisor, and second reader.

Year II, June

A short, 4-5-page Thesis Proposal will be due 2 weeks after the Field Study Hearing. The Thesis Proposal, in the form of a chapter outline, will be the subject of a meeting between the candidate, his/her supervisor, and second reader. Final approval of the Thesis Proposal by the Graduate Studies Committee will be understood as the Program's approval for the candidate to proceed with the proposed dissertation project.

Dissertation 

Each Ph.D. student is required to write a dissertation on an approved topic, which is expected to be an original contribution to knowledge and which will be presented in . The dissertation must be no fewer than 60,000 words, excluding bibliography and appendices, and must not exceed 100,000 words. The document should be submitted to the program 48 hours in advance to undergo a word count.

When the thesis is thought to meet recognized scholarly standards for the discipline and degree and is ready for examination, the Centre arranges a Thesis Examination by setting a proposed date and obtaining provisional consent from the potential members of the Thesis Examination Board, according to the guidelines set by the School of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies' (SGPS).

Normally the entire process, from the Centre's request for a Thesis Examination to the placement of the candidate's name on the convocation list, requires approximately 8 weeks.

*Note* all program requirements (including language requirement) must be completed before submission of a thesis for oral examination

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Satisfactory Progress