Resources For:

The First Two Years

The first two years of graduate study are spent in coursework. Students begin teaching after the second year. Normally, students take 16 half-courses during the first two years, with the possibility of credit given for previous graduate work done elsewhere.

These half-courses must include:

• Three 200-level courses in the major Romance literature. Note: Students must ob­tain the formal approval of their advisors before registering for 320-level (Super­vised Reading and Research) courses. No more than one 320-level course will count toward the 16 half-courses required for the PhD.

• One half-course in the history of the major Romance language.

• One half-course in the literature of a second Romance language. In order for a course to satisfy the second literature requirement, it must be at the 100-level or higher and taught in the language. Papers may be written either in English or in the target language. Certain other options (e.g., German, Greek, Romance Studies) may be considered in place of this requirement by petition to the Curriculum Committee and with the approval of the student’s advisor.

• Students specializing in Medieval or Renaissance studies are required to take a half-course in Latin beyond the beginning level. This requirement can be met with Latin 3, 3m, 4, 4m or higher. Students in Spanish specializing in a subfield other than Me­dieval or Renaissance studies must take one half-course in the literature of a third lan­guage (exclusive of Spanish and Portuguese), related to the student’s specialization (e.g., French, Italian, Catalan, Quechua, Nahuatl, Latin, etc.).

• Graduate students who do not pursue a secondary PhD field will be allowed to take a maximum of four courses outside the department over the first two years in the program; that is, an average of one course per term. Those students who choose to complete a secondary PhD field during the first two years in the program will not be allowed to take courses outside the department other than those taken for the sec­ondary field. In keeping with this policy, they may not enroll for credit in courses cross listed with Romance Languages and Literatures. Students pursuing secondary fields must take a minimum of 12 courses in Romance Languages and Literatures.

The First Year

• Eight half-courses. (See above.)

• Upon entering the graduate program, students are evaluated for proficiency in the oral and written use of the major Romance language. Those who require further lin­guistic training take additional language courses during the first year.

• Students must demonstrate the ability to read Latin by successful completion (B- or better, or grade of “Satisfactory”) of Harvard Latin A and Latin B (or their equivalent elsewhere). Courses offered in satisfaction of this requirement do not count among the sixteen required half-courses for the PhD degree. Spanish literature students may substitute Latin with a language related to their chosen field of expertise (French, Italian, Catalán, Quechua, etc.).

• All students are examined at the end of their second term of study in the department. The results of this examination, as well as the student’s performance in courses tak­en during the first year, will be evaluated by the full section faculty. This evaluation determines whether further coursework will be required for the AM, and in excep­tional cases, whether the student should continue in the program. The same exami­nation determines what credit for previous graduate work in other universities the student may present to the registrar for approval. If the examining board so recom­mends, a student may take all or part of the first-year examination a second time (normally within one year of the first).

• A grade of Incomplete (INC) must be converted into a letter grade before the end of the next registration period, or it will become permanent unless the student has suc­cessfully petitioned the GSAS Dean’s office for an extension of time.

The Second Year

• Eight half-courses, including credit that may be given for graduate work done else­where. The department will consider accepting credit for a maximum of four half-courses completed at other institutions.

• Students must make up Incomplete grades in required courses before sitting for gen­eral examinations. The department faculty strongly discourages students from taking an Incomplete in a course. The Department of Romance Languages and Literatures adheres strictly to the policies established by the Graduate School of Arts and Sci­ences, and outlined elsewhere in this handbook, regarding unfinished coursework.

• Graduate students in Romance Languages and Literatures may commit to writing a maximum of three article-length research papers per term. Students assigned such papers in 100-level courses should petition for an alternate assignment, such as an examination, a series of smaller papers, etc. Students should consult the Graduate Coordinator regarding administrative procedures for this.

Master of Arts (AM)

• Normally, students do not enroll in the graduate program for the sole purpose of ob­taining a master’s degree, and there is no AM program separate from the PhD. However, faculty may decide to confer a terminal AM on students who will not be completing requirements for the PhD. Upon fulfilling the AM requirements, students should sub­mit an application for the master’s degree, which is not conferred automatically.

• To be eligible for the AM degree students must complete one year of residency, eight half-courses, the Latin requirement, and the first-year examination, as de­scribed in the First-Year section.

• Successful completion of all AM academic requirements is a prerequisite for the PhD program.

• Students who have not met all the academic requirements for the AM degree may not hold appointments as teaching fellows.

Teaching

• Graduate students are encouraged to teach beginning in the third year of the pro­gram. Options include teaching a section of an undergraduate language course or leading a discussion section of a literature course taught by a professor. Teaching opportunities in the Core program and in other departments are also available. Har­vard provides its teaching fellows with state-of-the-art classroom resources, guid­ance, and regular evaluations by permanent faculty members. Such ample teaching opportunities reflect a departmental philosophy of nurturing strong candidates for the academic job market.
• Linquistics 200, to be taken at the beginning of the first year of teaching, will continue to be a requirement for all graduate students but will not count as one of the 16 courses required during the first two years in the program. Graduate students with previous teaching experience who have already taken a course in pedagogy through another de­gree program may submit a dossier including the syllabus, and papers or projects done for the course. After considering the dossier, the director of Language Programs will choose one of three options in discussion with the student: a) waive the Linquistics 200 requirement; b) do some of the work for the course as an independent project in addi­tion to the sixteen courses required for the PhD; or c) enroll in Linquistics 200.

Advising

While specific procedures may vary from section to section, the general procedure for advising is as follows:

• In the first year of graduate study, all students are advised by the director of graduate studies (DGS) in their major Romance language.

• In preparation for the first-year examination, each student is assigned an examina­tion committee chair. This individual serves as his/her advisor in preparation for, and following, the completion of the first-year examination. This faculty member advises the student from the beginning of their second year of studies to the end of their general examinations. This professor may continue advising the student, as the dissertation director, through the preparation of the dissertation.

• A student may change advisors at any point through a formal application process, pro­vided that the newly selected advisor is informed and agrees to work with the student.

• After the PhD general examination, the dissertation director serves as the student’s advisor, in consultation with the other members of the dissertation committee.

• Conflicts between a student and his or her advisor are ordinarily resolved through discussion with the department chair.

PhD General Examinations

Students must complete the general exam by the end of the third year of graduate studies. Without exception, general exams are given twice during the academic year: during the week before classes begin in September, and during the May exam period. The PhD general examination consists of both written and oral parts. A substantial part of the general exam is to be administered in the target language. In the case of unsatis­factory performance, the student may, if the examining board so recommends, take all or part of the PhD examination a second time (normally within six months of the first). Failure to perform satisfactorily on a second attempt will result in automatic withdrawal from the graduate program.

• French and Francophone literatures and Italian literatures. Through a combi­nation of coursework, seminars, and individual study, candidates are expected to ac­quire a general familiarity with the major figures, works, and trends in the history of French and Francophone or Italian literature from the earliest texts to the present day. This competence is tested in the general examination.

• Hispanic literatures. Candidates for the degree are expected to prove evidence of general understanding of the Hispanic literatures. For examination purposes, the field is divided into six areas, three in Spanish Peninsular literature (Medieval, Golden Age, and 18th to 20th centuries) and three in Latin American literature (Co­lonial, 18th to 19th centuries, and twentieth century).

• Each student is examined in all six fields, choosing one field as the major field. The two parts of the examination (minor and major fields) are usually taken at different times.

• For each of the five non-specialist areas, the student is responsible for a Core read­ing list of fifteen texts. There will be a two-hour segment of written examination on each of these areas.

• For her or his special field, the student is responsible for a corpus of up to fifty texts, of which thirty-five come from a list prepared by the faculty teaching in the area in question. Up to fifteen texts not found on the list may be chosen, in consultation with faculty, by the student in relation to her or his area of specialization and dis­sertation research.

• Students of Spanish are required to complete the equivalent of one half-course at the 100-or 200-level in Portuguese or Brazilian literature.

• Hispanic literature with a minor in Portuguese. Candidates for a degree in this specialty must prove oral and written proficiency in the Portuguese language. They must complete a minimum of 18 half-courses (instead of the standard 16). These are to be distributed as follows: 14 courses in Spanish, including the required course of history of the language; four courses in Portuguese. At least two of those four should be graduate seminars (200-level); the other two may be advanced undergraduate courses (100-level). Candidates are required to complete a general reading list of 24 Portuguese texts. Reading lists of Hispanic texts will remain the same for all stu­dents. The general examination will include an additional two-hour component of Portuguese. The dissertation topic must address significant issues from both Hispan­ic and Portuguese literature.

• Other programs in one Romance literature with a minor in another Romance litera­ture may be arranged in consultation with the directors of graduate studies in both languages.

• Portuguese and Brazilian literatures. Candidates for this degree are expected to acquire a detailed knowledge of four fields: Medieval and Renaissance Portuguese literatures; Colonial Brazilian literature; Portuguese literature from the eighteenth century to the present; Contemporary Brazilian literature.

• Students specialize in one of the above fields.

• Competence in the chosen field of specialization and in two other selected fields will be tested in the general examination. Requirements for the fourth field can be met by taking one course in this field before the examination.

• Students of Portuguese and Brazilian literatures are required to complete one half-course at the 100- or 200-level in Spanish, in addition to the required course in the literature of a second language.

Dual Track in Romance Languages and Literatures

The Dual Track in Romance Languages, established in fall 2008, permits students to obtain a PhD in two Romance languages and literatures, through exploring different fields more in depth than a major/minor track allows them to do. Students pursuing the Dual Track should have equal command of the two languages and literatures.

The Dual Track allows incoming students with a clear idea of their fields of interest to design an appropriate, consistent, and feasible individualized course of study. It also helps students to explore various intellectual paths and establish links across languages.

Criteria for admission include language proficiency and strong cultural and literary foundations in each of the languages and literatures chosen. Candidates must explain their intellectual reasons for combining two languages and define the areas of interests they wish to explore in their course of study.

Current single-track students may switch to the Dual Track upon approval of the DGS of the two languages they wish to combine. The same criteria used for external candidates applies to current students (proficiency, foundation, and an intellectual project). Conversely, a student admitted in the Dual Track may switch to a single track if it appears that this is not the best plan of graduate study for him or her.

Required courses:

A. Eighteen courses (that is, two more than in the single track), to be completed in two years. The course distribution between the two languages should be fairly balanced, e.g.: 9:9 or 8:10, and may include Romance Studies courses. Students may take a maximum of two courses outside of the Department.

B. Students specializing in the period preceding 1700 must take one course in the history of the language for each language studied, but they may replace one of these courses by Latin. Students specializing in the period after 1700 must take one course in the history of one of their languages. Pre-1700 students must take at least one post­-1700 course in each language; post-1700 students must take at least one pre-1700 course in each language.

Romance Studies Courses

• The program encourages professors to offer individually or team-taught Romance Studies courses specially designed for graduate students. Course offerings vary from year to year, but encourage graduates to cross linguistic lines and provide dual-tracks graduates with models for their own intellectual undertakings.
Advising

• Each dual-track student has one faculty advisor in each language. Advisors are desig­nated prior to enrollment, according to the student’s chosen field and stated interests. Students may change advisors later on after discussion with their respective DGS. ad­visors are in charge of supervising the plan of studies and of organizing the General Examinations.

First Year Examinations

• At the end of their first year, dual-track students take the usual first-year examination in each of their languages.

General Examinations

•    The general examinations are organized by the student’s advisors, who work with the student in preparing the reading list in each field, and defining topics and angles of approach. The examinations consist of a written portion in each language (between 3 and 5 hours per language) based on the lists and topics.

•    The oral portion of the examination is common to the two languages and administered by an examination committee made up of faculty members from the two sections con­cerned. The examination is multilingual. It provides the opportunity to revisit the writ­ten examination, test the aptitude of the student to move within his/her fields, and possibly discuss his/her thesis topic.

Double Doctorate in Italian Studies and Renaissance Culture

This program, introduced in 2009, allows students to complete both a doctorate in Italian Studies at Harvard University and a doctorate in Renaissance Culture at the Istituto Nazionale di Studi sul Rinascimento (INSR) in Florence, Italy, within a period of 5 to 6 years. After successful dissertation defense, Harvard awards students a PhD in Romance Languages and Literatures, while the INSR grants a “Diploma di perfezion­amento in civiltà dell’Umanesimo e del Rinascimento.” The INSR Diploma is legally equivalent to a doctorate awarded by an Italian university.

Dissertation

• A student chooses a topic for the dissertation in consultation with the advisor. Nor­mally, the dissertation must be completed by the end of the seventh year of graduate studies.

• Students have six weeks following formal written notification of their general ex­amination grade in which to constitute their dissertation committee. When the com­mittee has been constituted, students must submit a contract bearing the signatures of all their committee members, indicating they have agreed to meet the deadline for prospectus turn-in, which is normally six months following examination result notification. Electronic signatures are acceptable. Ordinarily, two members of the committee represent the student’s major language and field; a third may come from another language or discipline.

• Two of the committee members must come from Harvard’s Faculty of Arts and Sci­ences. Visiting Professors with renewable appointments may serve on dissertation committees, but may not chair them. Note: The Dissertation Acceptance Certificate must be signed by no fewer than three dissertation readers, two of whom must be members of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences.

• This committee approves the dissertation prospectus, establishes the schedule for completion, and periodically reviews the student’s progress.

• A student who has not met degree requirements by established deadlines may, with departmental endorsement, be granted an extension for up to one year with the status of “grace” and remain eligible for financial aid during that period. At the end of the grace period, the student must have rectified the deficiency and be in compliance with all other established criteria in order to be considered making satisfactory progress. Ordinarily, only one such period of grace will be granted a student during graduate studies.

• Further extensions may be granted in exceptional cases, after thorough consider­ation of individual circumstances.

• The dissertation may be written in English or in the appropriate Romance lan­guage. The final manuscript must conform to the requirements described in The Form of the PhD Dissertation. PhD candidates are required to make a public oral presentation of the dissertation, followed by a question-and-answer period, before filing it with the registrar.

Dual Track dissertation should be deeply informed by issues pertinent to both literatures.

Please see the description of a secondary field in Romance Languages and Litera­tures at the end of Chapter VI.