项目介绍

2022年4月28日

COURSES:

Every student develops and pursues a course of study that provides a comprehensive background and branches into specific areas of interest. Until they pass the general exam, students are required to take at least one graduate seminar within the department each semester. They are encouraged to take additional courses designed to master the basic grammar and to read original texts in Slavic languages other than Russian (e.g. Czech, Polish, Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian). Seminars offered by other departments (e.g., comparative literature, German, music, history, anthropology, art and archaeology) are often relevant to scholarly interests of our students, and we encourage the development of interdisciplinary connections and ideas. Course offerings are augmented by a graduate reading list of both required and recommended works intended to provide students with literacy in the field.LANGUAGE(S):

Students are expected to have a near-native knowledge of English and Russian. Beyond that they are encouraged, but not required, to achieve fluency in another language. That language is usually French, German, or another Slavic language.

In each of the first two years students take diagnostic tests in the Russian language to evaluate their progress. They take an additional diagnostic exam before teaching Russian language.GENERAL EXAM:

The general examination takes place at the beginning of the third year. It consists of two parts, each including a written section followed by an oral exam. The first is an exam on the history of Russian literature in its cultural context. It is based on a list of required readings. The second is designed to ensure that students have the ability to conduct independent research and to lead them to a productive and interesting dissertation project.

The examination process requires close cooperation between students and their committee (two faculty members chosen by the student and the DGS). By the summer of their second year, students should develop two fields of inquiry. In consultation with the faculty, they draw up (and read) a bibliography of approximately 75 items for each field.

The candidate then formulates four research questions, two concerning author and context and two concerning author and approach. From these, the examination committee chooses two questions, which they may adjust or reformulate. The candidate is given one week for each critical essay, which should be approximately 3,000 words (footnotes and bibliography excluded).

The department provides graduate students with supervised training in undergraduate teaching. Students normally teach at least two semesters. This experience takes the form of instruction in language courses (elementary or intermediate) and leading discussion sections of Russian literature and culture courses. Such teaching ordinarily begins only after students have completed general examinations.POST-GENERALS REQUIREMENT(S):

Post-generals students are required to participate in the dissertation colloquium unless they are living so far away as to preclude such participation.DISSERTATION AND FPO:

After the general examination has been successfully completed, the student chooses a dissertation adviser (ordinarily — though not necessarily — one of the members of the student’s general examination committee). In consultation with the adviser, the student prepares a dissertation prospectus (on the basis of the earlier bibliographies and the work already undertaken). The prospectus should be submitted within a month of the completion of the second exam. Students should have a prospectus and, optimally, a completed first dissertation chapter by the end of the sixth semester.

The dissertation normally emerges from work already undertaken in seminars or other courses under the guidance of department faculty and in the readings for the exams. It should be an in-depth essay on a subject that can be treated in 150 to 200 pages. After the dissertation has been approved by at least two readers from the faculty, the student advances to the final public oral examination. At the final public oral examination, the candidate defends the dissertation in the presence of department faculty and other informed or interested scholars, and is expected to demonstrate a mastery of the subject and effectiveness in oral discourse.