项目介绍

2022年10月11日

Students in the Ph.D. program receive the M.A. and M.Phil. degree before writing the Ph.D. dissertation. They complete the requirements for the M.A. degree in the first three semesters and the requirements for the M.Phil. by the end of the sixth semester. Formal requirements for each stage of the program are listed here. Students admitted to the Ph.D. program are normally awarded five years of financial support, including full-tuition fellowships and stipends. Ph.D. students are expected to apply for both internal and external grants (grant writing is one of the topics covered in the MESAAS Research Colloquium taken by all graduate students, MDES GR6008). Fellowships are sometimes available to support research in specific areas of study. For more details, see below.

Advisor, Ph.D. faculty sponsor, and committees: The Director of Graduate Studies is the advisor for all graduate students upon entering the program. In consultation with the Director of Graduate Studies, each student asks an approved Ph.D. faculty sponsor in MESAAS to become the student’ s sponsor, usually by the end of the first year. The faculty sponsor, in consultation with the student, chooses the five members of the student’s dissertation defense committee. The sponsor (not the student) asks them to serve on the committee and asks one of them to chair the defense. The chair of the defense, the sponsor, and at least one other member of the committee (typically the second reader of the dissertation) must be members of MESAAS (i.e., at least 3 MESAAS faculty members serve on a student’s dissertation committee); at least one committee member must hold an appointment outside MESAAS. Rules governing the constitution of the committee and the deadline for distributing the dissertation to its members are specified in the Dissertation Rules published by the GSAS Dissertation Office. Students should familiarize themselves thoroughly with the dissertation regulations and deadlines well in advance of their defense date.

Transfer Credit: Transfer Credit can be granted to students who have completed relevant graduate-level coursework elsewhere. Student are advised to go to the Transfer Credit webpage on the GSAS website for further information.

Financial Aid: A comprehensive program of financial aid, including fellowships and appointments in teaching, is available to Ph.D. students. All Ph.D. students admitted to the program receive annually the prevailing stipend, summer research support, and appropriate tuition and health fees through the fifth year, provided that they remain in good academic standing. If students receive a year of advanced standing, they are entitled to four years of fellowship funding. The Department also offers support for travel to academic conferences and for summer research and language study. Students who regularly participate in the department colloquia and contribute generously to peer review are typically given preferential consideration for such funding.

Fellowships are sometimes available to support students in specific areas of research. The department currently offers a Ph.D. fellowship in Armenian studies (contact the DGS for further details).