FRNIT-PHD - French and Italian (PhD)
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Program Overview
The department offers a PhD in French and Italian.
The French section allows students to pursue coursework at all levels in French language, literature, cultural and intellectual history, theory, film, and Francophone studies. It understands the domain of French Studies as encompassing the complex cultural, political, social, scientific, commercial, and intellectual phenomena associated with French-speaking parts of the world, from France and Belgium to Canada, Africa, and the Caribbean.
The Italian section offers graduate and undergraduate programs in Italian language, literature, culture, and intellectual history. Course offerings range from small, specialized graduate seminars to general courses open to all students on authors such as Dante, Boccaccio, and Machiavelli.
Minimum Units in the Program
Minimum University Units
A candidate for the PhD degree must complete at least 135 units of graduate-level study. Students must take at least 60 units under the FRENCH or ITALIAN designations. Students must take classes from at least two different full-time professors of French literature and culture and at least two different full-time professors of Italian literature and culture. From each of these professors, students must take at least one class for at least 5 units. All coursework should be selected in consultation with the Director of Graduate Studies.
At least four advanced courses on French literature and culture and four advanced courses on Italian literature and culture. Four of the required eight courses must be taken within the first year.
Grading
Doctoral students in the department must take required courses for a letter grade if available and are expected to earn a grade of B+ or better in each course. A grade of B or below is considered less than satisfactory and is reviewed by the faculty. While the grade will stand, the student may be required to revise and resubmit the work associated with that course.
Apart from the required courses above, students are granted considerable freedom in structuring a course of study appropriate to their individual needs. During the first year, most coursework is done within the French and Italian department to ensure adequate preparation for the qualifying examination. Students are encouraged to take various courses to learn about different historical periods and issues. Students are not allowed to take Independent Study during their first year. In the second and third years, however, the program of study is tailored to the student's specific interests.
There are three examinations: the qualifying examination, the field examination, and the university oral examination. Students may not take any department or university exam while coursework is incomplete.
The first oral examination, which takes place in the first two weeks of October of the second year of study, tests the student’s knowledge of language and literature and their aptitude for critical thinking. The examining committee, determined by the Director of French and Italian, schedules the precise exam date and time.
Students may take two qualifying exams, one in French and one in Italian, or a single qualifying exam in French and Italian. The combined French and Italian qualifying exam covers one of three periods, (a) medieval and renaissance, (b) renaissance and early modern, or (c) modern and contemporary. For each period, it is based on a standard reading list. The list may be expanded to reflect a student’s particular interests but not abridged. One third of the combined exam takes place in English, one third in French, and one third in Italian (with the student free to choose which portion transpires in which language). The reading lists may be obtained from the Directors of Graduate Studies, the student services manager, or by referencing the French and Italian student handbook.
Students already holding an advanced degree in the relevant area may request to be excused from the Qualifying Exam. However, the student must formally request a waiver from the Director of Graduate Studies by the end of autumn quarter of the first year. Such a request must document the coursework completed elsewhere and include all relevant reading lists. Only in cases where taking the Qualifying Exam would involve considerable repetition of already completed work is such a waiver likely to be granted.
The second oral examination takes place in the autumn quarter of the third year of study. The exam is 100 minutes in length and consists of two parts:
A 20-minute presentation by the student on a topic (a particular literary genre or a broad theoretical, historical, or interdisciplinary question) freely chosen and developed by the individual student working in collaboration with their advisor and the Director of Graduate Studies. The student should design this research project so that it has the focus of an article or a seminar they might teach. A 20-minute discussion follows this presentation.
A 60-minute discussion of a reading list, assembled by the student, covering about a century of writing.
See handbook for more information.
Teaching is core to our program’s academic and professional training of doctoral students. As such, all students must complete three (3) quarters of language teaching in their second year in the program as part of their degree requirements. An additional two (2) quarters of teaching in language and/or literature are required to further pedagogical and professional skills development and as part of the student’s funding package. These courses will be determined in consultation with the department director and based on departmental and Language Center needs. These teaching experiences must be completed no later than the end of the fourth year of residency in the program. Typically, students complete more than the required number of teaching quarters.
A student who does not complete the five-quarter teaching requirement fails to meet academic requirements and is thus not making satisfactory academic progress.
Admission to candidacy is an important decision grounded in an overall assessment of a student’s ability to complete the PhD program successfully. Per university policy, students are expected to complete department qualifying procedures and apply for candidacy by the end of the second year in residence. In reviewing a student for admission to candidacy, the faculty considers a student’s academic progress, including but not limited to advanced language proficiency, coursework, performance on the Qualifying Exam (or Field Exam for those with a waiver of the Qualifying Exam), and successful completion of teaching and research assistantships. A student must also have completed at least three units of work with each of the four Stanford faculty members before consideration for candidacy. Students applying to candidacy must provide for their annual review a writing sample in French (or English for French native speakers) corresponding to a paper completed for a course taken at Stanford. In addition to completing department prerequisites, a student is only admitted to candidacy if the faculty makes the judgment that the student has the potential to complete the degree program requirements successfully. Candidacy is determined by faculty vote. Failure to advance to candidacy results in the student’s dismissal from the doctoral program.
This examination takes the form of a dissertation proposal defense. It must be taken no later than spring quarter of the student’s third year. Students must have completed all coursework and language requirements before the quarter in which they take the university oral examination. One quarter before the university oral examination, students must schedule the exam date and time and work with their primary advisor to obtain an outside chair for the examination.
Two weeks before the exam, the student must submit to the committee a 25-35 page proposal, which must contain the following parts:
A clear presentation of the student’s central thesis
A synthetic overview of the dissertation
A description of the methodology that is used in the dissertation
An in-depth discussion of current secondary sources on the topic.
The student must also append a bibliography, which does not replace the fourth item above. The proposal must be prepared in close consultation with the dissertation director during the months preceding the exam.
The exam committee consists of four members, in addition to a committee chair from outside the Division of Literatures, Cultures, and Languages, whose principal functions are to keep track of time and to call on the four members of the committee who question the candidate on the talk and the reading list.
After the candidate makes a 20-minute presentation, each committee member (apart from the committee chair) questions the student for 20 minutes. At the end of the hour and forty minutes, the faculty readers vote on the outcome of the exam. If the outcome is favorable (four out of five votes in favor of the student passing), the student is free to proceed with work on the dissertation. If the proposal is unsatisfactory, the dissertation readers may ask the student to revise and resubmit the dissertation prospectus and schedule a second exam. A student who fails a second time will be dismissed from the PhD program.
Submission and approval of a dissertation. The dissertation topic must include a substantial quotient of material from both the French and Italian traditions, and the dissertation must consist of either:
At least one chapter on French materials and one chapter on Italian materials, or
At least two chapters focused on a comparison between French and Italian materials
The dissertation may take different formats. The standard format in our field is a monograph comprising five chapters, including the introduction and dissertation. Depending on the topic and approach, other structures may be considered and should be discussed with the advisor as the project develops. In consultation with their advisor, students may submit a collection of three to four published or publishable articles, together with an introduction as a dissertation.
Attaining a native or near-native fluency in both French and Italian is the individual responsibility of all candidates in the PhD program, and remedial coursework needed to achieve such fluency cannot count towards the PhD degree.
For students specializing in areas (a) medieval and renaissance and (b) renaissance and early modern, proficiency in Latin equivalent to a second-year collegiate level of proficiency (the equivalent of course, course, and course) in reading is also required. Such proficiency may be demonstrated by successfully completing a course in the language in question (at least second-year level, but preferably a graduate seminar); or by passing an exam that establishes a second-year or above level of competence. In no case is the passage of a standard reading competence exam considered sufficient.
For students specializing in area (c) modern and contemporary, proficiency in a third language (beyond French and Italian) is not required; students are, however, encouraged to acquire competency in a third language or area that is relevant to their research (e.g., German). The language requirements should be completed as soon as possible, but in any case, not later than the end of the third year.