ITAL-PHD - Italian (PhD)
Download as PDF
Program Overview
Studying Italian at Stanford allows students to explore the many facets of Italian culture from a literary, historical, philosophical, and, more generally, interdisciplinary perspective, drawing it into an active dialogue with contemporary global culture. While receiving a strong foundation in the Italian tradition, students are encouraged to contextualize it with coursework from philosophy, political science, anthropology, film and media studies, art history, history of science, and medical humanities. The program is committed to forming PhD graduates capable of teaching Italian literature and culture at all levels but also articulate public intellectuals, able to connect their academic pursuits to real-world problems.
Minimum Units in the Program
Minimum University Units
A minimum of five courses on Italian literature and culture. Three of the required five courses must be taken in the first year.
All courses counted toward the 135-unit requirement for the Ph.D. must be at the graduate level. Students must take at least 60 units under the ITALIAN designation. Students must take classes from at least three 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 must be selected in consultation with the Department Director.
Ph.D. students in the department must take required courses for a letter grade if available, and they are expected to earn a grade of B+ or better in each course taken. Any grade of B or below is considered to be less than satisfactory. Grades of B or below are reviewed by faculty, and the following actions may be taken:
The grade stands, and the student’s academic performance is monitored to ensure that satisfactory progress is being made
The grade stands, and the student is required to revise and resubmit the work associated with the course
The student may be required to retake the course
The principal conditions for continued registration of a graduate student are the timely and satisfactory completion of the university, department, and program requirements for the degree and fulfillment of minimum progress requirements. Failure to meet these requirements results in corrective measures, including a written warning, and/or the possible dismissal from the program.
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 Department of French and Italian to ensure adequate preparation for the qualifying examination. Students are encouraged to take various courses to be exposed to different periods and issues. Students are not permitted to take Independent Study during their first year. Beyond the first year, however, the program of study is tailored to the student’s specific interests.
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 Department Director, schedules the precise exam date and time.
The exam is based on a standard reading list covering significant works from all periods of literature in the language(s) of study, from the Middle Ages to the present day. The list may be expanded to reflect a student’s particular interests but not abridged. The reading list is available in the Italian graduate handbook.
The exam is 90 minutes in length and consists of two parts:
A 20-minute presentation by the student on a topic to be determined by them.
A 70-minute question and answer period in which the examining committee follows up on the candidate’s presentation and discusses the reading list with the student. At least part of the exam takes place in Italian.
See the handbook for more details.
Students who do not pass the qualifying exam their first time may opt to retake it at the end of autumn quarter of their second year. Failure of the retake exam, will result in dismissal from the program.
Students already holding an MA or Ph.D. in Italian may formally request to waive the Qualifying Exam. Requests must be submitted to the Department Director by the end of autumn quarter of the first year. The request must document the coursework completed elsewhere and include all relevant reading lists. A waiver may only be granted when taking the Qualifying Exam would involve substantial repetition of already completed work.
The second oral examination takes place in autumn quarter of the third year of study. Students permitted to waive the Qualifying Exam take the Field Exam in autumn quarter of the second year. 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 Department Director.
A 60-minute discussion of a reading list, assembled by the student, covering about one century of writing.
See the Handbook for more details.
Teaching is core to our program’s academic and professional training of Ph.D. students. As such, all students must complete three quarters of language teaching in their second year in the program as part of their degree requirements. An additional two quarters of teaching in language and/or literature are required to further pedagogical and professional skills. These courses will be determined in consultation with the Department Director and based on departmental and Language Center needs. 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 by the department based on the department faculty’s overall assessment of a student’s ability to complete the Ph.D. program. Students are expected to follow 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
Performance in courses and completion of required coursework
Performance on departmental examinations and milestones
Successful completion of teaching assistantships
Completion of at least three units of work with each of four Stanford faculty members
Students applying to candidacy must provide for their annual review a writing sample in Italian (or English for Italian native speakers) corresponding to a paper completed for a course taken at Stanford. In addition to successfully completing departmental requirements for years one and two 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 be admitted to candidacy results in the student’s dismissal from the Ph.D. 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 required course-work 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 additionally append a bibliography. The proposal must be prepared in close consultation with the primary advisor 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.
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.
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.
Attaining native or near-native fluency in Italian is a requirement to qualify for the Ph.D. degree. Upon entering the program, students must contact the Language Center and arrange to take the Oral Proficiency Interview (OPI) to determine their fluency in Italian. An advanced level or above must have been reached by the time students take their Qualifying Exam in autumn quarter of the second year. If a student fails to score in the advanced bracket of the OPI test upon entering, they are tested again at the beginning of the second year. Students are responsible for designing a course of study to improve their proficiency in Italian. Students who do not meet the minimum language requirement must discuss their plans to meet this requirement with the Department Director. By the end of the third year, students must have passed a reading examination in Latin, if their period of concentration is earlier than the Romantic period, and French if they are focusing on the Romantic period or later.