Doctor of Philosophy

All courses counted toward the 135-unit requirement for the Ph.D. must be at the graduate level. Students may select coursework to suit their individual program of study. Students are not allowed to take Independent Study during their first year. Students are held responsible for all areas covered by the general examinations regardless of whether they have registered for the department’s offerings in a given field. All coursework must be selected in consultation with the Department Director or principal advisor. For this reason, it is strongly recommended that before taking their examinations, students complete seminar-level work directly related to the following broad areas:

1. Slavic poetry

2. The Russian novel

3. 20th-century Slavic literature

4. 19th-century Slavic literature 

5. 18th-century Slavic literature 

6. Medieval Rus’ Literature

7. A monograph course on a prominent Russian or Slavic author

8. Theory of literature relevant to the major field

Students must complete 14 seminar courses in the Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures. Independent Studies and language courses do not count toward this requirement. Unless they have taken such courses elsewhere, students must take the departmental course on medieval literature, 18th-century literature, and Old Church Slavonic.

Administered to all entering graduate students, this test determines whether the student’s Russian language proficiency falls below the department’s standard of Advanced Low on the OPI test. Students who fail must complete appropriate courses in the first year of graduate study. Courses required to meet Russian language proficiency are not counted toward the coursework requirement of the Ph.D. degree.

Related Field

During the course of study, students must take three courses in a field contiguous to the area of specialization. A candidate will work with their advisor during their first year of study to choose a related field that will support their dissertation writing. If a student fails a related field exam, they need to retake it in the following quarter. If they fail it a second time, a student may be dismissed from the program.

Minor

Students electing a minor must fulfill the Ph.D. minor requirements established by that department. Students considering minors should consult with the Department Director or their advisor, and the Chair or Director of Graduate Studies of the minor department. Students must complete all requirements for the Minor before going to Terminal Graduate Registration (TGR) status.

The Qualifying Exams are meant to be comprehensive, that is, to verify students’ knowledge in all areas of 19th- and 20th-century Russian literature and culture. They are designed to test not only the students’ ability to synthesize major literary and cultural developments of the period, but also to apply the knowledge of the period to a close reading of the text. Questions for the exams are formulated on the body of material taught in the survey courses (Slavic 345, Slavic 346, Slavic 347 and Slavic 348 offered regularly in the Slavic department). Students are encouraged to take the survey courses and consult copies of old exams on file in the department to familiarize themselves with the format and type of questions that are asked. See the DLCL Graduate Handbook for details.

The Qualifying Paper is a complete article-length research paper (6,000-9,000 words). See the DLCL Graduate Handbook for details.

In the Winter quarter of the third year in the program, students will take the Related Field Oral Exam. This is an oral exam based on a comprehensive reading list, compiled by a student in consultation with their advisor(s) in the field related to their research interests. The related field can be a certain theme traced across several centuries of Slavic literary development, or a history of a genre within Slavic literature, or another literary tradition developed in Russian, Eastern European and Eurasian cultures, or a related discipline (for example, Art History, Gender Studies, Anthropology, Digital Humanities, etc.). See the DLCL Graduate Handbook for more information.

Although teaching is not a requirement for the degree, students may teach as part of the financial support commitment and their professional training.

Students applying to candidacy must provide for their annual review a writing sample corresponding to a paper completed for a course taken at Stanford.

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. In the Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures, 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

• Completion of at least three units of work with each of the faculty members in Slavic

Candidacy is determined by faculty vote. Failure to be admitted to candidacy results in the student’s dismissal from the Ph.D. program.

In the Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures the university oral exam is a review of the dissertation proposal covering content relevant to the area of study, rationale for the proposed investigation, and strategy to be used in the dissertation research; this type of examination is intended to assist the student in refining a dissertation topic and to ensure mastery of theoretical and methodological issues as well as the materials needed to conduct the research effectively.

Students are required to take the University Oral Exam by the end of the spring of the third year.

The dissertation must be a substantial piece of comprehensive and original research. The standard format in our field is a monograph comprising five chapters, including the introduction and dissertation, but successful students may propose strong, research-based projects such as edited translations, digital humanities-based analyses, or other formats. In consultation with their advisor, students may elect to submit as a dissertation a collection of three to four  published, or publishable, articles, together with an introduction. Students are expected to submit the dissertation by the end of their fifth year in the program.

A candidate must demonstrate reading knowledge of French or German, or any other foreign language useful for the student’s area of concentration, by achieving the ranking of intermediate high on the OPI test administered by the Language Center. For non-native speakers of Russian, the foreign language requirement is Russian. Alternatively, with the approval of the Department Director, students may satisfy this requirement by receiving a grade of A- or better in a qualifying class. The foreign language requirement must be passed by the end of Spring in year 2. 

Upon entering the program, students must contact the Language Center and arrange to take the Oral Proficiency Interview (OPI) to determine their fluency in the target language.