Applications

All applications must include:
1. A completed Application for Admission form
2. Two certified copies of the official transcripts of all undergraduate and graduate studies
3. Two letters of recommendation from referees familiar with the applicant's recent scholarly work
4. A sample of written work, such as a recent essay
5. A one-page statement about scholarly interests and intended areas of specialization during the PhD.
6. A non-refundable application fee of $75 (payable to the Department of Modern Languages and Literatures).

The deadline for applications is February 1.

Admission Standards:

An M.A. with a minimum average of B+ (78%), normally in Hispanic Studies, Latin-American Studies, or Linguistics, or equivalent. Consideration will be given to candidates with a background different from the aforementioned provided that they have an excellent academic record and master the Spanish language at near-native level.

Students judged by the Graduate Committee to be making exceptionally good progress in Western’s 2-year M.A. program in Hispanic Studies (e.g., 87% or higher average in course work and/or papers judged to be Ph.D. caliber) may apply to transfer into the Ph.D. program after completing the first year of the M.A. Such students would not complete the M.A. degree.

Degree Requirements:

Course requirements: The normal course requirement is six half-courses, but the exact number of courses required in each case will be determined by the Graduate Committee based on the student’s previous graduate work. For students not entering the Ph.D. from Western’s M.A. in Hispanic Studies, two of these courses will be the Seminar on Transatlantic Studies and the Seminar on Information Systems and Research Methods. Students will normally complete their course work in the first two terms.

a) Students will take a minimum of 3 half-courses in their designated field. In special cases, and with the approval of the Graduate Committee, M.A. courses will be counted towards the field requirement, but not towards the total number of courses required for the Ph.D. degree.

b) All students must choose their courses in consultation with the Graduate Chair, who will approve all course selections.

c) The program strongly recommends that students specializing in any of the fields of literature and culture take a course on literary theory.

d) Students who have already fulfilled the required “Seminar on Transatlantic Studies” are expected to regularly attend the talks given in the Seminar during their years of residency.

Dissertation Requirement and Evaluation Procedures:

a) Beginning in term 3, students, with the help of the Graduate Committee, will choose a Supervisor and a thesis topic. Working with his/her Supervisor and any other potential members of the Advisory Committee, the student will submit a dissertation proposal, including a bibliography and a calendar of activities and milestones, by the beginning of the sixth term of study. The Graduate Committee will examine this proposal and will make the appropriate recommendations.

b) Due to the involvement of the core faculty in team-based research projects (e.g., the Transatlantic Research Group, which involves sub-projects in each of the program’s fields; the inter-departmental Applied Linguistics Research Group), it is expected that most students will develop dissertation projects within the context of a research team.

c) During the second term of the third year (term 8), students will submit a research report to the Graduate Committee in which they will outline their progress. Satisfactory progress is a required condition of continued registration in the program.

d) Every candidate for the Doctoral degree must complete a thesis. For the complete Ph.D. Thesis Examination Procedures, please see the Faculty of Graduate Studies, Thesis Regulation Guide.

The additional “qualifying” requirements have been designed to relate closely to the skills in
teaching and research that candidates need to develop in order to prepare for academic careers.

Thus, instead of traditional comprehensive exams, there is a Course-Design Requirement and a Peer-Reviewed Publication Requirement, both of which may be completed together with the dissertation on a schedule designed by the student together with the Supervisor and the Graduate Chair.

3) Peer-Reviewed Publication Requirement: Each student is expected have accepted for publication at least one research paper in a recognized peer-reviewed publication before graduating. The Graduate Committee will advise the students about the most appropriate publication venue on an individual basis. (In cases where the timing of the peer-review process is unduly protracted and waiting for a decision might delay the student’s completion of the program, the Graduate Committee may rely on the advice of an expert in the student’s field, other than the Supervisor, to evaluate the “publishable quality” of a submitted article.)

4) Course-Design Requirement:

a) Students will fully develop two undergraduate courses, including use of a computer-based education server such as the University-supported WebCT. One of these courses will be a survey course that is normally part of the undergraduate curricula in Linguistics or Hispanic Studies programs. The other course will be an honors-level course in the field of specialization chosen by the student.

b) The design and development of the courses will include: Complete syllabus with a detailed calendar List of readings Comprehensive bibliography used to prepare the course The sample materials prepared for a 90 minute class The sample materials prepared for one student assignment (test, exam, text analysis, etc)

c) Students will finish these designs by the end of their second year. An ad-hoc committee formed by two core faculty members of the program will examine the materials and will issue a report that will be added to the student’s file.

d) In the third or fourth year, the student will normally be given the opportunity to teach one of the two courses previously designed. A faculty member will visit the class and write a report about the student’s performance in teaching. This report will be added to the student’s file and reviewed by the committee named above (ad-hoc committee for the teaching requirement). (This requirement has been planned in consultation with the Chair of the Department of Modern Languages and Literatures, and will be integrated into the curricular planning process. However, in exceptional cases where curricular needs do not allow for the doctoral student to teach one of the courses he/she has designed in the appropriate year, the teaching evaluation will be carried out in a comparable course that he/she is teaching in a TA capacity.)

e) A faculty supervisor will be named by the Graduate Committee to mentor the students in the design and teaching of the courses.

f) In order for the student to fulfill the Teaching Requirements of the program, a positive report in both the Course Design and the Course Teaching will be needed.

5) Language Requirements:

Students are expected to pass a test of reading knowledge in a language other than Spanish and English before graduation.

International students whose first language is not English must provide evidence of their proficiency in English in order to graduate successfully from the program. A Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) score of 213 or better is required for graduation.

Normal time to completion:

Four years.