Phd Examinations

Minor Comprehensive Examination Instructions

By May 1st of their first year in the program, doctoral students will be added to the Minor Comprehensive Examination OWL site. This site contains six reading lists of approximately 30 articles each (one book is considered the equivalent of four articles). PDFs of the articles are available in the “PDF Readings” folder on the OWL site while hard copies of books are available for loan from the Graduate Office or through Western’s Library catalogue. Please see the Graduate Coordinator to sign out the required books. By June 1st students will notify the Graduate Coordinator of which list(s) they intend to read over the summer in preparation for their exam.

The minor comprehensive examination is a take-home, open-book test. It is scheduled in year two of the student’s program. Students must complete the minor exam in the allotted time frame in early September. For this examination, Dissertation Stream and Curatorial/Project Stream students will select two out of the six standard lists as noted below. They will be given one question to answer for each list, and 48 hours per question to craft their responses, for a total of 96 hours. Studio Stream students will select one list for which they have 48 hours to complete their response. This will comprise 50% of their Minor Comprehensive requirement. The other 50% of Studio students’ Minor Comprehensive requirement will take the form of a critique (see below for further details). In both cases, the questions will be released to the student at the start of their test. Each answer should be approximately 2000 words (not including footnotes). It is important to carefully structure and edit your response.

Please note: there are no extensions unless official accommodations are on file. Please ensure that you submit your response by the deadline. Failure to do so will constitute a failure of this attempt to complete the Minor Comprehensive Exam.

Minor Exam Critique Requirements and Procedures

The Critique represents 50% of the Comprehensive and will be held in late September or early October. The student will present new work produced during the first year of the program. It is up to the student, in consultation with their Mentor, to decide the amount of work and style of display, as well as the location of the critique (typically within the JLVAC). At least a week in advance of the critique, the student will provide the Committee with an extended written artist statement of approximately 1000 words.

The Minor Comprehensive Examination Readings Lists

(1) Cultural Difference, Postcolonialism, and Decolonization
(2) Cultures of Time and Space
(3) Gender and Sexual Difference
(4) Museums and Archives
(5) Practices, Processes, and Materials
(6) Visual and Material Culture