PhD Portfolio Requirements - Linguistics

The portfolio must contain the following sections:

The CV outlines the student’s professional biography to date and shows the student’s ability to present the academic self.

Purpose: The student must demonstrate their acquisition of field knowledge and possession of the skills to advance to the dissertation stage and then into the academy or a profession. To demonstrate this, the student will 1) submit a synthetic essay, 2) submit a research paper and one course syllabus in the minor, 3) demonstrate through testing the ability to use the foreign languages studied (testing will be conducted prior to the portfolio defense).

  1. Synthetic essay. (7000–7500 words). The student and the Supervisory Committee may think of this as the equivalent of survey chapter in a book or the introductory portion of an advanced lecture on the topic. The topic of the synthetic essay is decided by the student’s Supervisory Committee, in collaboration with the student. The synthetic essay should be diachronic if the student’s specialty is synchronic, and vice-versa. In the synthetic essay the student should:
    1. Cover a research theme outside her or his immediate area of expertise.
    2. Give a coherent and intelligent summary, supported with references to relevant primary and secondary sources for that theme, etc.,
    3. Demonstrate control of a research area outside the student’s special field of interest.
    4. Some examples of possible topics: the main changes from Indo-European to Slavic, the diatopy of Slavic through major isoglosses, case studies of the degree of success of the enforcement of language policy, differences in the case systems of two or more Slavic languages, differences in the verbal systems of two or more Slavic languages, specific issues in pragmatics of one or more Slavic languages, interaction between morphology/syntax and narrative structure of one or more Slavic languages; many of these topics can accommodate comparative consideration of Slavic and another area language of concentration (e.g. Yiddish).
  2. A polished research paper in the student’s minor field and one syllabus in the minor developed by the student.

Both documents will be discussed during the portfolio defense to test the student’s knowledge of their minor field.

The student must demonstrate that they have acquired the research, critical thinking, and complex writing skills to succeed at the dissertation stage and beyond. Documentation of research includes:

  1. Analytical (original research) essay on a topic chosen with the advisor (7000-8000 words) [article].
    1. This should be an essay with a broad scope that contributes to existing scholarship.
    2. The essay should be written with complete scholarly apparatus, edited, presented in polished and “publishable” form (ideally, you should have submitted or the work to an academic journal).
    3. The linguistics research essay should document the student’s ability to work with data, as appropriate for the concentration and dissertation topic. This includes issues like data collection, ethics, human subjects as applicable, work with corpora (synchronic and diachronic), statistics if applicable, etc.
  2. A statement of research interests (circa 1000 words).
  3. A dissertation prospectus (4000–5000 words) with a bibliography and an abstract (150–300 words).
  4. Other document(s) that the advisor and the student agree should be included, such as:
    1. sample post-M.A. research essays
    2. conference papers/abstracts (if any)
    3. book reviews
    4. any other publications or works under consideration.

The student must demonstrate that they have acquired appropriate teaching skills, mastered appropriate pedagogical strategies, and thought reflectively about the nature and methods of teaching. This section includes:

  1. Syllabi of courses taught
  2. Samples of teaching materials developed, if relevant (exams, handouts, activities)
  3. Student evaluations from all courses taught and sample teaching observations
  4. One syllabus for a survey course from the student’s area of concentration, developed by the student
  5. Statement of teaching philosophy (1000–1500 words)
    1. Discuss any courses taught
    2. Discuss your teaching style and how it might have evolved
    3. Discuss any core principles that guide or motivate your teaching style
    4. Address any successful teaching strategies/methods
    5. Mention any courses you would like to have the opportunity to teach

In today’s competitive job environment, the student must demonstrate that she or he has acquired the skills necessary to traverse the profession independently. This section includes:

  1. Grant proposals (whether funded or not), if such exist
  2. Mock cover letter for an academic job in your field of specialization (1.5–2 pages, single-spaced)
    1. Include mock sample job description to which the letter is tailored
    2. Discuss your dissertation and other research interests and accomplishments
    3. Discuss teaching experience and teaching interests at the hiring institution

The Portfolio Oral Examination

Following completion of coursework, students present the portfolio formally to their Supervisory Committee through the process described below. By this time, they must have fulfilled all requirements for the Ph.D. established by the Department and Graduate Studies with the exception of the Portfolio Oral Examination, the 18 credit hours of dissertation research, and the dissertation itself.

Prior to taking the Portfolio Oral Examination, it is the responsibility of students to:

  1. remove the grade of “Incomplete” in any course that will count toward degree;
  2. meet the FLORS requirement (as stipulated in the Graduate Catalog) in a non-Slavic foreign language (usually French or German);
  3. take a written test to demonstrate reading competence in two non-primary Slavic languages, which together with the student’s primary Slavic language cover all three language families (East, West, and South Slavic).

Students need to inform the Director of Graduate Studies of their intention to submit and defend their PhD portfolio at least 6 months before the defense is scheduled.

The student names their Supervisory Committee of at least 4 graduate faculty members, two of whom are the primary advisor and the faculty in the minor, following the successful conclusion of the MA/PhD Qualifying Exam. The primary advisor chairs the Supervisory Committee. A tenure/tenure-track faculty member from outside the Slavic Department who serves on the Committee also fulfills the role of the official Graduate Studies Representative at the examination. The student may change members of the Supervisory Committee in consultation with departmental Chair and the Director of Graduate Studies.

The student must schedule the Portfolio Oral Examination one month in advance and upon receiving the advisor’s approval of the portfolio materials, make the complete portfolio available to the committee electronically at least two weeks in advance of the defense. Ahead of the defense, the student’s primary advisor circulates the student’s dissertation prospectus among all graduate faculty in the department.

All Supervisory Committee members participate in the two-hour Portfolio Oral Examination. The Examination consists of a free-form, broad intellectual discussion that stems from the materials presented in the portfolio and includes student’s defense of the choice and direction of the dissertation project.

The Supervisory Committee Chair and the Graduate Studies Representative fill out the exam outcome form that is then submitted to COGA for processing. Additionally, the Chair reports the results of the oral examination in writing (via email is sufficient) to the Director of Graduate Studies who then reports the results on the proper form to the Graduate School.