Degree Requirements

All applicants to the Language, Literacy, and Culture Doctoral Program must have a Master’s degree and a well-developed goal statement which aligns with the academic emphasis of the Program.  International scholars are encouraged to apply.

The LLC Program’s interdisciplinary emphasis is for students who wish to investigate the concepts and processes of language, literacy, or culture in relationship to social, historical, technological, or ideological formations. It allows students to explore a wide range of contemporary multi-disciplinary perspectives and a continuum of methodological approaches from the arts, humanities, and social sciences.

Students are required to take 12 credit hours of introductory coursework which provides an interdisciplinary foundation to further study. They then take a minimum of 21 credit hours to develop the theoretical and methodological underpinnings of their desired research topic.

After coursework, students typically spend a year completing their comprehensive exams and defending their research proposal, and if they both pass the exams and successfully defend the proposal, then they enter candidacy.  Another year, at a minimum, is spent on their dissertation research and the oral defense of their thesis.

Note

Attendance in all graduate seminars is essential. Most classes meet once per week from 4:30 to 7:00 pm, and some meet from 7:10 to 9:40 pm. While the Program can accommodate part-time students, it is advisable to plan on taking two seminars for the first two semesters. This enables students to track with their cohort and develop their interdisciplinary foundational knowledge-base within the first year.