Mar 28, 2024  
2019-2020 Graduate Catalog 
    
2019-2020 Graduate Catalog [Not Current Academic Year. Consult with Your Academic Advisor for Your Catalog Year]

Spanish, PhD


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College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences  > Department of Hispanic Studies  > Spanish, PhD

The Department of Hispanic Studies is at the forefront of research and teaching of Hispanic literature and Spanish linguistics. Our offering in Hispanic literature and Hispanic linguistics now encompasses the literatures written throughout the Americas and Spain. Given Houston’s location, as well as Arte Público Press and the Recovering the U.S. Hispanic Literary Project at UH, our PhD program offers an optimal environment in which to achieve excellence.

For more information, please visit the Spanish, PhD program page.

Admission Requirements


For unconditional admission to the PhD in Spanish, applicants must have earned an MA degree in Spanish, or its equivalent, with a minimum grade point average of 3.20 (A = 4.00).

Students who have an MA degree in a field other than Spanish and are seeking a PhD with an emphasis in literature must take, concurrently with the other courses normally required for the doctoral program, one course from each of the following groups:

  • Hispanic literature of the United States
  • Latin American literature through Modernism
  • Latin American literature since Modernism
  • Peninsular literature through the XVII century
  • Peninsular literature, centuries XVII through XX

Students with an MA degree in a field other than Spanish whose emphasis is linguistics will be required to take SPAN 6308  Introduction to Spanish Linguistics, plus one course from each of the following groups:

  • Formal linguistics (Syntax, semantics, or pragmatics)
  • Formal linguistics (Phonetics or phonology)
  • Sociolinguistics
  • Applied linguistics

Applicants must have acceptable scores on the General Aptitude section of the Graduate Record Examination (GRE). International applicants must meet English language proficiency requirements as seen on the International Graduate Students website. Three confidential letters of recommendation from professors detailing the potential of the candidate as a graduate student, a statement of purpose in Spanish (500-1000 words) explaining why you wish to pursue a graduate degree, a writing sample (research paper 7-10 pages typed, double-spaced), and official transcripts are also required.

Degree Requirements


Credit hours required for this degree: 42.0

The PhD in Spanish requires that, beyond the achievement of the master’s degree, students complete a minimum of 36 semester hours of approved graduate courses and 6 semester hours of dissertation as follows:

Required core courses Cr. 6.0
Elective courses Cr. 30.0
Dissertation Cr. 6.0

Once admitted to the program, no course in which a grade below B- (2.67) is received may be applied toward the PhD degree.

At the end of each student’s first year of course work at the PhD level, a screening procedure will be conducted by all faculty members with whom the student has studied in order to determine whether the individual is progressing satisfactorily toward the degree objective.

Required Coursework

Students from each concentration (Creative Writing, Linguistics, and Literature) must take:

  • one course (3 credit hours) in U.S. Latino Studies/U.S. Spanish and
  • one course (3 credit hours) outside their concentration, either in another concentration in Hispanic Studies or in another department on campus.

Courses in other departments will be chosen in consultation with the student’s faculty advisor and approved by the Director of Graduate Studies.

Language requirements

Reading knowledge of one language in addition to Spanish and English is required (in addition to the 42 hours referred to above). Reading knowledge may be demonstrated in one of the following ways:

  • Four college terms at the undergraduate level (or equivalent proficiency as demonstrated by testing) in another Romance language.
  • Reading knowledge of Latin or any other approved language, as demonstrated either by:
    • satisfactory scores on the Educational Testing Service examinations for that language, or
    • the completion of two terms of graduate reading courses in the language chosen with a grade of B- or higher.

PhD Comprehensive Exam

A written examination over different areas in literature and linguistics as well as an oral examination must be successfully taken before admission to candidacy.

PhD Dissertation

The student must develop a dissertation which can be considered to be original and of significance to scholarship in the respective field.

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