The following are answers to FAQs by MA and PhD Students in the Department of African Languages and Literature. EACH QUESTION IS IMPORTANT TO EACH GRADUATE STUDENT.

Q1. If I already have my MA degree before being admitted into the PhD Program in the Department of African Languages and Literature, will my MA be automatically accepted by the Department? ANSWER

Q2. If I have taken some courses outside of the department, before being admitted into the MA or PhD program, and these courses are comparable to our department courses, could I automatically transfer these courses to fulfill part of my MA or PhD required courses? ANSWER

Q3. After I have been admitted into the Department, could I take any course from outside the department to fulfill a course required by the department, especially if the course is not offered in the department and the course is relevant to my degree program? ANSWER

Q4. In what ways can I fulfill my language requirement? ANSWER

Q5. As a graduate student, do I need to consult with anyone before I enroll each semester? ANSWER

Q6. When and how do I choose a Director for my MA thesis or a PhD dissertation? ANSWER

Q7. How, EXACTLY, do I fulfill the "foreign language other than an African language/European language spoken in Africa" requirement? ANSWER

Q8. What are the formal requirements for proposals? ANSWER

Q9. What is the formal procedure for taking prelims? ANSWER

Q10. What are the expectations for a Reading List for prelim preparation? ANSWER

Q11. What are the exact procedures and logistics for taking the prelims? ANSWER

Q12. Do courses I took as an undergrad/special student (in other words, before my graduate studies) in the department count towards my MA or PhD? ANSWER

Q13. Can I choose members of outside departments to be on my committee? ANSWER

Q14. What kind of funding does the department offer graduate students? ANSWER

Q15. What is the average length for an MA? PhD? ANSWER

Q16. If I am admitted into the MA program, is admission into the Ph.D program automatic? ANSWER

Q17. What is the maximum number of years a graduate student can be in the MA program in the Department of African Languages and Literature? ANSWER

A1. No. You will need to fulfill the MA requirements for the Department of African Languages and Literature before you can move on to the PhD Program. There are different ways you can fulfill the MA requirements:

a. You can take all the required courses for the MA including writing an MA thesis that will be defended and accepted by the department.

b. If your MA degree from another program is in Literature or Linguistics, you can petition to the Director of Graduate Studies requesting the department to consider accepting your previous MA thesis in lieu of writing another MA thesis for the department. Upon receiving your petition, the Director of Graduate Studies will set up a committee to evaluate your thesis. The committee will send their recommendation to the Director of Graduate Studies. If the recommendation is to accept the thesis, you will not need to write another thesis but you will still need to fulfill all the other MA course requirements. If the recommendation is not to accept the thesis, you will need to write another MA thesis and take all the required MA courses before you can be allowed to continue with the PhD program.

A2. Courses outside of the Department of African Languages and Literature cannot automatically count to fulfill your department required courses. If you have taken these courses prior to being admitted into the department, you will have to petition the Director of Graduate Studies to accept these courses to fulfill department requirements. The Director of Graduate Studies will contact the faculty member(s) teaching the required courses to evaluate the outside courses and make a recommendation as to whether the outside course or courses are equivalent in quality to the courses required by the department. If the recommendation is “No,” the department will not accept the courses. If the recommendation is “Yes,” then the courses will be accepted to fulfill the comparable required course or courses.

A3. You will need to talk to the Director of Graduate Studies before you take a course outside of the department, especially if you want that course to fulfill a department’s requirement. You will submit the syllabus of the course to the Director of Graduate Studies, who will contact a department faculty member that is in a better position to evaluate the appropriateness of this course with regards to our department’s requirements. If the outside course is comparable to our course, and the course is not offered in the department, the Director of Graduate Studies can authorize you to take the course outside of the department. The Director of Graduate Studies will write a letter and put it in your file to indicate that you are taking the outside course as per her/his approval, and that the outside course will be accepted to fulfill a specified requirement in the department. Please do not take an outside course without the approval of the Director of Graduate Studies and expect the department to accept the course after the fact. You need the approval of the Director of Graduate Studies before you take any required course outside of the department.

A4. The department expects you to take one of the languages offered in the department to fulfill your language requirement. If you are a native speaker of any of the languages that the department offers, and you have formally studied the language up to an intermediate level (for MA) or up to an advanced level (for PhD) of proficiency, you can petition the Department Language Coordinator to allow you to use your native language to fulfill your language requirement. In your petition, you will need to state how you have studied the language formally and show any formal essay(s) or any grammatical analysis of the language that you have written. Being a native speaker of an African language does not automatically exempt you from the language requirement. You need to demonstrate that you have studied the language formally and that you can use it in both formal and informal situations.

If the African language that you have studied formally is not taught in the department, and you can provide evidence of formal analysis of the language and evidence of written essays or ways you have demonstrated formal knowledge of the language, you can petition to the Department Language Coordinator to accept your demonstrable knowledge of the language to fulfill the language requirement. If the department is still not satisfied with whatever evidence you provide, the Department Language Coordinator can ask you to take a proficiency test on speaking, listening, writing, and reading skills in the language if there is a trained tester or evaluator of the language available. Otherwise, you will still be required to take one of the languages offered in the department to fulfill your language requirement.

A5. It is in your own interest to consult the Director of Graduate Studies each semester before you enroll for the following semester. If you do this, the Director of Graduate Studies will help to make sure you are taking the right courses at the right time. This is especially crucial in a small department like ours where many courses are not offered every semester or every year. The Director of Graduate Studies can work with you to plan your course work until you fulfill all your required courses.

A6. During your first two semesters, you need to work closely with the Director of Graduate Studies who will guide you in the selection of your required courses. While taking your required courses, you will start getting some ideas about the subject on which you want to write your thesis. You could discuss your interests with the Director of Graduate Studies who can guide you to the appropriate faculty member that will best direct your thesis or dissertation. You could also discuss your interests with the faculty whose course or courses seem to be leading you to the topic you would like to pursue.

A6. The University Extension offers reading knowledge courses to fulfill this requirement in the appropriate language. If a student opts to take a translation test, the test will be given by an expert (not from the Department of African Languages and Literature) from the appropriate language department. That judgment will become a part of the student's departmental record.

A8. Proposals should be detailed. The length: between ten and twenty pages, with an Annotated Bibliography. The proposal should be formally accepted by the student's major professor and committee.

A9. There are two written exams (one Literature exam and one Linguistics exam) taken two days apart. The third part of the prelims is the writing and the defense of your Ph.D dissertation proposal. The defense of the proposal should take place no later than one semester after the written exams. The student cannot form his or her own committee for prelims. That decision should be left to the Department, particularly to the student's major professor/advisor.

A10. Students should talk to their major professor with regards to reading lists for prelims.

A11. Your major professor and the Department will set up the logistics for the prelims. The time will depend on the nature of the questions, but generally one four-hour examination, one two-hour examination and writing and defense of your dissertation proposal (this final part has to be done at most one semester after the two written exams). Personal computers, notes, and books are not allowed. You will be provided with a computer by the Department for writing the examinations. The two examinations are taken one a day, with one free day in between. The results will be provided in a timely fashion within two weeks of the time the examinations were taken.

A12. Courses taken as an undergraduate cannot count for fulfilling MA and PhD requirements.

A13. The decision as to whether members of outside departments can be on the committee will be made by the student's major professor and committee, and within University Graduate School guidelines.

A14. There are Language Teaching Assistantships which depend on the language proficiency level of the student who is applying for any of these assistantships. Students should talk to the professors in charge of each language for information on such Teaching Assistantships. There are other Teaching Assistantships for introductory level courses such as AF 201, AF 277, AF 300 etc. Students who are interested in language pedagogy can apply for Project Assistantships through the National African Language Resource Center. Incoming students can be recommended for University Fellowships or Advanced Opportunity Fellowships for Minority Students. Students can also apply for Foreign Language and Area Studies Fellowships through the African Studies Program. Please contact the Graduate School Website for more information on various assistantships that the Graduate School coordinates. In general, students should talk to the Department Fellowships Chair for more information on different funding available to students.

A15. If a student has already fulfilled the language requirement before enrolling in the department, the average length for an MA is two years, BUT if a student is beginning his language learning in the department, the average length of an MA is three years. For the PhD, it is harder to predict how long it takes each student. This depends on individual student.

A16. If you are admitted into the MA program, admission into the Ph.D program is NOT automatic. After your MA thesis defense, your MA Committee will either recommend you for the Ph.D program or recommend to the department to offer you a terminal MA. A terminal MA means you cannot continue into the Ph.D program in our department. Therefore, it is in your own interest to finish your MA degree as soon as possible before you start taking all the Ph.D course requirements. Even if you have taken all the Ph.D course requirements before your MA thesis defense, your MA committee still reserves the right to recommend you for a terminal MA if they are convinced that it will not be in your interest to continue into the Ph.D program in our department.

A17. The maximum number of years a graduate student has to complete an MA degree in African Languages and Literature is FOUR years. If a graduate student does not complete the MA degree by the end of the fourth year, s/he will be dropped from the program and will have to apply for readmission. The department reserves the right not to readmit. (New Policy as of February 8, 2007)

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This page last updated: January 10, 2008

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