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Graduate Requirements

Required Courses for the Ph.D.

Students who do not yet have a Masters in the field and expect to acquire an A.M. in the process of doctoral candidacy at Brown will complete at least 15 courses. Two of these may be independent studies. Students who already have an A.M. or M.F.A degree from another institution will work with the Director of Graduate Studies to determine how many of their A.M. or M.F.A. credits will transfer toward Brown's Ph.D. degree. For students for whom all credits are accepted the following will be required. For the Ph.D. degree, at least 8 courses beyond the Master's Degree are required. Two of these may be independent studies. For all students, required courses are the Seminar in Dramatic Theory (TA 210) and at least two different installments of the Graduate Seminar (TA 220), the latter offered each year on rotating topics by different members of the Department's Graduate Faculty. In recent years, Graduate Seminar topics have included: American Theatre from the Beginnings to World War I; History of Actors and Acting; Revolution as a Work of Art; Theory of Drama and Theatre; Theatrical Modernism; Theatricality, Photography, and Performance. In addition, upon examination of a student's transcript, a student may be asked to audit, for no graduate credit, all or some of the three-semester Histories of World Theatre course sequence (TA 123, TA 124, and TA 125). The premise upon which these prerequisite requirements are based is that a student arriving from elsewhere to pursue a Ph.D. in Theatre and Performance Studies at Brown should be held responsible for knowing the course content of what our undergraduate concentrators know. With permission of the instructor, graduate credit may be awarded in TA 123, TA 124, TA 125, or several of the TA 128 classes, or in two of the acting courses that are taught by members of the Graduate Faculty, TA 119: Character, Mask and Action and TA 140: Advanced Performance. Since only 200-level or above courses are designated "Primarily for Graduate Students" at Brown, the instructor of a 100-level course, that is usually enrolled in by undergraduate and graduate students, will often assign additional work for a graduate student who wants to receive graduate credit for the course. Those students who do not need to take a course for credit and who do not want to pay for an "audit" designation to appear on their graduate school transcript may "vagabond" a course, meaning they may sit in on the course but receive no credit or any formal designation that they were in the course. Students who audit a course generally work out with the course's instructor which and how many assignments must be completed to receive credit as an auditor. An audited course does not, however, count toward graduate credit. Also required of all graduate students for each semester in residence is participation in the Graduate Colloquium Series. See the Colloquium Series described below. For a list of "milestones" for progress in the department, go to Milestones.

Elective Courses

Brown's Graduate Faculty offers a full menu of specialty courses currently in the areas of Theatre and Drama of the Americas; European Theatre and Performance Traditions; Non-Western Theatre and Performance; Theatre and Neuroscience; The Development of Twentieth-Century Theatre in the West; Russian Theatre and Drama; Revolution as a Work of Art; Mise en Scene; Performance Theory; New Theories for a Baroque Stage; Ethnography and Performance; Feminist, Race-Critical, Queer Theory and Performance; Abstraction and Resistance; and Performance Art Theory and Practice. Our Department also offers courses in Dance History, Modern Dance and West African Traditions in American Dance, as well as in Solo Performance (Acting) and Style and Performance (Acting) that some of our graduate students have found to be quite useful. These courses offer different methodologies and discourses as well as variety in subject matter. In addition, our diverse field faculty offer courses in Playwriting, Music, Africana Studies, English, Literary Arts, Comparative Literature, Classics, Anthropology, Modern Culture and Media, etc. There are many other relevant courses involving film studies, digital media studies, literary theory and genre studies, religion and ritualistic performance, art history and representation, cultural studies and political discourse, and gender and identity politics, many of which are cross-listed and some team-taught through two departments, indicating the openness to academic border-crossing and resource-sharing that is the norm at Brown. Students may choose to audit or to "vagabond" (described above) an elective course, and Brown's unofficial "shopping period" (the period during which you can add a course without incurring a fee) allows students to sit in on several different courses before deciding upon a final course schedule for the semester.

Graduate Colloquia

In addition to a number of public lectures that are open to all Brown students as well as to the Providence community, the graduate faculty of the Department convenes a series of colloquia per academic year that are specifically designed to inform and engage our graduate students. The colloquia are both faculty- and student-run and may include sessions in which students present current work. Speakers are invited from a list that is drawn up by the graduate faculty and the graduate students to reflect students' research interests. We often host scholars at the forefront of scholarship so that graduate students are exposed to the newest and best that performance scholarship has to offer and so that students have a chance to establish personal contacts with persons influential in the field. Past guests have included Diana Taylor, Elin Diamond, Herbert Blau, Jennifer Devere Brody, Ann Pellegrini, Timothy Murray, Shannon Jackson, Eric Lott, Roberto Varea, Jody Enders, Michal Kobialka, Branislav Jakovljevic, Fred Moten, Karen Shimakawa, Adrian Heathfield, Andre LePecki, Joseph Roach, Tracy Davis, Alice Rayner, Michal Kobialka, and martin Harries. Brown Professors from the Department and the Field Faculty also present their recent work. The colloquium, which is attended by faculty and graduate students, and moderated by a graduate student from the department, meets on approximately two Friday afternoons a month throughout the year. The colloquium also sponsors “key text” sessions specially designed for incoming graduate students, as well as workshops on professional development, where faculty coach students in “how to” write proposals, abstracts, conference papers, resumes, job letters, etc. Graduate students are required to attend all of the graduate colloquia sessions, for which they receive no academic credit. See this year’s schedule here.

Foreign Language Requirements

The Doctoral Program requires that Ph.D. candidates satisfy the requirement for reading comprehension in two foreign languages, or satisfy a requirement for research proficiency in one foreign language. Both languages should be completed before the student can graduate to ABD status (all but dissertation).

The requirement for reading comprehension in two languages can be satisfied in one of the following ways for each language:

  1. The student can be a native speaker in a language other than English.
  2. The student can prove an appropriate level of study of a foreign language from a college transcript. The transcript should show that the student has passed a class at the equivalent level to Brown’s 40-level (advanced-intermediate) foreign language courses.
  3. The student can take and pass one of Brown’s “Reading” classes, such as “Reading for German,” or “Reading for French.” These classes are generally offered during the summer.
  4. The student can pass a placement exam delivered by the Brown Language Lab. The placement exam used by the lab tests reading, vocabulary, and grammar (rather than listening/speaking). The score of the test should be 474 or higher.

The requirement for research proficiency in one language can be satisfied in one of the following ways:

  1. The student may be a native speaker in a language other than English.
  2. The student may write a paper in English using multiple primary and secondary sources in the foreign language (cited in the text in the foreign language and translated by the student into English as well). The student must also take a placement test at the Brown Language Lab and score 474 or higher.
  3. The student may pass a placement test delivered by the Brown Language Lab with a score of 474 or higher. The student will also pass a 50 level course in language and literature, taught in the foreign language.
  4. After passing or being exempted from a 50 level course in language and literature, the student may pass a course at the 100 level or higher conducted in a language other than English.

Qualifying Assessment

Qualifying Assessment: An assessment takes place at the completion of every student's third semester, regardless of whether a student entered with a Masters Degree or without. The assessment consists of submission, to the core graduate faculty, of the student's Brown transcript to date (including second semester Fall grades) as well as one term paper of the student's choice, written while at Brown and preferably but not necessarily chosen from a class or independent study taken within the department. Four copies of this material should be submitted by January 15 (assuming all students entered in the Fall and took no leaves of absence) to the DGS. The core graduate faculty will meet to assess each student's progress in the department and evaluate whether or not a student should proceed to the comprehensive exams. In the rare circumstance that a student should not proceed, that student will be awarded an A.M. degree upon the completion of 10 courses but will not progress toward Doctoral study at Brown.

Selecting a Committee

At some during the second year of study (and occasionally earlier) a student selects a chair as the first step to selecting a committee of three to oversee the long road to the comprehensive exams and the dissertation defense. A student does not have to have selected a chair prior to the Qualifying Assessment, though a student may have done so. To select a chair, a student asks a member of the core graduate faculty or the field faculty to serve in this function. The selection of the chair is largely at the discretion of the student, though often the student discusses potential choices with the Director of Graduate Studies who serves as the student’s chair until a formal selection is made. A faculty member need not accept a student's request and students should select carefully based on coincidence of scholarly experience and interest. It is best to have taken at least one class with a professor before asking them to chair, though this is not always possible. The chair shepherds the student through the process of comprehensive exams and, ultimately, the dissertation, acting as the student’s advisor and advocate. Once a student has a chair, and at the time that s/he begins preparing for the comprehensive exams, then the student can select members from the faculty who will constitute the student’s Special Committee. The student selects the broader committee together with his or her chair, with an eye toward the requirements of the comprehensive exams and the student’s (and faculty’s) areas of expertise. The committee consists of the chair and two (or three) other professors. Usually, at least two members of the committee are from the core graduate faculty, with the third professor being from core, field, or the university at large. A field faculty member may be chosen as committee chair upon approval of the Director of Graduate Studies. A fourth member may be selected from either inside or outside the university on approval (or insistence) of the Director of Graduate Studies. After the comprehensive exams, if a student needs to alter the committee to accommodate the dissertation, the committee may be amended. When possible, it is best to select a committee that can serve throughout the comprehensive exam and dissertation process. However, we are flexible, and understand that processes are vital and lively and can indeed alter during a course of study.

Comprehensive Exams

To qualify for doctoral candidacy, a student will take comprehensive exams. Generally, the exams are taken three to six months after the completion of course work, and conversation about the exams should begin with the committee chair before the last semester of coursework. The exams consist of one general exam on theatre and performance history and three specialized essay exams based on reading lists prepared by the student and augmented and approved by the student’s committee to reflect areas of scholarly interest. These lists will be prefaced by a descriptive statement on the area of the study and the focus of inquiry, and may be accompanied by a set of questions the student will prepare to address. Once the lists are approved (by signature of committee members), the student will commence study. Students should allow at least three months for study of the lists before the exam itself. When the student is ready to take the exam, the committee will construct one question for each list area, and the student will write an essay in response to that question. It is advisable that discussions about the comprehensive exams begin with the student’s chair at least six months in advance of the projected exam date because it takes time to form the appropriate committee for the specialized areas of study, it takes time to adequately develop appropriate bibliographic lists representative of the areas of study, it takes time to have the lists approved, and it takes time to study those lists in preparation for the exams. The written exams are passed in to the committee and then defended orally.

Dissertation

Upon passing the comprehensive exams, a scholarly dissertation is required. The dissertation, formatted in either Chicago or MLA style, will be subject to an oral defense. For final touches, see the library link on thesis binding.

 

 

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