The Dual-Title Ph.D. in Spanish and Visual Studies offers students the opportunity to pursue coursework and research on images, word-image relations, and diverse forms of seeing in Iberian, Latin American (including Brazilian), Inter-American, and Latinx cultures across historical periods. The program draws on faculty expertise in several areas including film studies; theatre, performance, and media studies; early modern print and material culture; graphic narrative and comics; documentary photography and visual propaganda; the aesthetics of the body and disease; and the production of social space.
In the curriculum and guided research, students forge dynamic connections with the insights and approaches of a wide range of other humanistic disciplines, such as gender studies, history, literary studies, critical race studies, disability studies, philosophy, and cultural theory.
Faculty
Degree Description
Requirements listed here are in addition to requirements listed in GCAC-208 Dual-Title Graduate Degree Programs.
Graduate students with interests in Spanish and/or Latin American literature and visual media may apply to the dual-title Ph.D. in Spanish and Visual Studies. The goal of the dual-title Ph.D. in Spanish and Visual Studies is to enable graduate students from Spanish to acquire the knowledge and skills of their major area of specialization in Spanish and/or Latin American literature, while at the same time gaining the theories and methods of Visual Studies.
Admission Requirements
To pursue a dual-title degree under this program, the student must first apply to the Graduate School and be admitted through the Department of Spanish, Italian, and Portuguese (see the Admission Requirements tab). After admission to their primary program, students must apply for admission to and meet the admissions requirements of the Visual Studies dual-title program. Refer to the Admission Requirements section of the Visual Studies Bulletin page. Students must receive approval from the Director of Graduate Studies in Spanish, and must submit a recommendation from a member of the Spanish Graduate Faculty who is also a member of the Visual Studies Graduate Faculty. Doctoral students must be admitted into the dual-title degree program in Visual Studies prior to taking the qualifying examination in Spanish.
Degree Requirements
To qualify for the dual-title degree, students must satisfy all of the degree requirements listed on the Degree Requirements tab for the Ph.D. degree in Spanish. In addition, students must complete the degree requirements for the dual-title in Visual Studies, listed on the Visual Studies Bulletin page. At least 9 of the 24 credits required for the Visual Studies dual-title must be from Spanish courses dealing with questions of visuality. These courses must be chosen in consultation with the Director of Graduate Studies in Spanish.
The qualifying examination committee for the dual-title Ph.D. degree will be composed of Graduate Faculty from Spanish and must include at least one Graduate Faculty member from the Visual Studies program. Faculty members who hold appointments in both programs’ Graduate Faculty may serve in a combined role. There will be a single qualifying examination, containing elements of both Spanish and Visual Studies. Dual-title graduate degree students may require an additional semester to fulfill requirements for both areas of study and, therefore, the qualifying examination may be delayed one semester beyond the normal period allowable.
In addition to the general Graduate Council requirements for Ph.D. committees, the Ph.D. committee of a Spanish and Visual Studies dual-title Ph.D. student must include at least one member of the Visual Studies Graduate Faculty. Faculty members who hold appointments in both programs’ Graduate Faculty may serve in a combined role. If the chair of the Ph.D. committee is not also a member of the Graduate Faculty in Visual Studies, the member of the committee representing Visual Studies must be appointed as co-chair. The Visual Studies representative on the student’s Ph.D. committee will develop questions for and participate in the evaluation of the comprehensive examination.
Students in the dual-title program are required to write and orally defend a dissertation on a topic that is approved in advance by their Ph.D. committee and reflects their original research and education in Spanish and Visual Studies. Upon completion of the doctoral dissertation, the candidate must pass a final oral examination (the dissertation defense) to earn the Ph.D. degree. The dissertation must be accepted by the Ph.D. committee, the head of the graduate program, and the Graduate School.
For questions about the dual-title Ph.D. in Spanish and Visual Studies, please contact Matthew Marr, Associate Professor of Spanish (Chair, Graduate Committee in Spanish).