Iberian and Latin American Languages and Cultures (PhD)
Department website: http://liberalarts.utexas.edu/spanish/
Graduate work in Iberian and Latin American languages and cultures is offered in three concentrations: Iberian and Latin American Literatures and Cultures, Luso-Brazilian Cultural and Media Studies, and Iberian and Latin American Linguistics.
Graduate Handbook
Graduate handbook information is updated and maintained by each program. Graduate handbooks are available within each program's office and online. Please contact the program with concerns or questions.
Admission
All entering students must hold a bachelor's degree with a major in Spanish and Portuguese or must demonstrate equivalent knowledge. All students must demonstrate proficiency in a second language; this requirement may be fulfilled by exam, previous credit, or 10 to 12 semester hours of additional coursework at The University of Texas at Austin.
Total Hours Required: 54
Requirements
| Code | Title | Hours |
|---|---|---|
| ILA 380 | Introduction to Theory and Research of Literature and Culture (Concentrations 1 and 2) | 3 |
| ILA 385T | Teaching Practicum | 3 |
| ILA 394 | Supervised Preparation of the Qualifying Paper | 3 |
| ILA 395 | Supervised Preparation of the Dissertation Fields | 3 |
| ILA 396 | Supervised Preparation of the Dissertation Proposal | 3 |
| ILA 398T | Supervised Teaching in Spanish and Portuguese | 3 |
| Hours chosen from: courses in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese | 15 | |
| Free electives: Additional coursework to reach total hours required. | 15 | |
| ILA 699W | Dissertation | 6 |
| Graduate Liberal Arts Requirements | ||
| Graduate University Requirements | ||
| Total Hours | 54 | |
Additional Requirements
All students must demonstrate proficiency in a second language beyond Spanish or Portuguese. In the first and third tracks, the second language may be any language other than English that is relevant to the student's proposed field of study and is approved by the graduate advisor. Students in the second track must choose Spanish or Portuguese as the second language.
For Concentrations 1 and 2, at least one of these electives must be a graduate seminar on a Peninsular topic, and at least one must be a graduate seminar on a Luso-Brazilian topic (total of two courses).
For doctoral students, the fourth long semester is dedicated to the elaboration of the doctoral qualifying paper. In the first half of the semester, each student must write and submit a paper demonstrating a mastery of a specialized topic, theoretical rigor, sophisticated research techniques, and a command of structure, academic style, and organization. If the committee, consisting of the student's advisor and two other readers deem the paper acceptable, the student will defend the paper before the committee during the second half of the semester.
Upon the successful completion of the doctoral qualifying paper, in the fifth long semester, students will enroll in nine hours of additional elective coursework.
The sixth and seventh long semesters are dedicated to the preparation of the doctoral dissertation fields and proposal. In the sixth long semester, in consultation with a Dissertation Fields Committee (consisting of the three Graduate Studies Committee faculty members from the department, including the student's advisor, and one faculty member from outside the department), each student will prepare and write critical summaries of a number of field lists. If the Dissertation Fields Committee considers the list and accompanying summaries acceptable, the student will develop a doctoral dissertation proposal, under the supervision of their supervisor(s), which the student will defend in a meeting with the Dissertation Proposal Committee (consisting of the four committee members with the option of adding one more) before the twelfth week of the seventh long semester. The student will also enroll in ILA 385T during the seventh long semester.
Language Requirements
Graduate students in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese are required to demonstrate proficiency in three languages:
- English: The Office of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies minimum scores for admission are a 79 on the TOEFL (internet-based test) or an overall band of 6.5 on the ILETS Academic Examination for international students. To be eligible for a TA or AI position, international students must score a minimum of 25 on the speaking portion of the TOEFL.
- Primary Working Language (PWL): Spanish or Portuguese (non-native speakers usually demonstrate near-native fluency via previous coursework, academic degrees, and/or writing samples). Note that faculty may interview non-native speakers prior to admission to the department to confirm near-native fluency.
- Secondary Language (SL): Language appropriate to the student’s line of study as determined by their faculty advisor/supervisor and Graduate Advisor. The student must demonstrate Advanced-Low Reading Proficiency.1
- 1
ACTFL description of Advanced-Low sublevel of reading proficiency: readers are able to understand conventional narrative and descriptive texts with a clear underlying structure though their comprehension may be uneven. These texts predominantly contain high-frequency vocabulary and structures.
Declaration of Languages
By the end of the first year, students should meet with their Faculty Advisors/Supervisors to discuss the SL appropriate to their line of study and to decide how proficiency will be demonstrated (see below). The student will complete the Declaration of Languages form available from the Graduate Coordinator, which will then be routed to the faculty advisor/supervisor and the Graduate Advisor for their approval.
Prior to advancing to candidacy, the student will submit proof of Advanced Low Reading Proficiency in the SL. This should take place before the Dissertation Proposal Defense.
Depending on the language, there are a variety of ways to demonstrate proficiency for the SL, for example:
- For Spanish or Portuguese, a reading and translation exam administered by the Director of the Language Program and/or Portuguese Program Director in the Department of Spanish & Portuguese (available once per year – see the Graduate Coordinator for details)
- A grade of B or higher in Intensive Reading courses at UT Austin or other accredited institution such as GER X80C German for Graduate Students in Other Departments.
- Confirmation of Advanced Low Reading Proficiency from a recognized language institute.
- Translation exam administered by a reader proficient in the SL (such as UT Austin or other university faculty, language institute directors, etc.). The exam usually consists of a passage taken from a secondary text. Students are given an hour to an hour and a half to translate, with a dictionary.
- Other arrangements may be implemented if approved by the student’s faculty advisor/supervisor and by the Graduate Advisor.
Concentrations
All graduate students in Concentrations 1 and 2 must complete ILA 380 as well as 12 semester hours of elective coursework in their first three long semesters. By the end of the third long semester, students must have selected or been assigned a mentor from among the department's graduate faculty.
Concentration 1: Iberian and Latin American Literatures and Cultures
The Iberian and Latin American literatures and cultures concentration addresses the broad range of linguistic and cultural contacts that currently comprise our field. This concentration allows students to complete their primary coursework in Spanish, with a focus that may include the multiple languages and cultures of Latin America (including the U.S.), Spain, the Caribbean, Africa, or Asia, or related diasporas. Students will then choose a specialization in the literature and culture of a second language relevant to their research. This could be Portuguese, Nahuatl, a Mayan language, French, Arabic, Hebrew, Yiddish, Yoruba, a Creole language, etc.
Concentration 2: Luso-Brazilian Cultural and Media Studies
The Luso-Brazilian cultural and media studies concentration is designed for students who wish to acquire the cultural capital and critical thinking skills crucial to a global understanding of Brazil, Portugal, and the Portuguese-speaking populations of Africa and Asia. While also addressing a range of media and cultural contacts, this option allows students to complete their primary coursework in Luso-Brazilian literature, film, and culture, choosing either Spanish or another relevant language as the basis of a secondary research focus. This concentration is designed to bridge the traditional divide between Brazil, the Americas, and the Lusophone world.
Concentration 3: Iberian and Latin American Linguistics
In the Iberian and Latin American linguistics concentration, students pursue coursework in areas that bridge theoretical and applied approaches in the study of the structural and meaning-bearing properties of standardized and local languages, the sociolinguistics of the Ibero-American world, the development of second languages in natural and academic settings, and the qualitative and quantitative analysis of speech samples collected in the field and in the laboratory. This training is supported and augmented by coursework in the core linguistic areas of phonology and syntax as well as in the research methods of phonetics, discourse analysis, corpus linguistics, psycholinguistics, and anthropological linguistics through the offerings of graduate programs in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese and allied departments, including linguistics, French and Italian, curriculum and instruction, psychology, communication, anthropology, and Latin American studies.