THE ORAL CANDIDACY EXAMINATION

The oral candidacy examination, which is evaluated by the candidacy examination committee, is intended to assess students' knowledge of several specialized fields or topics within their general field of specialization (literature or linguistics). It covers four reading lists that students design in consultation with their advisory committee. The examination, which is chaired by the students' advisor, lasts for two hours. The members of the candidacy examination committee ask students questions based on the topics of the reading lists that they have compiled for each field. The candidacy examination committee may also ask for clarifications or amplifications of answers from the written examination and may probe the students' knowledge of their field of specialization based on the general Ph.D. reading list. It is the responsibility of the committee to ensure that the oral examination reflects an adequately broad knowledge of either Russian literature or Slavic linguistics.

Students will be told the results of both of their candidacy examinations at the conclusion of the oral. The chair of the advisory committee is responsible for informing the Graduate Studies Committee of the results.

Compiling reading lists for the oral candidacy examination

The four reading lists for the oral candidacy examination should be focused on relatively specific topics chosen by the student in consultation with the advisory committee. One of the fields may focus on a topic related to the candidate's dissertation interests or to the subject of the professional paper. In crafting their own reading lists, students might take the following as models of the focus and depth expected for the topics: for literature, "The myth of Pushkin in 20th-century literature," "The poetics of prison-camp literature," "Escape motifs in Fet's lyrics," "Representations of folk belief in 19th-century prose," "Commonplaces and innovations in medieval Russian hagiography," "Gender issues in Russian symbolism," "Salvation myths in Russian literature," "The image of the Ukrainian in Russian literature," "Transformations of the short story from Chekhov to Babel'," etc.; for linguistics, "Speech acts in modern Russian usage," "Problems of Czech historical phonology," "Adaptation of loanwords in the Slavic languages," "Issues in Balkan Linguistics," "Development of analyticism in Slavic morphology," "The Balto-Slavic Problem," "Problems in the history of the medieval Russian literary language," "Language politics in the South Slavic region," etc.

The reading lists for oral candidacy examination may draw on the general Ph.D. reading list but must contain additional works, e.g., recently published research or studies too specialized to be included in the general reading list. The lists must include secondary sources and may also contain primary sources, where relevant.

Reading lists must be compiled in consultation with and approved by the student's advisory committee by the first day of the quarter in which the student intends to take the candidacy examinations. The task of advising students on the preparation of their reading lists for the oral exam should be equitably distributed among the members of the committee according to their specialities, where possible. This advising is coordinated by the chair of the advisory committee.

Scheduling the oral candidacy examination

Ordinarily, students take the oral candidacy exams no more than two weeks after successful completion of the written candidacy exam.

It is the responsibility of the student's advisor, as chair of the advisory committee, to notify the Graduate School of the proposed time and place of the oral examination (see the Graduate School Handbook, ¤II.6.9.8.1). This must be done at least two weeks in advance. The Graduate Studies Coordinator in the departmental office can assist the advisor in this task.

It is a further responsibility of the chair of the advisory committee, with the help of the Graduate Studies Coordinator, to provide the Graduate School Representative with a copy of the written examination and the reading lists for the oral examination at least one week prior to the oral examination.

Waivers of the oral candidacy examination

If the advisory committee judges the written candidacy examination to be unsatisfactory, the advisor may so inform the student prior to the oral. The student then has the right to waive the oral examination. The student must petition the advisory committee with a request for a waiver; the committee will record a grade of "Unsatisfactory" on the Examination Report form and return it with a copy of the petition to the Graduate School.