Cognate Field (Required)
A minimum of 12 graduate credit hours in either a second language, Africana Studies, Applied Linguistics, Cinema Studies, Gender Studies, Latin American and Caribbean Studies, Medieval and Renaissance Studies, or Social Theory. At least six (6) of these credit hours must be at the 500-level or above. The cognate field must be chosen in consultation with the student’s graduate coordinator and/or dissertation director. Cognates not listed here may be approved if the student has a compelling research interest in the field. See below for LACS; for other fields, all courses must be preapproved by the graduate coordinator. Students are encouraged to pursue a graduate certificate in the cognate field when possible, although application for these certificates is a separate process (note that at least 3 hours of certificate courses must be outside of the hours that count for the PhD in WLC).
Cognate in Latin American and Caribbean Studies
Although the principal target audience consists of doctoral students in Spanish, and especially those with a Latin American specialization, the LACS cognate field is available to all PhD students in World Languages and Cultures. The requirements are:
1. Two courses (6 graduate credit hours) at the 400- or 500-level in French, Portuguese, or Spanish. These classes must be outside of the student’s concentration language; must both be in the same language program; and must be conducted in the target language.
2. Two graduate courses (6 credit hours) with Latin American or Caribbean content offered by two different units outside of the concentration. History will preferably be one of these units, alongside Anthropology, Cinema Studies, French, Political Science, Portuguese, Sociology, or Spanish. These courses must be approved by the student’s graduate coordinator or advisor.
