World Languages and Cultures Major, PhD

Concentrations (Required)

• French
• German
• Spanish

Campus Code

Knoxville Campus

Admissions Standards/Procedures

• Generally, applicants will have completed an MA in French, German, or Spanish to be accepted into this program, but consideration will also be given to those with significant graduate training in any of these areas. Both graduates of institutions in the United States and those with graduate degrees from institutions outside the United States must have a grade point average of at least 3.00.
• Submit online application to the Office of Graduate Admissions.

Credit Hours Required

• 78 graduate credit hours beyond the bachelor’s degree
• 54 graduate credit hours beyond the master’s degree

Concentration in French, German, or Spanish:

A minimum of 42 credit hours of graduate coursework plus 24 credit hours of dissertation writing (course 600). All graduate courses must be chosen in consultation with the student’s graduate coordinator.

• 6 credit hours as follows:

• WLC 512 - Teaching a Foreign Language
• WLC 584 - Modern Theory and Criticism

• 24 credit hours (minimum) of dissertation research and writing:

• FREN 600 - Doctoral Research and Dissertation
• GERM 600 - Doctoral Research and Dissertation
• SPAN 600 - Doctoral Research and Dissertation

• 6 credit hours at the 600-level, exclusive of dissertation hours. 

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.

Non-Course Requirements

• A comprehensive examination must be passed before the student may be admitted to candidacy.
• The candidate is required to defend their dissertation in an oral examination. Central emphasis is put on the doctoral dissertation as a final test of the candidate’s scholarly qualifications.
• Graduate Teaching Associates with a cognate in a second language may be given the opportunity  to instruct that language, subject to staffing needs.
• Doctoral students are strongly encouraged to construct research or study abroad and will be assisted in identifying potential sources of financial support.