Contact Info

Phone:	314-935-5123
Email:	classics@wustl.edu
Website:	https://classics.wustl.edu

Doctoral Candidacy

To earn a PhD at Washington University, a student must complete all courses required by their department; maintain satisfactory academic progress; pass certain examinations; fulfill residence and Mentored Experience Requirements; write, defend, and submit a dissertation; and apply to graduate via Workday Student. For the details of doctoral degree general requirements in Arts & Sciences, including an explanation of Satisfactory Academic Progress, students should review the Doctoral Degree Academic Information page of the Arts & Sciences Bulletin.

Program Requirements

• Total Units Required: 60 (Note: Remission applies for a maximum of 72 graduate-level units.)
• Degree Length: 6 academic years
  • Note: Students must be enrolled in 9 graduate credits each semester to retain full-time status. As students complete their course work, if enrolled in fewer than 9 graduate credits, they must enroll in a specific Arts & Sciences graduate course that will show 0 units but does count as full-time status. Students should connect with their department to ensure proper enrollment prior to Add/Drop.
• Grade Requirement: Students must obtain a minimum grade of B- in graduate courses for them to count toward the degree. Students are expected to maintain a cumulative grade point average of 3.0 on a 4.0 scale.

PhD in Classics

The Classics PhD requires 60 graduate units of courses and research in combination. Up to 15 of these units may be transferred from an outside MA program in Classics at the discretion of the Graduate Committee. (Requirements listed below include requirements for the MA in Classics at Washington University.) All units must be at the 5000 level or above. With the guidance of the director of graduate studies, students may take up to 12 units outside of the Classics department to enhance their graduate study. Students may choose to pursue one of four special interdisciplinary specializations: Ancient Performance, Ancient Music, Ancient History, or Ancient Philosophy. Every PhD candidate also completes a teaching requirement through assignments as an assistant in instruction and an instructor of record.

Courses

Total units required: 60 units, including the following:

Specific required courses: 12 units

• CLASSICS 5030 Classical Studies: Theories, Methods & Practice (a proseminar on materials, methods, and professional issues in Classics; offered every 2 years)
• CLASSICS 5050 Seminar in Classics Pedagogy for Graduate Students (offered every 2 years)
• GREEK 5451 Greek Prose Composition (offered every 2 years)
• LATIN 5441 Latin Prose Composition (offered every 2 years) 

Other course requirements: 27 units

• At least 12 units in Greek (two options are offered every semester)
• At least 12 units in Latin (two or more options are offered every semester)
• At least 3 units in ancient history (at least one course will be offered every two years)

Elective courses: 21 units

This requirement includes courses for individual specializations, optional independent studies in preparation for exams, and other courses to be chosen after consultation with the director of graduate studies.

Research Credits

Program Exams

Teaching

100 MER (Mentored Experience Requirement) units are required, to be completed during the second, third, and fourth years. See "Mentored Experience Requirements" below for more information.

Modern Language Competence

This competence can be in German and French or in German and Italian. The requirement may be fulfilled by courses or examination in each case.

Dissertation Requirements

Qualifying Examinations

Progress toward the PhD is contingent upon the student passing examinations that are variously called preliminary, qualifying, general, comprehensive, or major field exams. The qualifying process varies according to the program. In some programs, it consists of a series of incremental, sequential, and cumulative exams over a considerable time. In others, the exams are held during a relatively short period of time. Exams may be replaced by one or more papers. The program, which determines the structure and schedule of the required examinations, is responsible for notifying the Office of Graduate Studies, Arts & Sciences, of the student’s outcome, whether successful or unsuccessful.

Mentored Experience Requirements

Doctoral students at Washington University must complete a department-defined Mentored Experience. The Mentored Experience Requirement is a doctoral degree requirement that is notated on the student’s transcript when complete. Each department has an established Mentored Experience Implementation Plan in which the number of units that a student must earn through Mentored Teaching Experience(s) and/or Mentored Professional Experience(s) is defined. The Mentored Experience Implementation Plans outline how doctoral students within the discipline will be mentored to achieve competencies in teaching at basic and advanced levels. Some departments may elect to include Mentored Professional Experiences as an avenue for completing some units of the Mentored Experience Requirement. Doctoral students will enroll in ASGS 8005, 8010, or 8015 Mentored Teaching Experience - Assistant in Instruction; ASGS 8020 Mentored Teaching Experience - Mentored Independent Teaching; or ASGS 8120 Mentored Professional Experience to signify their progression toward completing the overall Mentored Experience Requirement for the degree.

The Doctoral Dissertation

A Research Advisory Committee (RAC) must be created no later than the end of the student's third year; departments may set shorter timelines (e.g., by the end of the student's second year) for this requirement. As evidence of the mastery of a specific field of knowledge and of the capacity for original scholarly work, each candidate must complete a dissertation that is approved by their RAC.

A Title, Scope & Procedure Form for the dissertation must be signed by the committee members and by the program chair. It must be submitted to the Office of Graduate Studies, Arts & Sciences, at least six months before the degree is expected to be conferred or before the beginning of the fifth year of full-time enrollment, whichever is earlier.

A Doctoral Dissertation Guide and a Dissertation Template that give instructions regarding the format of the dissertation are available on the website of the Office of Graduate Studies, Arts & Sciences. Both should be read carefully at every stage of dissertation preparation.

The Office of Graduate Studies, Arts & Sciences, requires each student to make the full text of the dissertation available to the committee members for their review at least one week before the defense. Most degree programs require two or more weeks for the review period; students should check with their faculty.

The Dissertation Defense

Approval of the written dissertation by the Research Advisory Committee (RAC) is strongly recommended before the student can orally defend the dissertation. The Doctoral Dissertation Committee that examines the student during the defense consists of at least five members. Normally, the members of the RAC also serve on the Doctoral Dissertation Committee. The dissertation committee is then additionally augmented to ensure that the following criteria are met:

1. Three of the five members (or a similar proportion of a larger committee) must be full-time Washington University in St. Louis faculty members or, for programs involving Washington University in St. Louis-affiliated partners, full-time members of a Washington University in St. Louis-affiliated partner institution. All members must be authorized to supervise PhD students and have appropriate expertise in the proposed field of study. One of these three members must be the PhD student's primary thesis advisor, and one may be a member of the emeritus faculty.
2. All other committee members must be active in research/scholarship and have appropriate expertise in the proposed field of study whether at Washington University in St. Louis, at another university, in government, or in industry.
3. At least one of the five members must bring expertise outside of the student's field of study to the committee, as judged by the relevant department/program and approved by the Office of Graduate Studies, Arts & Sciences.

The approval processes outlined in the RAC section of the Doctoral Council bylaws also apply to the doctoral dissertation committee, including approval of each dissertation committee by the Office of Graduate Studies, Arts & Sciences.

The student is responsible for making the full text of the dissertation accessible to their committee members for their review in advance of the defense according to program rules. Washington University in St. Louis community members and guests of the student who are interested in the subject of the dissertation are normally welcome to attend all or part of the defense but may ask questions only at the discretion of the committee chair. Although there is some variation among degree programs, the defense ordinarily focuses on the dissertation itself and its relation to the student's field of expertise.

Attendance by a minimum of four members of the Doctoral Dissertation Committee, including the committee chair and an outside member, is required for the defense to take place. This provision is designed to permit the student's defense to proceed in case of a situation that unexpectedly prevents one of the five members from attending. Students should not plan in advance to only have four members in attendance. If four members cannot attend, the defense must be rescheduled. The absence of all outside members or of the committee chair also requires rescheduling the defense.

Students, with the support of their Doctoral Dissertation Committee chair, may opt to hold their dissertation defense in person or by utilizing a virtual or hybrid format.

Submission of the Dissertation

After the defense, the student must submit an electronic copy of the dissertation online to the Office of Graduate Studies, Arts & Sciences. The submission website requires students to choose among publishing and copyrighting services offered by ProQuest’s ETD Administrator. Students are asked to submit the Survey of Earned Doctorates separately. The degree program is responsible for delivering the final approval form, signed by the committee members at the defense and then by the program chair or director, to the Office of Graduate Studies, Arts & Sciences. Students who defend their dissertations successfully have not yet completed their PhD requirements; they finish earning their degree only when their electronic dissertation submission has been accepted by the Office of Graduate Studies, Arts & Sciences.

As part of their degree requirements, PhD students must complete a program-defined Mentored Experience Requirement (MER) as per these guidelines. The Mentored Experience Implementation Plan (MEIP) is the written articulation of a program-defined degree requirement for PhD students to engage in mentored teaching activities and/or mentored professional activities, collectively referred to as MERs.

Mentored Experience Requirements (MERs)

Philosophy of Teaching

The Classics department takes pride in its commitment to pedagogy and teacher training. The skills gained in our Mentored Teaching Experiences (MTEs) are essential for our PhD graduates looking to pursue careers in secondary or higher education. Moreover, the ability to synthesize and distill complex information and explain it to an audience of non-specialists in understandable and memorable ways is also of wide application beyond academia — in almost any career.

Preparatory Engagement

Preparatory Engagement activities are those that represent an introduction to the foundational skills associated with teaching or communication. Pedagogical preparation engagement activities are normally completed before students are permitted to engage in assisting or teaching in a classroom.

Classics requires three Preparatory Engagement activities:

1. Center for Teaching and Learning's teaching orientation
2. Departmental teaching orientation is mandatory before students begin serving as Assistants in Instruction (AIs).
3. Departmental course in pedagogy: Classics 5050 is offered every two years and may be completed concurrently while serving as an AI.

Mentored Teaching Experiences (MTEs)

Assistant in Instruction (AI)

An Assistant in Instruction (AI) is a PhD student who is directly engaged in the organization, instruction, and/or support of a semester-long course primarily taught by a faculty member. An AI receives mentorship from a faculty member related to best practices in classroom engagement, instruction in the field, interpersonal engagement, and other relevant skills. Students and mentors complete a mentorship plan prior to the start of each AI experience. To complete each AI assignment and to ensure that it applies toward their degree requirements, students must register for the appropriate course number for each semester of engagement. Refer to the "Required Pathways for Completion" section below for course numbers and details.

Classics requires 40 MER units of AI assignments based on the following units by course:

• 10 MER units = Class in which PhD students do not lead a weekly discussion section (but rather only attend lectures, hold office hours, assist with grading, and so forth)
• 15 MER units = Class in which PhD students lead a weekly discussion section

Mentored Independent Teaching (MIT)

MIT is a semester-long experience for PhD students who engage as the primary instructor or co-instructor of a course under the mentorship of a faculty member as part of the MER. Students and mentors complete a mentorship plan prior to the start of each MIT experience. To complete each MIT assignment and to ensure that it applies toward their degree requirements, students must register for the appropriate course number (ASGS 8020) for each semester of engagement. Refer to the "Required Pathways for Completion" section below for more details.

Students complete three MITs over the course of their time in the program. MITs will typically include introductory and intermediate Latin and Greek language courses, but they may also include other courses, depending on a variety of factors.

PhD students will ordinarily begin teaching during their second year in the program. Many students will then teach in years 2, 3, and 4, but the details of when they teach and what they teach will be tailored to the needs and specific academic plans of individual students. Many pathways are possible.

Required Pathways for Completion

Students work with their faculty mentor and their Director of Graduate Studies to plan how and when they will complete their MERs. Students register during the normal registration period for courses in accordance with one of these approved pathways.

• Preparatory Engagement

UG Spanish Seminar

ASGS 8010	Take one time
ASGS 8015	Take two times
ASGS 8020	Take three times