Toward the end of course work and in consultation with the adviser, the student will select a faculty member to serve as Chair of the Examination Committee, which will consist of four members of the department faculty including the Chair).

The oral examination is taken during the first seven weeks of the semester that follows the reading semester; it may be scheduled by program staff any time during those first seven weeks.  The oral examination will consist of one major and two minor fields. A field is either an historical period or an otherwise constituted domain of literary or cultural study defined by generic, theoretical, or methodological criteria. The major field will be the broad area a candidate has identified as his or her research and teaching specialty. The exam in the major field is given by two faculty members and lasts one hour. The minor fields provide for breadth of interest and focused research. Exams in minor fields are given by one faculty member each and last a half hour.

Exams are based on reading lists composed by students in consultation with faculty. The reading list for the major field should be comprehensive, including the works essential for study within the field and works the candidate has identified for his or her particular research interests. The reading lists for minor fields are more selective and aim to be representative as well as specialized. The department has no set number of texts for each field. As a guide, however, one might consider the major field to be equivalent to the reading for three courses and a minor field to be half that amount; a major field might have 60-70 texts, and a minor field 30-40. Individual examiners will approve the list for each field.  In addition, the student must submit a copy of the finalized reading list to the Graduate Office. 

The student’s performance on the examination will be judged on a pass/fail basis. In the event of failure, the student may petition the Graduate Director for permission to take the relevant part(s) of the examination a second time, but approval is not automatic and this may not be done more than once.