Spanish & Portuguese

Graduate study in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese is a challenging but rewarding path to becoming a scholar and a teacher. Students concentrate their energy on coursework, exam and language preparation, ultimately the dissertation, and also teaching. At the same time, they have ample opportunities to take advantage of the university's rich intellectual life beyond our own program. This guide provides an overview of the principal requirements, expectations, and resources related to graduate training in the department, as well as the wider university. Please note that changes may be made to the policies herein as determined by the faculty.

The School of Liberal Arts

Our graduate program is administered through the School of Liberal Arts, http://www.liberalarts.tulane.edu/graduate.cfm. Key information is available on the website for incoming and enrolled students, who should check it regularly. The website includes a section on Student Resources with links to the list of deadlines, the Graduate Program catalogue, and other important information . Forms for transfer credit, applications for degree, the dissertation prospectus, advancement to candidacy, etc. are also found there. SLA deadlines vary, and it is the responsibility of the student to keep up with deadlines and file necessary papers accordingly. The Assistant Dean for Graduate Programs and administrator in charge of overseeing enrolled graduate students is Deborah Troescher (deboraht@tulane.edu).

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Gibson online

Gibson Online: https://gibson.tulane.edu/tulane/jsp/login.html is the gateway to major online services, including course listings, grade access, registration, and bill payments.

Students are responsible for keeping track and payment of fees each semester.

REGISTRATION POLICIES AND PROCEDURES*

Students register with TOUR, Tulane Online University Records. Information regarding dates, times, and procedures for TOUR appears on the website of the Registrar at http://www.tulane.edu/~registra/. Course listings, academic calendars, grade access, and other registration information can also be found at this website.

All admitted students are eligible to register with TOUR. All students must confirm their registration. Bills for tuition and fees are sent electronically and by regular mail. Students assume financial obligations for their courses upon registration.

Students who are not registering for course work must maintain continuous residence or non- residence registration during fall and spring semesters and should register for either master's research (Master's Research 9980) or Dissertation Research (Diss. Research 9990) via TOUR. The continuous registration form, located on the School of Liberal Arts Graduate Programs website, should be used after TOUR has closed for the semester.

GRADES AND ACADEMIC CONDUCT

Attention is called to the grading system as described in the School of Liberal Arts Graduate Catalogue: http://tulane.edu/liberal-arts/upload/SLA-GraduateCatalog-revisedGSCwithTOC_000.pdf. "I" or incomplete grades automatically become "U" unless the work is made up within 30 days of the end of the semester in which reported. Graduate Program policy is that a combination of two "B-" or "U" grades usually indicates that a student's work is unsatisfactory and that he or she should discontinue graduate study. Graduate students must maintain a grade-point average (GPA) of 3.5 or above. A students whose GPA falls below 3.5 may be dropped from the program.

The Department of Spanish and Portuguese strictly observes Tulane's honor code policy. Students are expected to familiarize themselves with the Unified Code of Graduate Student Conduct: http://tulane.edu/provost/upload/Unified_Code_of_GS_Academic_Conduct_11-14-07.pdf

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RESIDENCE REQUIREMENT

Tulane Graduate School Regulations call for the minimum payment of tuition and fees equivalent to the total due for three years (six semesters) in full-time residence status.

The Department of Spanish and Portuguese normally expects graduate students on teaching assistantships to be in residence for the nine-month academic year and to teach one course each semester. In some cases, however, students who have finished all requirements for the Ph.D., except for the dissertation, may petition to teach their two courses in one semester (preferably the fall) in order to spend the other semester residing and doing their research elsewhere. Such petitions must be made to the Department Chair and Director of Graduate Studies by March 1 of the prior academic year; they must be accompanied by a plan of the work to be accomplished during the student's time away and a letter of approval from the advisor. Requests will be granted contingent upon the successful completion of pre-dissertation requirements. Students will need to pay the $300/semester fee to maintain continuous registration during the semester they are not in residence. They will continue to receive their stipend fellowships in twenty biweekly installments.

TIME LIMIT
Financial aid is for a maximum of five years to the Ph.D. for students who enter the Tulane graduate program without an M.A. Students who enter the Ph.D. program here after completing an M.A. elsewhere will have a maximum of four years of support at Tulane. Only in unusual cases, and with the approval of the department chair and the Dean of the Graduate School, will credit remain valid for courses taken more than six calendar years before the date of the Ph.D. exam. Students ordinarily must complete the requirements for the Ph.D. degree within seven years from the date of the first graduate registration.

The department is not in a position to guarantee the offer of adjunct positions to students who are still working on the dissertation when their stipends run out. Adjunct positions are largely dependent on budget decisions made in the SLA Dean's office. The department can never know with certainty whether or not such positions will be available. Moreover, in years when we are able to offer adjunct appointments to ABDs, consideration will be given only to students who have demonstrated significant progress towards dissertation completion. Typically such appointments will be for no more than one year.

Coursework

Coursework is intended to balance solid generalist and more specialized training and to help students prepare for the M.A. and Ph.D. exams. A total of 51 credits (17 courses) are required. 42 credits or 14 courses should be completed for the M.A. degree. Students should aim for a distribution of courses pertaining to both Spain and Latin America to help them prepare for the job market. With rare exceptions, all students must take SPAN 6010, Methods of Teaching, and SPAN 6100, Literary Theory, and at least four 7000-level seminars. Students are strongly encouraged to enroll in SPAN 6510, The History of the Spanish Language during their first or second year of coursework. Besides introducing students to the historical evolution of Spanish, the class also provides training in basic linguistic concepts that apply to many areas of our field, such as teaching. In the fall semester of their second or third year of the program (depending on whether they entered at the M.A. or Ph.D. level), students are expected to take SPAN 7960, Special Projects. This is a research and profesional development seminar intended to help prepare students for the final phases of the program (i.e., the Ph.D. exam and dissertation project) and for their careers beyond graduation. See the timeline in this handbook for semester-by-semester breakdown of the course load.

Students should consult with the Director of Graduate Studies each semester to discuss the coursework. These advising sessions are extremely important to make sure everyone is on track with requirements and keeping pace with the timeline. With the exception of courses taken for basic language instruction, students should not register for any courses below the 6000 level. Only 6000- and 7000-level work counts toward the degree requirements. We encourage students to select 7000-level courses whenever possible and appropriate. These courses are smaller, more specialized seminars limited strictly to graduate students. At the 6000-level, which is shared with senior undergraduates, the professor may elect to have separate, more advanced requirements for graduate students. Keep in mind that every course offers students the chance to enhance their development as a professional scholar-critic. Professors expect active and serious participation in class discussion, and oral presentations are common for they give essential preparation for future teaching. Graduate coursework also involves heavy amounts of writing. Term papers are an especially important exercise for refining critical and research skills, and should be begun as early in the semester as possible.

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TRANSFER CREDITS

Students entering the M.A./Ph.D. program may transfer up to 12 credits (equivalent of four courses). Students who enter the program with an M.A. from another university in Spanish or Portuguese or a closely related field may transfer up to 24 credits (equivalent to 8 courses). Transfer credits are granted in consultation with the Director of Graduate Studies after the successful completion of the first semester at Tulane.

Languages

Reading knowledge is required of two languages other than English and the language of specialization. This requirement may be satisfied by passing a translation and reading-comprehension examination, or by successfully completing a 6000- or 7000-level course in the language. Students should begin necessary language study from their first year in the program or even before their arrival on campus. Those entering the M.A./Ph.D. program must fulfill the requirement for their first foreign language early in the fall semester of their second year. Students entering with an M.A. from another institution must have the first language requirement fulfilled by the end of their second semester in the program, the second language requirement by the end of the first semester prior to taking the Ph.D exams.

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M.A. Exam

The M.A. exam is based on reading lists [link] in four fields: for Spanish, Medieval to Early Modern (Golden Age) Spain, 18th century to present-day Spain, Colonial and 19^th-century Latin America, 20^th-century to present-day Latin America; for Portuguese, Luso-Brazilian literature to 1822, Luso-Brazilian literature 1822-1922, Luso-Brazilian literature 1922-1968, and Luso-Brazilian literature 1968 to the present. The exam consists of four groups of questions corresponding to the four fields. Students answer one question from each field. The exam is normally taken on a Friday in February (the date is announced at the beginning of the academic year), from 9:00 am to 12:00 pm (first two fields) and 1:00 PM to 4 PM (second two fields), at a location on the Tulane campus to be determined by the Graduate Studies Committee. The exam is strictly closed book; no outside sources (print, electronic, or handwritten) may be consulted.

Exams are evaluated by the whole faculty, who also discuss the students' overall performance in the program. The following rules apply for unsatisfactory answers: If an answer is judged barely passing, a conference will be set up within two weeks of taking the exam with the faculty member who wrote the question, the Director of Graduate Studies, and Chair if her or his presence is requested by the student. If a student fails one or more sections of the exam, he or she may retake those parts if the other answers are deemed satisfactory. There are no retakes for failure on three or more sections.

It is normally expected that students who pass the M.A. exam will continue on for the Ph.D. program. If, however, performance in class has been problematic or there is serious concern about a student's ability to undertake independent research, he or she may be asked to leave the program with a terminal Master's degree.

The M.A. degree is granted contingent upon the passing of all sections of the exam, the completion of necessary coursework, and the fulfillment of the first language requirement.

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PH.D. EXAM

The Ph.D. exam is based on three reading lists (in one major field and two minor fields), created in close consultation with three exam-committee members who must approve the lists. The major field is divided into four subgroups and each of the minor fields into three. The lists for the major and two minor fields should be preceded by a paragraph or two articulating the main critical issues and questions to be addressed in each field. Each sub-list of readings should consist of primary works and key secondary studies.

Students enjoy considerable freedom in developing individual research agendas and addressing particular intellectual concerns in the preparation of the exam fields. The preparation of the lists is considered a fundamental step in their training both for scholarship and teaching. Students should thus approach them with a serious eye towards the area of dissertation research and complementary fields. Faculty members of a student's exam committee normally serve on their dissertation committees.

The Ph.D. exam is to be taken over a weekend (Friday morning to Monday afternoon), normally the last weekend in February, in the student's third of fourth year in the program, depending on whether he or she entered at the M.A. level. For the major list and each of the two minor lists, there is one compulsory question and one pair of questions, of which the student will answer one. The student therefore writes a total of six questions, two for each field. This is a take-home, open-book exam, and all sources consulted must be duly cited. Students should avoid long quotes, paraphrases, or any other rhetoric that suggests excessive conceptual or theoretical dependence on secondary sources. Answers should not exceed fifteen pages per question and should be written in Word documents, using 12-point font with one-inch margins and double space. Exam answers are to be submitted in three different files as electronic attachments to emails sent to both the Director of Graduate Studies and the departmental Executive Secretary.

The exam is evaluated by the entire faculty as pass with distinction, pass, or fail. For less than adequate answers, the following rules apply: If an answer is judged to be incomplete or inadequate but barely passing, a conference will be set up with the student's committee no later than three weeks following the evaluation of the exam. The student may choose to invite the Chair or the Director of Graduate Studies to participate as well. If less than half of the answers are failed, only those areas will be tested in a make-up exam. If more than half of the answers are failed, the entire exam must be retaken. Only one make-up exam will be allowed. A student may be terminated from the program if they fail more than 50% of the Ph.D. Qualifying Exam.

Only under exceptional circumstances will postponement of an examination be permitted. These include ill health, mental or physical, or any kind of incapacitating injury. All such contingencies must be documented by a recognized medical authority. Other contingencies include a family catastrophe, the death of a close relative, or funeral at short notice related to such deaths. In all such circumstances, the Director of Graduate Studies should be notified as soon as possible about the crisis. Changes in area of concentration, academic interest, or field of intended research do not constitute admissible grounds for a postponement.

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Dissertation Prospectus

Students should begin to think about their dissertation topic as early as possible. This is especially important when preparing the major field for the Ph.D. exam, which should be closely related to the subject of the dissertation. Four weeks after the completion of the Ph.D. exam, students submit a draft of the dissertation prospectus (8-10 pages including bibliography) to committee members, followed, three weeks later, by an oral defense and submission of the final prospectus to committee members and the Director of Graduate Studies. Ten days later, students submit a shorter version of the prospectus (3 double-spaced pages) and a signed copy of the Approval of the Dissertation Prospectus Form to the SLA Office of Graduate Programs.

The prospectus offers a narrative outline of the dissertation project, its topic, aims, approach, scope, and chapter organization. It must articulate a particular set of scholarly questions; offer a rationale for your objects of analysis (whether literary texts, films, or other forms of cultural production); and explain the main critical debates the student will be engaging, as well as the particular contributions she or he intends to make.

Students will not be admitted A.B.D. candidacy until after all degree requirements are satisfied and the prospectus has been officially approved and submitted (for more details, see SLA Graduate Catalogue: http://tulane.edu/liberal-arts/graduate-resources.cfm).

DISSERTATION

Writing the dissertation is probably the most challenging but exciting stage of one's graduate career. The faculty wants to stress the importance of finishing the dissertation in a timely manner. It is crucial when seeking tenure-track positions that students demonstrate they can finish this project, since future employers want to know that they are hiring a productive colleague. It is important that students consult with dissertation directors and committee members regarding expectations of when pages/chapters should be turned in and how written work should be formatted. Dissertation students are required to be in contact with directors and committee members twice per semester at the very minimum to discuss progress. Ideally, contact should be more frequent than that. At the end of this document, there is an example of dissertation guidelines that Professor Avelar gives to students working with him. Guidelines from individual directors may be different and not necessarily written out.

"Working papers" sessions are normally held once each semester for students writing the dissertation. For each session, three or more dissertation students circulate a part of their work to the other ABD students. During the actual session, all participants provide commentary and feedback. These sessions are meant encourage intellectual dialogue and provide students experience in talking about their work to peers and professors outside the specialized field. While students writing the dissertation are the presenters and primary commentators, others are strongly encouraged to attend the sessions.

A public, oral defense of the dissertation is scheduled upon approval of all committee members. The final dissertation is filed with the School of Liberal Arts, and students must adhere to instructions for formatting and submission. See SLA Graduate Catalogue for more details: http://tulane.edu/liberal-arts/graduate-resources.cfm.

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Professional development

The department is committed to providing guidance in professional development as much as possible. Thus, in addition to offering scholarly training through coursework, papers, exams, and the dissertation, we also organize workshops on various aspects of the profession such as the job market (including mock interviews), the curriculum vitae, publishing, and grants. Professional development is also a key component of SPAN 7960, "Special Projects" (see Coursework above).

Ultimately, success in the program and beyond depends heavily on students' own initiative. This means that they should seek out faculty members for advice on classes, paper assignments, exam preparation, and the like. Students should also participate in the department's graduate student conference, which normally takes place once a year or every other year. More advanced students should seek opportunities to present their work at national and, when appropriate, international conferences. Funds for graduate student conference travel are available by application from the Graduate and Professional Student Association (GAPSA; http://www.tulane.edu/~gapsa/ ) and the Office of the the Provost (http://tulane.edu/provost/grad-travel.cfm). Attending academic conferences is the best way to meet colleagues from other schools, to learn about new trends in one's field, and to make a student's talents as an emerging critic known to others. At the same time, though, students should be very careful not to overextend themselves in attending conferences, as their main priority must be the timely completion of the degree. The same holds for publishing articles: a professor may suggest turning an exceptional term paper into a journal article, and having a scholarly publication on one's c.v. before graduating may give an edge in the job market; however, working on publications should be a complement to advancement towards graduation and not a detour.

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FUNDING FOR CONFERENCE TRAVEL

Funds for graduate student conference travel are available by application from the Graduate and Professional Student Association (GAPSA: http://www.tulane.edu/~gapsa/) and the Office of the Provost (http://tulane.edu/provost/grad-travel.cfm). Depending on available resources, the department may also help fund travel to one conference per year per student for up to $ 500. Students must request such funding by writing to the departmental chair with the name of the conference, the title and abstract of the paper to be presented, proof of acceptance, and a budget of expenses (travel, hotel, and conference registration fees). The Executive Committee then votes on all requests, taking into consideration students' overall progress. Funds can only be provided in the form of reimbursement, and receipts must be presented to the Executive Secretary upon return.

MLA

Graduate students are eligible for membership to the MLA (Modern Language Association) at a heavily discounted rate for seven years, and are urged to join right away to take advantage of this window into the profession. Membership provides subscriptions to PMLA, one of the most prestigious journals of literary theory and criticism, and The Profession, which focuses on trends in language and literary study. Membership also gives discounts on books published by the MLA, which range from the MLA Style Manual and Guide to Scholarly Publishing to titles on teaching and other aspects of the profession. In addition, the MLA provides an on-line, members-only site that lists conferences and calls for papers.

Towards the end of the graduate program, students make use of another key MLA resource, the Job Information List. This is a comprehensive listing of the available teaching positions in English and Foreign Languages around the country. The same academic year in which students make use of the list, they also attend the MLA Annual Convention, scheduled, beginning in 2011, on the first Thursday through the first Saturday of January. The convention serves as both a national conference offering hundreds of panels on literary and pedagogical issues and a huge job fair, where colleges and universities from all over the country do their preliminary interviews for available positions. Depending on the availability of funds, the department aims to help support one-time travel to the MLA for job interviews.

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Campus life

Back on campus itself, there are numerous venues for intellectual and professional expansion. The Department of Spanish and Portuguese, the Stone Center of Latin American Studies, the Latin American Library, and other departments and programs sponsor guest lectures, conferences, film series, workshops, and receptions throughout the academic year. Students should make every effort to attend these events. The university funds them for their benefit, and they provide invaluable opportunities for the exchange of ideas and for making contacts across the campus and within the wider profession. Students might also want to get involved in the Graduate Studies Student Association, a division of GAPSA (the Graduate and Professional Student Association).

Summers and summer funding opportunities

A big difference between undergraduate and graduate studies is that in the case of the latter, one cannot "take off" summers. (Professors do not take summers off either but rather use them for research and writing). It is in the summers that students do their most concentrated preparation and study for exams. Summers should also be used for language study and for dissertation research and ultimately writing. Students interested in studying Portuguese or an indigenous Latin American language should consider applying for a FLAS (Foreign Language and Area Studies) grant through the Stone Center for Latin American Studies. The Stone Center also gives a limited number of Summer Field Research Grants through the Tinker Foundation to students early in their graduate careers studying Latin America or the Caribbean (these grants are not to be used for dissertation research). Students near or at the dissertation stage can apply for Summer Merit Fellowship Awards from the School of Liberal Arts.

Please note that projects involving other people (such as oral histories) often require approval by the IRB (Institutional Research Board) before they can be funded. To find out it your does, consulty the following document. "Does my Project/Research Need IRB Approval?" http://tulane.edu/liberal-arts/upload/does-my-research-need-irb-approval.pdf.

Teaching

Beginning in the second year of the program (or the first year in the case of students with outside M.A.'s), all graduate students work as Teaching Assistants, primarily as instructors lower-level language classes, although more advanced students occasionally have an opportunity to teach at the 3000 level. As the backbone of our language program, students are expected to take teaching very seriously, without, however, focusing so much on it that they sacrifice their own progress as a student. Balance is essential! To ensure fairness and as much uniformity as possible among different sections of language classes, it is imperative that instructors follow the syllabi prepared by the language and/or course coordinator. In their first year in the program, students normally take SPAN 6010, Methods of Teaching. They should also be prepared to attend teaching orientations before the start of the school year and any teaching workshops sponsored by the department once classes are in session. In addition, first-year TA's should arrive to campus early enough to attend the New TA Orientation sponsored by the Provost's Office. Students should not leave campus at the end of semesters until after the exam period is over or at least until they have administered the final to their classes and submitted final grades; these responsibilities may not be delegated to others. Any concerns about teaching should be addressed to the coordinator of the Basic Language Program or the departmental chair.

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APPENDIX A

Graduate Study Timeline

Revised May 2010*

I. Students who start at the M.A. level. Five-years of funding.

Year One

FALL SEMESTER

-Arrive early (8 days before classes begin) for Orientation

-One-on-one meetings with DGS (Director of Graduate Studies)

-Take 4 courses

-If necessary, take language course

SPRING SEMESTER

-Take 4 courses

- If necessary, take language course

-Meet with DGS regarding progress and summer plans

SUMMER

-Study for M.A. exams

Year Two

FALL SEMESTER

-Arrive early for the teaching orientation, required of all TA's of Spanish and Portuguese

-Take 3 courses

-Teach one course

-Demonstrate fulfillment of language requirement at beginning of semester

SPRING SEMESTER

-Take 3 courses

-Teach one course

-Take M.A. exams in February

-Discuss with appropriate faculty members intentions for the Ph.D. program, including areas of specialization

-If applicable, apply for summer research funding

-Fill out Application for M.A. Degree on SLA website (check website for deadline): http://tulane.edu/liberal-arts/graduate-application-for-degree.cfm

SUMMER

-Preliminary dissertation research

-Work on reading lists

-Study for second language

YEAR THREE

FALL SEMESTER

-Notify DGS of exam committee by September 5

-Take equivalent of 3 courses (1 seminar + Seminar on Preparation for the Ph.D. and Beyond + Credit hours for list preparation)

-Teach 1 course

-By the end of this semester, students should have satisfied the second language requirement, either through course work or exam.

-Exam list due December 5

SPRING SEMESTER

-Ph.D. exams last weekend of February

-Teach 1 course

-Draft of dissertation prospectus due to committee members March 25

-Prospectus defense by April 15

-Submit short version of prospectus to SLA by April 25

SUMMER

-Work on dissertation

YEAR FOUR

FALL SEMESTER

-Work on dissertation

-Teach one course

SPRING SEMESTER

-Work on dissertation

-Teach one course

SUMMER

-Work on dissertation

YEAR FIVE

FALL SEMESTER

-Have two to three chapters of dissertation written by the end of the semester

-Teach one course

-Apply for jobs

SPRING SEMESTER

-Teach one course

-Finish and defend dissertation

-Fill out Graduate Application for Ph.D. Degree on SLA website (check website for deadline): http://tulane.edu/liberal-arts/graduate-application-for-degree.cfm

II. Students starting PhD program with M.A. from another institution. Four years of funding.

YEAR ONE

FALL SEMESTER

-Arrive early (8 days before classes begin) for Orientation

-Take 3 courses

-Teach one course

-Complete any transfer credit forms

SPRING SEMESTER

-Take 3 courses

-Teach one course

-By the end of this semester, students should have satisfied the first language requirement, either through course work or exam.

-Meet with DGS at the end of the semester to discuss progress and any problems

-Apply for summer funding

SUMMER

-Preliminary dissertation research

-Work on reading lists

-Study for second language

YEAR TWO

FALL SEMESTER

-Notify DGS of exam committee by September 5

-Take equivalent of three courses (1 Seminar + 7960 ["Special Projects"] + Credit hours for list preparation)

-Teach one course

-By the end of this semester, students should have satisfied the second language requirement

-Ph.D. exam lists due by December 5

SPRING SEMESTER

-Ph.D. exams last weekend of February

-Teach 1 course

-Draft of dissertation prospectus due to committee members by March 25

-Prospectus defense by April 15

-Submit short version of prospectus to SLA by April 25

SUMMER

-Work on dissertation

YEAR THREE

FALL SEMESTER

-Work on dissertation

-Teach one course

SPRING SEMESTER

-Work on Dissertation

-Teach one course

SUMMER

-Advance on dissertation

Fourth Year Ph.D.

FALL SEMESTER

-Have two or three chapters of dissertation written by the end of the semester

-Teach one course

-Apply for jobs

SPRING SEMESTER

-Teach one course

-Finish and defend dissertation

-Fill out Graduate Application for Ph.D. Degree on SLA website (check website for deadline): http://tulane.edu/liberal-arts/graduate-application-for-degree.cfm

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APPENDIX B:

SAMPLE GUIDELINES FOR DISSERTATION WRITING

BY IDELBER AVELAR

Guidelines for dissertation writing

This is a set of guidelines, requirements, and suggestions that will make your life easier as you get ready to start writing your dissertation. Some of them are fairly standard. Others are personal pieces of advice that have worked well for me over the years. Keep this list with you and make sure to consult with me if any item is unclear to you.

I – Choosing your topic and writing the prospectus

1. The choice of a dissertation topic is your inalienable right. Faculty cannot force you to write about something. I will, however, raise objections to your topic if it appears to be: 1) broader than appropriate for a dissertation or for your training; 2) incoherent; 3) grounded on false premises or posing false problems; 4) outside my or your disciplinary scope. Regarding 4), our limits are fairly flexible for a department of Spanish and Portuguese. You are free, for example, to include film or popular music as objects of your dissertation. But only if you are willing to become conversant with the methods and concepts of film studies or popular music studies, so as to be able to make an original contribution to the interpretation of an object in those fields.

2. A prospectus lays out a path of research, most often by assessing the state of the bibliography on a certain question and then focusing upon one or more "gaps" in that scholarly conversation. It states what your objects will be, briefly describes them, and anticipates the content of each chapter. It is the plan that organizes the set of questions that will guide you. It is not a paper or the "summary" of a paper. It is a genre with its own specificities. Consult with me for a sample prospectus if you'd like. This is a genre that you will need to master if you intend to write book proposals in the future.

3. If I raise objections to your theme, I will talk with you and help you define it, but always with the understanding that you have the last word on what your topic will be. When you defend the proposal, you do not need to have the confirmation of your hypotheses or ready-made answers, but you must be able to formulate a coherent set of questions that you intend to pursue. It is fine to say "I don't have the answer to this yet," but it is not fine to be totally confused about what your guiding questions are.

4. A prospectus does not "bind" you: you can later change your plans as you write the chapters. However, when you defend it, you must demonstrate that it is a coherent and feasible research project. If you change it later, it must, of course, continue to be coherent and feasible.

5. A prospectus is usually 8-to-10 pages long, followed by a 2-to-4-page bibliography. For feedback on drafts of your proposal, allow one week.

II – Writing your chapters

1. A dissertation is a 180-to-300-page exposition of an original study of objects that either have not been analyzed separately or together before, or have been approached in ways fundamentally different from the one you are proposing. It will be your responsibility to delimit the scope of your work. You will be expected to describe the current state of a sub-field, formulate and defend your hypotheses about your corpus, and draw conclusions.

2. A dissertation chapter is usually a 45-70-page exhaustive study of one or more objects. In order to write your first dissertation chapter you will need to have: a) a clear map of the bibliography with which you will be conversing; b) a description of your object(s); c) an interpretive hypothesis.

3. Most, if not all good novelists are readers of novels. This should be obvious, but the obvious often begs to be stated these days: you cannot write a good dissertation if you have never read one. Make sure you read dissertations in your field by running searches with key words related to your topic. A searchable dissertation database is available at http://proquest.umi.com. You can access it directly from Tulane. If you are accessing it from off-campus, you'll need to log in with your user name and password at the top of http://library.tulane.edu.

Suggestions: 1) Legrás, Horacio. "El criollismo y la creación de la interpelación democratico popular en Argentina" (Duke, 1999); 2) Avelar, Idelber. "The Experience of Defeat: Mourning and Memory in Post-dictatorship Fiction from Argentina, Chile, and Brazil" (Duke, 1996). 3) Ramos, Julio. "Contradicciones de la modernidad literaria en América Latina: Martí y la crónica modernista" (Princeton, 1986). 4) Goldman, Dara. "Lost and Found: Insularity and the Construction of Subjectivity in Hispanic Caribbean literature." (Emory, 2000).

4. If I am your main advisor, I expect you to turn each chapter in to me and wait for feedback before you turn it in to the rest of the committee, unless we have made a different arrangement with another faculty member. If a colleague and I are reading your work at the same time, the three of us must know that in advance, so that duplication of faculty work does not take place.

5. You are welcome to consult with me personally or by email however many times you want, upon whatever questions you have throughout the process of writing. But I will only read complete drafts of chapters. Before you turn each chapter in to me you must:

a) run a thorough spell check; watch out for cacophony, incongruous use of verb tenses, vague attributions, repetitions of words, phrases or ideas, excessive use of passive voice, undocumented, long or irrelevant quotes, dangling clauses and the like. Revise it at least once in hard copy. You cannot expect someone to read and edit your work if you have not done it exhaustively yourself first.

b) follow MLA or Chicago Style guidelines; use endnotes to each chapter; reserve them for ancillary, tangential reflection on the topic or further discussion of relevant bibliography, not to document quotes. In order to document citations, use parenthetical notation within the text.

Examples: MLA: (Sarlo 127) or (Sarlo, Escenas 127). Chicago: (Sarlo 1994: 127) or (Sarlo 1994b: 127). Omit author's name if authorship is clearly stated in the text that precedes the parenthesis.

c) make sure your chapter has a properly documented set of premises, a logical progression, and a coherent thesis. While defending your hypothesis, make sure you consider it from different angles, anticipate possible counter-arguments, and locate your interlocutors in the relation to your claims. Refrain from being overdogmatic or making excessively broad claims. Do not ever hide counter-evidence or ignore existing counter-arguments. In the vicinity of Howard Tilton Library and in the age of Google Scholar, JSTOR, Project Muse, World Cat, MLA Bibliography, and the UMI Dissertation Database, it is unacceptable that you ignore something published on your object. If you are writing on Roberto Bolaño, you have to make your best effort to find everything ever written on him, extract the best contributions of that material, and set them to dialogue with your own hypotheses. That is the bare minimum.

d) allow two weeks for feedback on specific chapters and three weeks for final feedback on completed manuscript. In busy times, it can be a bit more. It is usually less. While I have your chapter, do not make changes to it, or you will make me work twice on the same thing. You are responsible for keeping my turnaround time in mind for the planning of your calendar. That is, if by November 1 you intend to have a letter of recommendation to the MLA stating that you have two chapters approved, I must have your second chapter in hand by October 15 if you are positive that it will be approved with minor changes. I must have it way earlier if you think you will have to revise and rewrite it.

IV – Reminders

1. Circumscribe your objects and your claims carefully. Very few dissertations innovate methodologically, and you certainly are not expected to invent a new way of reading things. Your claim to originality may be the use of widely known methods and techniques to objects that had not been studied according to them yet. There is nothing wrong with that: this is, in itself, a considerable research exercise. But if that is the case, state it explicitly as you present your argument. In other dissertations, the original contribution may be the unearthing of previously unknown objects of study. If this is your case, make sure you think carefully about what you can and cannot claim for your objects. If you study a historical period in literature, make sure you delimit it coherently. If you are making claims about, say, "the Argentine detective narrative," be sure to have all possible counter-examples in mind before you make the claim. In a dissertation, words such as "first," "largest," "always," "never before," etc. should only be used when you are absolutely sure of what you are doing.

2. Maintain contact with your advisor. Ideally, if you are working with me, you should be in touch bi-weekly, at least. I strongly recommend that you write the bulk of your dissertation while in town, but I understand that there are circumstances in life that may decide otherwise. If that turns out to be the case, it is your responsibility to keep me abreast of how your work is going. Do not burn bridges by disappearing for a year and reconnecting with a request for a letter of recommendation – and certainly do not do that to your advisor while writing a dissertation.

3. Do not fail to document your quotes. Failure to do it will lead to incomplete presentation of your argument, at best, or a flat-out case of plagiarism, at worst. You may be borrowing from someone even if you don't have a literal citation in quotation marks. You can be, for example, borrowing a idea. In that case, make the parenthetical notation or expand upon it in a note. When deciding to include a quote, make sure you get the full information on the source in a separate file.

4. Do not use quotes as "fillers". In a dissertation in literary studies, you have to demonstrate that you are conversant with a body of work, but you do not need to quote extensively from it, except in a few cases. When summarizing a novel, for example, you may privilege paraphrase, insert a few sentences that you find emblematic, and reserve quotes only for passages that you intend to analyze in detail. When dialoguing with scholarly work, summarize the most important idea in it, the argument at its best; document the idea properly; expand upon it in a note if you wish; keep quotes in your own text to what is absolutely essential. By all means feel free to cite when necessary. But remember that the quotes should serve the unfolding of your argument, not obstruct it.

5. Allow for ample time and provide materials when requesting a letter. If I am your advisor, I am not doing you any favors by writing a recommendation letter. It's my job. By the same token, you must do your side, which is to request it with an advance notice of three weeks, ideally more if your writing your letter involves reading proposals and other materials. If you are planning to apply for a fellowship in October, for example, you may want to give me a "heads up" a couple of months earlier, even if you do not have all materials yet. Do not ever think you're "bothering" me by sending an email reporting on your progress. It saves me time later. In a recommendation letter, I can certainly emphasize your positives, but I cannot hide counter-evidence to a claim I am making about your work. If you have disappeared for a year without reporting on your progress, well, I must report that, even if I have reason to believe that it will not happen again. When requesting a letter, send a short email with title of dissertation, deadline for letter, updated cv, and description of other attached materials. If you have an abstract of the dissertation (or the book project, as the case may be), send that along as well.

IV – Preparing your defense

"My committee has approved all my chapters" is a few steps away from "my dissertation is ready for defense". Allow one month at least for those steps to take place, depending on the conversation you had with me upon approval of each chapter. In that pre-defense period, you will have to 1) write your conclusion; 2) check to see if all your quotes are documented; 3) organize your works cited list; 4) format your dissertation according to Graduate School guidelines; 5) check if title still adequately describes what you did. 6) make sure all members of your committee have received the manuscript in timely fashion for a last round of editing;

Idelber Avelar

Professor

* From SLA Graduate Catalogue

* Applicable for students entering in fall 2010 and after. It is recommended that students who entered earlier should follow this timeline as closely as possible; please consult DGS on any modifications.

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Revised: June 2010