Home > About Us > Graduate Studies > Ph.D. > Expectations & Progress

Mutual Expectations & Satisfactory Progress toward Degree

Applications for graduate admissions are due by December 1, 2009.

Associate Professor Sheri L. Parks and Assistant Professor Psyche Williams-Forson are the Co-Directors of Graduate Studies. Please contact one of them with any questions about these documents.

Note: These documents are only relevant to Ph.D. students, not students in the Master's degree program.

• Statement of Mutual Expectations between AMST & Ph.D. Students (PDF)
  This document outlines the Department's expectations of its Ph.D. students, as well as explains what students can expect from Department faculty. Graduate students in the American Studies doctoral program are expected to develop an interdisciplinary plan of study pertaining to one or both of the department’s broad areas of expertise: Cultural Constructions of Identity and Difference, and The Cultures of Everyday Life. In addition to developing their interdisciplinary research expertise, students should gain mastery of the history, formative and current theories, and interdisciplinary content of American Studies literature and demonstrate an understanding of multiple dimensions of diversity. It is expected that students will work on these goals from arrival to graduation.

• Satisfactory Progress toward the Ph.D. Degree (PDF)
  The Department of American Studies expects students to make steady progress toward the completion of their degrees; this document summarizes those expectations. In addition to using the guidelines in this document, the department strongly recommends that students meet with their program advisors a minimum of once a semester to discuss their progress and plan for the next steps. Students who have not yet selected a program advisor should meet with one of the Co-Directors of Graduate Studies each semester. Note that this document has been updated as of 3/12/2009.