Curriculum and requirements
- Course requirements
- Affiliate discipline
- Foreign language requirement
- Masters Comprehensive Examination
- Doctoral Qualifying Examination
- Dissertation
Course requirements
Total number of units required: 42
Core Requirements: (5 courses, 18 units)
- ES 200 (4 units) Critical Terms and Issues in Comparative Ethnic Studies;
- ES 201 (4 units) History and Narrativity: Contemporary Theories and Methods;
- ES 202 (4 units) Cultural Texts: Contemporary Theories and Methods;
- ES 203 (4 units) Social Structures: Contemporary Theories and Methods;
- ES 302 (2 units) Professional Orientation for Incoming Students (Graded S/U).
Note: The Core 200-201-202-203 series must be taken in sequence in the company of your cohort, as the Comprehensive Exam for each cohort will be tied to the content of these courses. In the first year, students take 200 in the Fall and 201 in the Spring. In the second year, students take 202 and 203 in the Fall and study for their Comprehensive Exam in the Spring.
No "outside" students are allowed in this series, and no exceptions will be made to the sequence.
Research Seminar Requirements (6 courses, typically 24 units)
You have the option of taking: 3 courses from within ES and 3 courses from outside ES, OR 4 courses from within ES and 2 courses from outside ES. Choices within ES:
- ES 240 (4 units) Research Seminar on Transnational and/or National Theories and Methods;
- ES 250 (4 units) Research Seminar on Selected Topics
Choices outside ES: Students may take graduate-level research seminars from: departments in traditional disciplines, such as history and English; certificate-granting programs (such as the Designated Emphasis in Gender and Sexuality through the Women's Studies Department); a coherent, interdisciplinary program created in consultation with, and with the approval of, the Graduate Adviser.
Directed Reading courses taken inside or outside ES may NOT be substituted for research seminars to fulfill this requirement. Except for Professional Orientation, all the above courses must be taken for a letter grade.
Professional Series
The following series of 2-unit courses related to professional training are graded Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory:
- Professional Orientation (required in the first semester);
- Professional Training: Pedagogy;
- The Qualifying Examination – Preparation;
- Researching and Writing Conference Papers, Research Articles;
- Researching and Writing Dissertations;
- Encountering the Job Market.
Note: Professional Orientation is required for all incoming students. Professional Training: Pedagogy is required for all students who wish to teach ES 103, regardless of previous teaching experience in other institutions.
Other Courses
In addition to the above courses, students may take any courses they feel are needed to complete their training. Students entering ES without prior ethnic studies training often take upper-division undergraduate courses to strengthen their background in the field. In such cases, they may arrange with the instructor to do additional readings or writing assignments in order to take the course as a 299. These arrangements are strictly between individual students and instructors and do not involve ES. Foreign language courses taken during your graduate career in ES to fulfill the Foreign Language Requirement may not be used to fulfill degree requirement.
Designated Emphasis courses
Students may elect to obtain a Designated Emphasis (e.g., Women, Gender and Sexuality or Film Studies) offered by another UC Berkeley department to augment their professional training in ES. The commitment to obtain a Designated Emphasis is made in addition to a student's commitment to complete the requirements for the Ph.D. in ES. Questions on Designated Emphasis requirements should be directed to the department concerned and not to the ES Graduate Adviser.
Affiliate Discipline
Graduate seminars in one or more departments outside Ethnic Studies and African American Studies. These courses should constitute a coherent theoretical and methodological perspective that articulates with a traditional discipline (e.g., history, sociology) or an emergent field drawing from more than one traditional discipline (e.g., women's studies, cultural studies, immigration studies), consonant with the student's chosen focus in Ethnic Studies. Students entering with an M.A. may transfer one graduate course from another institution to fulfill the Affiliated Discipline requirement with approval from the Graduate Adviser.
Foreign Language Requirement
Proficiency in a language other than English is required. The Foreign Language Requirement must be fulfilled before a student takes the Doctoral Qualifying Examination. It may be fulfilled by one of the following means: (1) passing a written translation examination administered by an appropriate language department on campus or by faculty in the Department of Ethnic Studies; (2) providing evidence of having satisfactorily completed a four-semester (or six-quarter) sequence in the foreign language at the undergraduate level; (3) for a native speaker of a foreign language that has professional value for Studies, providing evidence of proficiency such as secondary school or university transcripts. Course units taken to fulfill the Foreign Language Requirement count toward a full course load but not toward the degree.
Masters Comprehensive Examination
The Master's Comprehensive Examination (or Comp Exam for short) tests the student's mastery of theories and methods in Comparative Ethnic Studies as covered in the Core Requirements. This written test is normally taken at the end of a student's second year in the program. Students entering the Ethnic Studies Graduate Group doctoral program with an M.A. degree must still take the Core Requirements and the Comprehensive Examination
Doctoral Qualifying Examination
The Doctoral Qualifying Examination (or Orals for short) tests the student's readiness to pursue advanced independent research in Comparative Ethnic Studies with appropriate concentrations. It is normally taken at the end of a student's third year in the Program. A graduate student is expected to write three position papers. The position paper serves as a written account of the student's mastery of three fields of study that she/he has chosen for her/his qualifying orals exam. These fields of study may be in recognized traditional disciplines or may be in emerging fields of study grounded in recognized intellectual traditions. The position papers also prepare the student intellectually for the future tasks of scholarly research and teaching.
The written doctoral qualifying examination consists of three essays, each drawn from bibliographies of approximately twenty (20) to thirty (30) scholarly article and book titles. Each of the three written exams should be approximately twenty-five (25) to thirty-five (35) double-spaced pages, excluding the bibliography, and regular, one-inch margins. At least half of a student's bibliography for each exam must be drawn from the present list which reflects both foundational contributions to ethnic studies and the areas of specialization of our faculty and thus, seminars However, a student, under the guidance of her or his faculty QE Chairperson, may choose as many texts from this list as desired. By requiring only half of a student's bibliographies to come from this list, allowance has been made to broaden, update, and reflect a student's unique areas of specialization.
Two of these essays must be literature reviews of the key texts of a particular field. Thus, they must discuss basic and essential developments, key issues, debates, and signal contributions of specific authors within a particular discipline or interdisciplinary field of study. These essays must reflect an understanding of the development of a broad area of specialization (e.g., late-19th century and 20th-century comparative ethnic studies history), rather than focusing exclusively on a student's eventual, and more narrow field of dissertation specialization (e.g., post-sixties history of one ethnic group, for example).
The third written exam must be a thematic essay. It may be grounded in a student's specific area of dissertation research interests, and may therefore substantially elaborate upon a graduate seminar paper, for example.
At least one of the three essays must be interdisciplinary. Thus, a student specializing in the social sciences or history, must reflect interdisciplinary mastery of relevant key humanities texts; while those specializing in the humanities, must likewise reflect their grounding in relevant social sciences and historical theories and studies. At least one essay must be comparative across ethnic groups. Thus, a student specializing in one particular ethnic group, for example, must dedicate at least one essay to a broader comparison to one or more other ethnic groups.
NB: The requirements of this exam are mandatory only for the 2009-2010 cohort and those to follow. It is, nonetheless, recommended that previous cohorts follow the new requirements, to the extent possible. Previous cohorts may, however, choose to organize their QE Lists following the previous option allowing them, in consultation with their faculty QE Chairperson, to choose between two literature reviews and one thematic essay, or two thematic essays and one literature review.
A dissertation prospectus of approximately fifteen (15) pages, excluding bibliography, will be due the semester following the QE exams. Thus, for those taking their QE exams in the spring, the prospectus will be presented in the fall semester to the entire dissertation committee in a one hour meeting. All members of the committee must receive a hard copy of the prospectus one full week before the exam. Exams should be scheduled by the student at the beginning of the semester, in consultation with the Graduate Officer, who will organize room scheduling.
Finally, please note that the QE List is organized alphabetically per section, and that each section collects an interdisciplinary array of texts. The organization of a student's QE bibliography will instead reflect particular disciplines or areas of studies, such as contemporary literature; transnational feminist theories; visual culture and racialization; literature and critical legal studies; history of civil rights youth movements; gender and sexuality in 20th century immigration; contemporary queer politics and religion; etc., partially drawn from across the master list.
Dissertation
Upon advancement to candidacy, the student submits a Dissertation Prospectus to members of the Dissertation Committee, who will discuss it in a meeting with the student. In the coming years, an ad-hoc committee will be created to determine what exactly the prospectus should contain; this meeting will be chaired by the Graduate Adviser.
The dissertation should be a product of original research on a topic of significance in Comparative Ethnic Studies. It must be analytical rather than merely descriptive in nature, and must incorporate a comparative element either in its choice of ethnocultural groups or in its analytical outlook. Upon final acceptance of the dissertation as an original piece of scholarly research by each of the committee members and approval by the Dean of the Graduate Division, the degree of Doctor of Philosophy is awarded.