Doctoral Programs

The doctoral program in art history typically involves two years of coursework, the completion of a qualifying paper, preliminary exams in three fields, a dissertation prospectus, and a dissertation. Following their coursework, students also learn to teach by serving as a teaching assistant for faculty-taught undergraduate courses, taking the department’s teaching colloquium, and teaching their own standalone lecture course.

The Department of Cinema and Media Studies (CMS) is recognized among the finest doctoral programs in our field, with a curriculum that focuses on the history, theory, and criticism of film and related media. In addition to offering its own doctoral degree, CMS offers courses and guidance to students who specialize in film and related media within departmental graduate programs or might be pursuing a joint degree.

The University of Chicago Classics Department offers a doctoral graduate program in Classical Studies; it also collaborates with the University of Chicago’s Division of the Arts & Humanities to allow students in the Master of Arts Program in the Humanities (MAPH) to concentrate in Classics. We offer two PhD tracks, Classical Languages and Literatures (CLL) and the Ancient Mediterranean World (AMW). In addition, students can pursue two Joint Programs, with the Committee on Social Thought and the Committee on Theater and Performance Studies (TAPS), but students can explore joint degrees with other departments (e.g., with Middle Eastern Studies and the Divinity School), tailored to their specific interests.

The Comparative Literature doctorate program at the University of Chicago integrates rigorous traditional scholarship with innovative approaches in literary and cultural theory, allowing students to design individualized courses of study across multiple national literatures or interdisciplinary contexts. Through faculty collaboration and participation in a lively array of interdisciplinary workshops and research centers, students engage deeply with current scholarly debates and develop dissertation projects that reflect their unique academic interests.

The Department of East Asian Languages & Civilizations is a multidisciplinary department, with faculty specialists in history, art, philosophy, languages, linguistics, literature, and religions, offering a program of advanced study of the traditional and modern cultures of China, Japan and Korea. At the same time, students are encouraged to pursue their interests across traditional disciplinary lines by taking courses in other departments in the Divisions of the Social Sciences and the Arts & Humanities Division.

Our PhD program prepares students for independent work as teachers, scholars, and critics by developing their abilities to pose and investigate problems in the advanced study of literatures in English. The program consists of four major components: coursework, teaching, fields exams, and the dissertation. Together, these elements introduce students to a wide variety of textual modes, critical methodologies, and historical/cultural questions; provide extensive practice in research, discussion, argument, and writing; and develop pedagogical skills.

The Ph.D. Program in Germanic Studies is fully integrated within the robustly interdisciplinary culture of the University of Chicago. Special emphases include: literature and art; philosophy and aesthetics; gender studies; theater and performance studies; theology and religious studies; systems theory; theory of form; science studies and history of culture; psychoanalysis.

The University of Chicago’s PhD program in Linguistics is designed to be completed in six years, with the first four years focused on coursework—including eight foundational classes, a methods course, and qualifying papers—as well as fulfilling language requirements and participating in research seminars and professionalization workshops. After advancing to candidacy by defending a dissertation proposal at the end of the fourth year, students primarily focus on teaching and completing their dissertation, supported by structured teaching experience and pedagogical training.

The Department of Middle Eastern Studies (MES) has trained graduate students for more than 100 years and is recognized among the finest doctoral programs in the world. PhD students in MES approach the study of the languages, literatures, civilizations, religions, material culture or history of the ancient, medieval or modern Middle East through a variety of disciplinary approaches, choosing a focus on one of the department’s fields of study.

The graduate studies program in the Department distinguishes itself through rigorous scholarly training in the integrative study of music. Offering degrees in Composition and Sound Practices, Ethnomusicology, and Music History and Theory, and also offering a joint PhD program in Theater and Performance Studies (TAPS), the Department embraces the interdisciplinary nature of scholarship at the University of Chicago.

The PhD Program in Philosophy at the University of Chicago prepares students for careers in scholarship and teaching through rigorous coursework in contemporary and historical philosophy, a paper revision workshop, dissertation research, and progressively independent teaching experiences. Throughout the program, students actively participate in workshops, reading groups, and ongoing mentoring, fostering a vibrant intellectual community and continuous philosophical dialogue with faculty and peers.

We offer PhD programs in three areas of study: French and Francophone Studies, Hispanic and Luso-Brazilian Studies, and Italian Studies. Our students are supported by faculty members within and outside the department and we encourage students to take advantage of the University's many interdisciplinary programs.

Our PhD program trains students in interdisciplinary approaches to Slavic cultures, with particular emphasis on literature and the visual arts. Russian, Polish, Czech, Ukrainian, and Balkan languages and literatures are taught by accomplished faculty with a broad variety of specializations, from medieval Slavic literature and the classic realist novel to modernist, socialist realist, and post-communist cultural production.

The Department of South Asian Languages and Civilizations is a multidisciplinary department made up of faculty with expertise in the languages, literatures, histories, philosophies, and religions of South Asia. The study of South Asian texts, broadly defined, is the guiding principle of our PhD degree. This involves exposure to a wide range of South Asian texts and their historical contexts, and theoretical reflection on the conditions of understanding and interpreting these texts.

The PhD program in TAPS at the University of Chicago is dialogical, experimental, and highly individualized. Students develop a program of study that reflects their particular training and interests (including coursework, teaching, and performance-based research) and complement their training in TAPS with a joint doctorate in a cooperating field: Art History, Cinema and Media Studies, Classics, Comparative Literature, East Asian Languages and Civilizations, English Language and Literature, Germanic Studies, Music, or Romance Languages and Literatures.