Mentoring
In order to advance to candidacy, students must form a dissertation committee, which will include the proposed dissertation chair and other members faculty who will serve as committee members(p. 11). Upon setting up this committee, the chair and the student should explicitly outline an individual mentoring plan specifying the expectations of both parties. These This plans should be reviewed and possibly revised at an annual full-committee meeting. The plan may be revised as a result of the annual review, as deemed appropriate by the student together with the committee.
Year-End Assessments
At the end of every academic year, students are sent a letter evaluating their progress during the year. The content of the letter will be based on faculty discussion of the student’s performance and will be written by the Director of Graduate Studies. The intent of the assessment is to provide constructive feedback on an individual student’s strengths and weaknesses, indicating areas that they can build on or need to develop during subsequent years in the PhD program.
Graduate Teaching Requirements
While some linguists with PhDs find jobs outside of academia, and some take research positions within academia that do not involve teaching, the majority of our graduate students aspire to academic jobs in Linguistics that will involve both graduate and undergraduate teaching. In order to be competitive for these jobs, students must demonstrate a high level of teaching ability and experience. Teaching is therefore a standard part of our graduate program, both in the form of mostly in the form of Teaching Assistantships, and in some cases, stand-alone Lectureships.
Degree Requirements
The PhD program in Linguistics at the University of Chicago carries a comprehensive set of coursework, language, and teaching requirements. Students must complete thirteen courses in total, six of which must be taken during their first year, and all of which must be taught by faculty to count toward the requirements. Eight of those courses are foundational, typically spread four per year across the first two years and selected from a set list of options.
Funding
PhD students who matriculate in Summer 2020 and after will be guaranteed to have funding support from the University of Chicago, external sources, or a combination of the two for the duration of their program to include the following:
Admissions
Completed applications for admission and aid, along with all supporting materials, are due in December of the proceeding year. You’ll find the link to the application as well as info on divisional deadlines on the Division of the Arts & Humanities site. Four parts of the application are critically important:
Graduate Program
The PhD program in linguistics is designed to be completed in six years within the University of Chicago’s quarter system, combining intensive coursework, independent research, language study, professional development, and teaching experience. Students typically take three courses per quarter over three quarters each year, with most coursework completed in the first three to four years. During this time, they fulfill foundational and advanced course requirements, complete a methods course, and take the Research Seminar while developing two qualifying papers under faculty supervision.
Courses
See our searchable database below for Department of Linguistics courses from the 2026-27 academic year. Feel free to browse the database by level of course (graduate, undergraduate), term, subject code, or instructor to find more specific information about our course offerings, including course descriptions.
Kinyarwanda
Spoken by around 18 million in Central and Eastern Africa, Kinyarwanda / Kirundi is one of the most spoken Bantu languages and has the status of an official language in Rwanda and Burundi. Based on a conversation book and a grammar guide, Introduction to Kinyarwanda I integrates speaking practice and linguistic discussion. It will allow the students to understand fundamental structures of Kinyarwanda in various areas. Topics include sound and tonal patterns, noun class agreements, verb moods, and sentence structures.
African Languages
Language, Identity, and Development in Africa
LING 28345 / LING 38345; Fall, Tu/Th, 2:00-3:20pm
Fidèle Mpiranya (fmpiranya@uchicago.edu)