Italian
Guide to the Master’s Program in Italian Studies
Part One:
REQUIREMENTS, POLICIES, AND PROCEDURES FOR THE M.A. DEGREE IN ITALIAN STUDIES
For the degree in Italian Studies the following requirements must be met:
REQUIREMENT I
30 credit hours which may be satisfied by either of these two options.
Option I:
All 30 hours may be obtained by the completion of 10 courses to be distributed as follows:
Required courses:
1 course (3 hours) in Introduction to Literary Criticism (LLRO 510).
1 course (3 hours) in Comparative Literature.
NOTE: While the LLRO/ROIT/ROSP 501/501L courses are required of all first-year teaching assistants, they do not count as coursework toward the MA degree.
Elective courses:
4-6 courses (12-18 hours) in Italian literature. Two of these courses (6 hours) may be on the 400 level.
2-4 courses (6-12 hours) to be chosen from among the following: 1) the allied fields of Italian Studies such as Art History, Architecture, Music, History, etc. 2) a second national literature (Romance, English, German, etc.) 3) Comparative Literature
The exact selection of courses will be determined in consultation with the Director of Graduate Studies and the Italian Studies Program director. All students are encouraged to take history of the language or linguistics whenever departmental staffing permits the offering of these courses.
Option II:
At the discretion of the Italian Studies Program director, students may be invited to write an M.A. thesis, equivalent to, and in lieu of, six hours of course work.
REQUIREMENT II
Before taking the comprehensive examination (described below), the student must demonstrate competency in a second foreign language by passing the Graduate Reading Examination. All students are urged to fulfill the departmental language requirement by studying a second Romance language.
REQUIREMENT III A Final Comprehensive Examination
The final comprehensive examination will be written and four hours in length and will be administered by a proctor on a single day: 2 hours in the morning, 2 in the afternoon. Beyond those basic guidelines, the format will be as follows: Candidates in Italian Studies will be examined in the following five areas: (1) Medieval, (2) Renaissance, (3) 17th Century/18th Century, (4) 19th Century, (5) 20th Century.
In advance of the exam, the candidate will designate, in consultation with the Director of Graduate Studies and the Liaison to the Graduate Director, two of these areas as areas of concentration. For additional guidelines concerning the final comprehensive final exam, see the procedures outlined above for the exam in French and Spanish.
Requirements for the Combined B.A.-M.A. Program
The Department of Romance Languages and Literatures offers its undergraduate first majors the opportunity to complete its graduate program in one year following conferral of the B.A. through a combination B.A.-M.A. degree in French or Spanish. This program requires students to take 30 credit hours at the 200-level or above during the normal four-year undergraduate program, followed by a total of 30 credit hours of graduate courses taken during the fourth and fifth years of residence. Six credits will be counted towards both the undergraduate and graduate degrees. Students begin their graduate studies by taking at least two graduate level courses during their senior year which will count retroactively toward the graduate degree plus two courses, either graduate or 400-level undergraduate, which will both complete the requirements for their first major and count towards the M.A. degree. Note that the two of these four courses do not double-count toward the undergraduate degree; this means that students must make up an additional six credit hours (by advanced placement, transfer credit or overload) in order to accumulate the 120 credit hours needed for the undergraduate degree. Students apply for admission to the Graduate School by February 1st of their senior year and will be able to finish all requirements for the M.A. degree (i.e. complete an additional 18 credit hours and pass the comprehensive exam) during the fifth year, which may be supported by a teaching assistantship.
Advising
The Director of Graduate Studies oversees the entire graduate program in French, Italian Studies, and Spanish. Once on campus, each student should contact the department office to make an appointment with the liaison to the Director of Graduate Studies in the student's area of study, who will furnish a reading list, explain the procedures of the program, and help the candidate choose an individual advisor. Students who have not selected an advisor by the end of the first month of residency will be assigned one by the liaison or the DGS. This advisor will assist the student in planning a program of course work that meets degree requirements as well as accommodates the student's personal interests, and may, if appropriate, serve as the student's thesis director. It is the student's responsibility to keep the advisor informed of any difficulties or problems which may arise. There is a mandatory meeting for all new and continuing graduate students during the first week of classes to discuss procedures and answer questions.
Reviews
The student's academic and teaching performance is subject to annual review and, accordingly, financial support and continuance in the program is determined on a yearly basis.
Qualifying Examinations
An oral proficiency examination determining candidacy for the degree will be given in February of the student's first year at Notre Dame. It will be administered by each section for its own candidates and coordinated by the Director of Graduate Studies and his or her Liaison. The students will be presented with three texts one week prior to the examination date. They will choose one and prepare a 20 to 30 minute explication de textes, to demonstrate language proficiency, ability to analyze literary works, and general knowledge of the genre and period of the selected text. Questions will follow the explication. The entire exam will not exceed one hour in length. All graduate professors of a particular section will participate in the examination. The Committee's Chair, i.e., the Liaison to the Graduate Director, will report the results to the student and the Director of Graduate Studies no later than one week after the examination. In order to continue in the program, the student must earn a grade of B or better.
Additional Policies and Procedures
Transfer Credits
The Department of Romance Languages and Literatures may accept course work completed at another accredited university toward meeting its degree requirements. A student may transfer credits earned at another accredited university only if: 1) the student is in degree status at Notre Dame; 2) the courses taken are graduate courses appropriate to the Notre Dame graduate program and the student had graduate student status when he or she took these courses; 3) the courses were completed within a five-year period prior to admission to the graduate degree program at Notre Dame or while enrolled in a graduate degree program at Notre Dame; 4) grades of “B” (3.0 on 4.0 scale) or better were achieved; and 5) the transfer is recommended by the graduate director and approved by the Graduate School.
These five requirements also apply to the transfer of credits earned in another program at Notre Dame.
The University considers a request for credit transfer only after a student has completed one semester in a Notre Dame graduate degree program and before the semester in which the graduate degree is conferred. The university of origin must submit two transcripts directly to the Notre Dame Graduate School. Credits not earned on the semester system, such as trimester and quarter-hour credits, will be transferred on a pro-rata basis.
A student transferring from an unfinished master's program may not transfer more than six semester credit hours. If the student has completed a master's Ph.D. program, he or she may transfer up to nine semester credit hours to a Notre Dame master's program. No grades of transferred courses are included on the transcript.
Residency
The minimum residency requirement for the master's degree is registration in full-time status for one semester during the academic year or for one summer session.
Degree Eligibility
Failure to complete all requirements for the master's degree within five years results in forfeiture of degree eligibility. A master's program that is pursued during the summer and the academic year must also be completed within five years. A student attending Summer Session only must complete all requirements within seven years.
Admission to Candidacy
To qualify for admission to candidacy, a student must be in a master's degree program. He or she must have been enrolled in the program without interruption and maintained a minimum cumulative G.P.A. of 3.0 in approved course work. Admission to candidacy is a prerequisite to receiving any graduate degree. It is the student's responsibility to apply for admission by submitting the appropriate form to the Graduate School office through the department graduate director. The applicable deadline is published in the Graduate School Calendar.
Thesis Requirements
In addition to the norms described above, the following procedures provide guidance regarding the thesis. With the approval of his or her adviser, the student proposes a thesis topic for departmental approval. The approved topic is researched and the results presented under the supervision of a thesis director.
The thesis should follow the guidelines in the Graduate School's Guide for Formatting and Submitting Dissertations and Theses, available at the Graduate School office. The thesis director indicates final approval of the thesis and its readiness for the readers by signing the thesis. The candidate then delivers the number of signed copies of the completed thesis required by the department to the department chair. Students should be cognizant of deadlines for graduation established by the Graduate School and the department. These copies are distributed to the two official readers appointed by the department. Readers are normally appointed from among the regular teaching and research faculty of the student's department or from among the faculty members of the Program in Italian Studies. For French and Spanish, the appointment of a reader from outside the student's department must have the Graduate School's prior approval. The thesis director may not be one of the official readers. Each reader must unconditionally approve the thesis and the department should promptly report the results to the Graduate School.
After the readers approve the thesis, the candidate should deliver two clean copies signed by the thesis director to the Graduate School office on or before the date specified in the Graduate School Calendar. There it will be verified for compliance with the style manual. The candidate then should deliver the verified copies and the Graduate School approval form to the Hesburgh Library, where he or she pays the binding costs.
Should a student and adviser decide to microfilm a thesis, information concerning the University Microfilms International Master's Publishing Program may be obtained from the Graduate School office.
