Renaissance Studies

53 Wall, Rm 310, 432.0672
M.A., M.Phil., Ph.D.

Chair and Director of Graduate Studies
Carlos Eire

Executive Committee Edwin Duval, Carlos Eire, Roberto González Echevarría, Lawrence Manley, John Matthews, Giuseppe Mazzotta, David Quint, John Rogers, Ellen Rosand, Paolo Valesio, Christopher Wood

Faculty associated with the program Rolena Adorno, Leslie Brisman, Judith Colton, Anne Dunlop, Paul Freedman, Bruce Gordon, Karsten Harries, K. David Jackson, James Kearney, Lee Patterson, Stephen Pincus, Francesca Trivellato, Brian Walsh, Keith Wrightson

Fields of Study

Renaissance Studies offers a combined Ph.D. degree that integrates concentration in a departmental field with interdisciplinary study of the broader range of culture in the Renaissance and early modern periods. The program is designed to train Renaissance specialists who are firmly based in a traditional discipline but who can also work across disciplinary boundaries. Departmental areas of concentration available are Classics, Comparative Literature, English, History, History of Art, History of Music, Italian, and Spanish and Portuguese.

Special Admissions Requirements

Only candidates wishing to proceed to a doctorate should apply. Application should be made to the department of concentration, with an indication that the candidate seeks nomination to the combined degree in Renaissance Studies. Applications should be accompanied by scores from the GREs and one research or critical paper.

Special Requirements for the Ph.D. Degree

Students are subject to the combined Ph.D. supervision of the Renaissance Studies program and the relevant participating department. The student’s program will be decided in consultation with an adviser, the director of graduate studies in Renaissance Studies, and the director of graduate studies in the participating department. Requirements for the combined degree will vary slightly to accommodate the requirements of the participating departments, but all candidates for the combined degree are expected to meet, at a minimum, the following requirements. Students must demonstrate a reading knowledge of Latin, Italian, and a third language, which will vary according to departmental requirements. At the minimum, an examination in Latin or Italian should normally be passed upon entrance; a second language should be passed before the third term; and a third language by the end of the second year. Each student is required to take sixteen term courses (in History of Art, fifteen). The normal pattern is to have completed fifteen courses during the first two years of study, no more than two of which may be individual reading and research. A two-term core seminar, designed to present a wide range of topics concerned with Renaissance and early modern culture, is required of all combined degree candidates. This course, offered every other year, is open to students from other departments.

Students concentrating in modern language and literature departments (including Comparative Literature, English, Italian, and Spanish and Portuguese) are required to complete three courses in at least two disciplines outside of literature, three courses in the Renaissance literature of the primary department, and two courses in Renaissance literatures outside of the primary department. The remaining courses will be taken in other periods and topics as required by the department of concentration. Students concentrating in History or Music are required to complete four courses dealing with Renaissance culture in disciplines outside of the primary department and four courses in the Renaissance period within the department; the remaining courses are to be taken in other periods and topics as required by the department of concentration. Students concentrating in History of Art are required to take four courses within the department and three courses outside the department dealing with the Renaissance period. Students concentrating in Classics are required to take six courses outside the department in the Renaissance period. Training in teaching, through teaching fellowships, is considered an important part of every student’s program. Most students teach in their third and fourth years.

The scheduling of the oral examination and the dissertation prospectus follows the practice of the primary department, but in every case the two requirements must be completed not later than September of the fourth year. The oral examination, varying in length from two hours to two hours and fifteen minutes, will include a standard fifteen-minute question on the bibliographical resources for Renaissance Studies across the disciplines and three fifteen-minute questions (in the case of English two fifteen-minute questions) in Renaissance topics outside the primary discipline. The remainder of the examination will be devoted to the primary discipline, including (except in the case of Classics) some further coverage of the Renaissance period. Students take additional written examinations as required by the primary departments.

Upon completion of all predissertation requirements, including the prospectus, students are admitted to candidacy for the combined Ph.D. degree. Admission to candidacy must be completed by the beginning of the fourth year. The dissertation will be advised and completed according to departmental guidelines, but one of the readers will normally be a member of the Renaissance Studies Executive Committee.

Master’s Degrees

M.Phil. The combined M.Phil. degree may be requested after all requirements but the dissertation are met.

M.A. (en route to the Ph.D.) The M.A. degree is awarded upon completion of eight term courses, taken in at least three disciplines, and with at least three grades of Honors. The examination in Latin or Italian must have been passed.

Program materials are available upon request to the Chair, Renaissance Studies Program, Yale University, PO Box 208298, New Haven CT 06520-8298.

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