About the PhD Program
Introduction and Admissions Information
- The Program
- Resources
- Admission and Fellowships
- General Degree Requirements
- Individual Departmental Requirements
The Program
Yale University's doctoral program in Renaissance Studies offers a combined Ph.D. degree with a second department that integrates concentration in that department with interdisciplinary study of the broader range of culture in the Renaissance and early modern period.
The program is designed to train Renaissance specialists who are firmly based in a traditional discipline but who can work across disciplinary boundaries. Departments that offer the combined degree with Renaissance Studies are Classics, Comparative Literature, English, History, History of Art, History of Music, Italian, and Spanish and Portuguese.
A core methods course, offered every other year, is intended to draw together different aspects of the Renaissance movement in Italy, France, Spain, Germany, and England. Other deparments also offer courses which deal with the Renaissance period, and students are free to take such courses in French, German, Judaic Studies, Philosophy, and Religious Studies.
Yale offers a remarkably broad spectrum of study in Renaissance culture -- on average more than thirty graduate courses each year. The list of courses acceptable for credit encompasses the history, literature, art, music and culture of Europe from the later fourteenth century through the sixteenth century in Italy and from the sixteenth through the mid-seventeenth century in Northern Europe.
Resources
The Yale University Libraries contain approximately nine million volumes. Further, a potential pool of twenty six and one half million volumes is available through the Research Libraries Group.
The Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library has extensive holdings of Renaissance Manuscripts, incunabula, and rare books. The Spinelli Archive in the Beinecke Library, covering the 400-year history of a Florentine banking family, is the largest archive of Italian papers outside Italy and a resource in Renaissance Studies unique among American libraries.
The Yale Art Gallery, with its world-famous Jarves Collection, allows direct study of original works of Italian Renaissance art, while the Yale British Art Center, the largest collection of British art outside the British Isles, is richly endowed in paintings miniatures, prints, and drawings from the Tudor-Stuart period.
The Classical Library documents Greco-Roman civilization in a comprehensive collection of books, slides, and electronic archives. Slides, books, and photographs in the Art Library give access to every notable work of art in the period.
The John Herrick Jackson Music Library contains virtually every modern edition of Renaissance music and also has several thousand microfilms of works by Renaissance composers.
The excellent Divinity School Library and the History of Medicine Collection in the Harvey Cushing and John Hay Whitney Medical Library document the histories of religion and science respectively.
Yale's Information Technology Services provides a full range of on-line and media resources.
The McDougal Graduate Student Center offers facilities and programs to support both graduate student life and professional development.
Admission and Fellowships
Basic admission details
The deadline for applications is January 1. Graduate Record Examination -- Verbal and Mathematical scores -- required. Applicants should submit a research or critical paper.
Note: Only candidates for the Ph.D. are accepted.
Since a minimum of three languages is required in Renaissance Studies, fluency in at least one–or preferably two– is necessary in order to apply for admission. Normally Latin and Italian are the required languages; a third language will vary according to departmental requirements and students’ interests. In some cases, students may petition to substitute Italian with another language, but no exceptions will be made for Latin.
It is highly recommended –but not required-- that all applicants get in touch with at least one Yale faculty member in their prospective department of concentration before the application is submitted, preferably before December, to explore the correspondence between the program and the student’s interests, and to handle all questions not clearly answered by this web site or our printed catalogue. To get in touch with the appropriate faculty, consult our list, and establish contact by email.
Application Instructions
Applications to the Graduate School can only be made on-line, through the Graduate School admissions office website.
The electronic application form requires that you indicate a Proposed Program of Study. Since Renaissance Studies is always combined with another department, and all applications must be sent to two places, you need to take the right steps to ensure that your application is handled correctly.
In the Proposed Program of Study page, you will see the following:
“Step 1: Proposed Program of Study: Required. Make your selection from the choices displayed in the drop down box. Application may be made to only one department or program at the Graduate School as the proposed Program of Study. Some Programs can be combined with other Programs at the Graduate School, but need not be.”
You will also find this special alert:
“Students applying to the following programs, please note:
- African American Studies
- Film Studies
- Renaissance Studies
If you choose one of the above listed programs in Step 1 as your proposed Program of Study you must select a participating Combined Degree Program in Step 3. A Combined Degree Program is a combination of two programs within the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. Alternately, you may select, as your proposed Program of Study, one of the participating Combined Degree Programs and designate African American Studies, Film Studies or Renaissance Studies in Step 3. It does not matter which program is listed in the proposed Program of Study field - your application and all credentials will be provided to each of the designated programs.”
This means that all applicants to Renaissance Studies must choose “Renaissance Studies” in Step One, and their department of concentration in Step Three (Classics, History, English, etc.).
Admission Procedures
The Graduate School will automatically send your full application – including all letters of recommendation, essays, and writing samples-- to two locations: Renaissance Studies, and your chosen department of concentration. The application will then be read by the appropriate admissions committee in both locations. This means that no one can be admitted into Renaissance Studies without also being admitted by their chosen department of concentration. In essence, it means you have to be admitted by two committees.
Admission for students already at Yale
If you are uncertain about pursuing the combined degree in Renaissance Studies at the time you apply for admission to the Graduate School, you still have a chance to join Renaissance Studies once you have been accepted, during your first year (preferably during fall term). Entering Renaissance Studies during your first year does not require another application to the Graduate School. This is an internal application, handled through the program. Interested students are asked to contact the Director of Graduate Studies in Renaissance Studies.
Fellowships
All students admitted to the Yale Graduate School receive generous financial aid, which includes a full tuition fellowship, plus a twelve-month living stipend, and fellowships for summer language study. At present, the typical doctoral student's financial aid commitment from Yale totals more than $250,000.
The amount awarded has traditionally increased every year, to keep up with rising tuition and living expenses. Tuition is always covered in full for all doctoral students, for five years. For the academic year 2008-2009, the tuition for full-time study in the Yale Graduate School of Arts and Sciences is $31,500.
Fellowship stipends for doctoral students during the 2009-2010 academic year are $25,500 for twelve months.
For information on additional sources of funding at Yale, please see Student Grants and Fellowships at Yale University.
Inquiries may be addressed to:
Renaissance Studies Program
P.O. Box 208298
Yale University
New Haven, CT 06520-8298
(203) 432-0672
robyn.charmel@yale.edu
For admissions and fellowship information contact:
Graduate School of Arts & Sciences
Admissions Office
P.O. Box 208323
Yale University
New Haven, CT 06520-8323
(203) 432-2771
graduate.admissions@yale.edu
Office of Financial Aid
129 Hall of Graduate Studies
(203) 432-2739
gradfinaid@yale.edu
General Degree Requirements
Degree Requirements for the combined degree in Renaissance Studies vary slightly to accommodate the requirements of each 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. In some cases, students may petition to substitute Italian with another language.
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.
Pre-dissertation requirements vary slightly among the eight different combined degree programs, but all students are required to pass qualifying examinations in their prospective departments and also in Renaissance Studies. All students are also required to write a dissertation prospectus and to convene a minimum of three faculty in a colloquium, to assess and accept the prospectus. For specific requirements, see Individual Departmental Requirements.
Upon completion of all pre-dissertation requirements, including the qualifying exams and the prospectus, students are admitted to candidacy for the Ph.D. "Admission to Candidacy" must take place by the beginning of the fourth year of study. The topic of the dissertation will be in the student's area of departmental concentration but should be treated in the light of the student's cross-disciplinary training.
The dissertation will be submitted unbound to readers by March 1 or September 1, or preferably earlier. The Graduate School's deadlines for submission of dissertations are September 15 and March 15.
Master's Degrees
M.A. (en route to the Ph.D.) The Master of Arts degree is awarded upon completion of the M.A. requirements in the student's department of concentration.
M.Phil. (en route to the Ph.D.) The Master of Philosophy degree may be requested after all requirements but the dissertation have been met, that is, after meeting all course requirements, having passed the comprehensive exams and having the dissertation prospectus accepted.
Departmental Requirements
The specific departmental requirements for the combined degree in Renaissance Studies are listed below by department:
Master's Degrees
M.Phil. The M. Phil. degree may be requested after all requirements but the dissertation have been met.
M.A. (en route to the Ph.D.) The M.A. degree is awarded upon completion of the M.A.requirements in the student's department of concentration.
