NORTH AMERICAN LITERATURE AND CULTURE SUBPROGRAM
North American social consciousness, culture, and literature in the 19th and 20th centuries
Program Director: Dr. Tibor Glant, Ph.D.
FOR PROSPECTIVE NTERNATIONAL STUDENTS
Follow the LINK on application and admission
Follow the LINK on Stipendium Hungaricum scholarship
The Ph.D. program offered in 19th- and 20th-century American and Canadian society, culture, and literature is designed to satisfy an important social need in the contemporary world by way of providing students an opportunity for pursuing advanced studies regarding two immense and important countries that we are all becoming increasingly influenced by. The inherent interest of Hungarian scholarship in the cultivation of American and Canadian studies at the highest possible level, as well as the fact that this is the university where Prof. László Országh, the founder of American Studies in Hungary, used to chair the English Department, should also be emphasized in this context.
The North American studies program allows holders of English M.A.(or equivalent) degrees to pursue advanced American and Canadian studies in the fields of 19th- and 20th-century American and Canadian literature and culture. The two-year coursework explores phenomena such as multiculturalism, ethnicity and minority cultures, gender, postmodernism, postcolonialism, social myths, the manifestations of regionalism in social consciousness and literature, as well as issues concerning history, culture and narratives of America. Contributing to the student's familiarity with North American social and intellectual landscape are specific courses offered in history, political science, sociology and philosophy. Genre studies, changes of literary form, comparative studies, transatlantic studies, inter-and multidisciplinary approaches, as well as schools of literary theory and criticism, canon debates, and reconceptualizations ("New American Studies") are also emphasized. Special attention is paid to MLA style sheet, presentations skills, and book-review writing.
The term of the organized academic program is 4 years. In the first two years, a doctoral student is required to attend courses and meet certain academic requirements, including the comprehensive exam and the defense of the dissertation proposal. The final two years are set aside for research. Students are expected to submit a text ready for preliminary defense by the end of the 8th semester
Doctoral studies may be pursued in one of the following three categories.
- Full-time status entitling doctoral students to a stipend, which is available for a total period of 48 months (excluding leaves of absence). Employees of the university or persons in the same status may be granted full-time status while maintaining their employment.
- "Correspondence" status, which is only available to applicants whose employers issue a statement to the effect that the student is allowed to attend the courses of the program and to pursue research activities on a regular basis. Applying for "correspondence" status does not preclude the option of simultaneously indicating preference for full-time status.
- "Independent preparation" status, a category in which students are exempted from the requirement to attend courses, is available to applicants with a sufficient number of publications and able to enclose with their applications already completed dissertation chapter.
In the English and American Studies program, the day reserved for courses, consultations, as well as for the defense of dissertation proposals and completed chapter, is Friday.
Doctoral students may be engaged in teaching in the undergraduate program of the University of Debrecen.
Enrollment in the doctoral program is subject to the payment of tuition as specified in Doctoral Rules and Regulations of the Doctoral School of Literature and Cultural Studies (DSLCS). The current amount is:
- 40,000 HUF per semester for students admitted to the full-time regular programme from EU member states (N.B.: with credit endorsement and on the basis of individual judgement the tuition fee can be reduced);
- individual applicants: a one-time sum of 100.000 HUF.
Further details are available here.