PhD in Theatre Studies

Normally completed in a maximum of five years, the PhD in Theatre Studies requires successful completion of the following:

Coursework
18 credits (six half-year courses or equivalent) at the 5000 or 6000 level within your first two years of study. 
The following 2 courses are required (3 credits each): THST 6100 Theatre Research and Methodology and THST 6200 Issues in Canadian Theatre History.

Colloquium
Students are expected to attend a biweekly non-credit colloquium during the first term of study. During fall term, PhD and MA students will meet as a group once each month to address issues relating to academic professional development; they will also meet monthly with faculty and graduate students from all subfields within the Theatre Department to discuss issues relevant to the profession more broadly. All meetings will bake place on Wednesday afternoons, 4:00-5:30 pm.

100 Play Reading Exam
Taken in winter semester the first year of graduate study, the exam is intended to ensure familiarity with a pre-established list of 100 major dramatic texts and ability to engage critically with their core ideas.

Comprehensive Exam
Within one year of completing required coursework, students are required to have on file an approved list of materials for which they will be held responsible in the Comprehensive Exam. The Comprehensive Exam will test knowledge of the student’s chosen research and teaching areas in an effort to verify that the student is sufficiently grounded in scholarship relevant to her/his discipline to continue on to the dissertation. Each student will compile one list of approximately 40 key sources in their general area of emphasis, which should correspond to a teachable subject (i.e. performance theory, actor training methods, postcolonial theatre, physical and devised theatre, etc.), and a further list of approximately 40 key sources in a more specialized areas of research (e.g. black feminist performance, neurocognitive studies of theatre, site-specific performance).The plays, performances, historical documents, secondary criticism and theoretical texts on this list will be chosen in consultation with the Supervisory Committee and submitted to the MA/PhD Graduate Executive Committee for approval. The comprehensive exam will consist of a takehome examination typically administered during fall or winter term reading week in the third year of doctoral study. Students will have 72 hours to complete responses of no more than 10 pages each to three essay questions written by members of their supervisory committee; students will choose these questions from six or more options proposed by the Supervisor and members of the Supervisory Committee. One month prior to sitting for the exam, students are required to submit a dissertation prospectus for review by the Supervisor and the Supervisory Committee. Approximately two weeks after completion of the exam, students will meet with the Supervisory Committee to discuss both the prospectus and the results of the comprehensive exam.

Prospectus
The prospectus contains a brief statement in nontechnical language on the purpose of the student’s proposed dissertation research, its relationship to existing work in the area, and the contribution which the researcher hopes to make to the advancement of knowledge in the field. In addition, the prospectus includes a title, a description of methodology to be applied in the proposed study and the suitability of this approach for addressing key research questions, a discussion of the proposed theoretical framework and its suitability, as well as a chapter breakdown. The prospectus is developed in close dialogue with the Supervisor and members of the Supervisory Committee, and must be circulated to the Committee no later than one month prior to the date chosen for sitting the comprehensive exam. The Supervisory Committee will review and discuss the proposed dissertation with the student in conjunction with the comprehensive exam process. Once the Supervisory Committee is satisfied with the prospectus, the final copy must be reviewed by the GPD and sent to FGS for approval. The maximum length of the prospectus is stipulated by FGS as 3,500 words.

Sample Chapter
This program-specific requirement is intended to help students move toward timely completion of the dissertation by requiring that they formally circulate a draft of one dissertation chapter to the Supervisory Committee at an early stage in the writing process (typically within three months after formal acceptance of the dissertation prospectus by FGS, but no later than six) and meeting with the Supervisory Committee to receive feedback on progress and potential concerns The content of the DRP must be directly related to the dissertation, and will typically constitute either a reworking of the prospectus into a an introductory chapter, or completion of a sample chapter from the body of the study.

Dissertation
Ideally, the dissertation topic should be chosen by the time coursework has been completed, as this will facilitate the student’s timely completion of the comprehensive exams, since the sources chosen for examination should be integrally related to the student’s dissertation project. The dissertation will consist of original research with significant value for the study of theatre and performance. The dissertation will typically be defended by the end of year five, although CUPE 1 members are guaranteed a sixth year of funding if needed by terms of the current collective agreement.

Internship
As part of our commitment toward ensuring that all of our students have some applied professionally oriented work experience, students are required to set up a working internship of at least 75 hours. This work will be connected to one of our fields of specialization and/or research area. The internship must be under the guidance of an approved mentor on or off-campus. Should students be unable to set up an internship on their own, an advisor will work with the students in finding a suitable program. Internship Form

Language requirement
If the dissertation topic requires work in another language as deemed by the advisor, students must prove reading proficiency in that language by the end of year three of their studies.