With the approval of their faculty advisor and the Graduate Committee, students may count some graduate work done in other departments toward their degrees in English.  However, at least 40 units out of the required 48 units for the MA/PhD program (that is, 10 out of the required 12 courses) and at least 28 units out of the required 36 units for the PhD program (7 out of the required 9 courses) must be taken in the English Department.

Work completed outside the department should have a significant relation to the student’s major interests in English.  A student of English Renaissance literature might, for example, take a graduate course in sixteenth-century English history or in sixteenth-century French literature or in Renaissance art history.  Such interdisciplinary work may be done at any time in a student’s graduate career. In connection with coursework in other departments, note that, by petition to the Graduate Committee/Graduate Division and after consultation with the committee chair, a faculty member from another department may serve as the third member on the examining committee for the second qualifying exam and/or the dissertation committee.