2007-2008 Program Requirements for UCLA Graduate Degrees

Applicable only to students admitted during the 2007-2008 academic year.

Culture and Performance

Admission

Master's Degree

Advising

Each entering student is assigned an academic adviser, from among the ladder faculty of the department, who takes primary responsibility for academic advising. Each student is expected to form an advisory committee and apply for advancement to candidacy no later than Fall Quarter of the second year. The departmental graduate adviser is fundamentally responsible for advising students in regard to program requirements, policies, and University regulations.

Areas of Study

Students may opt to develop specialized skills and knowledge in the fields of dance studies or folklore studies by successfully completing a two-quarter course sequence:

Dance studies: World Arts and Cultures 203 and 204.

Folklore studies: World Arts and Cultures 205 and 206 or an approved folklore seminar in another department.

Further specialized training in these fields may be accomplished through additional coursework, in World Arts and Cultures or other departments. Students specializing in dance studies or folklore studies at the M.A. level must successfully complete at least five courses in addition to the core and specialization requirements.

Foreign Language Requirement

Students must demonstrate reading competence in one foreign language. The purpose of the language requirement is to ensure that students have the necessary skills to conduct independent research. Any foreign language useful for field study and/or library research is acceptable. The language requirement must be completed before students file the advancement to candidacy petition for the degree.

The language requirement may be met by: (1) passing a departmental examination, administered by the department's Graduate Foreign Language Examination Committee; (2) demonstrating the equivalent of five quarters or four semesters of training in an approved foreign language, completed within the last five years before admission with a grade of B or higher in the final courses; (3) placing at level six on the Foreign Language Placement Examination; or (4) petitioning to use English as a foreign language (only for international students whose native language is not English).

Course Requirements

Students must successfully complete a total of 40 units (normally ten courses) taken for a letter grade and with a minimum 3.0 grade-point average. Of the 40 units, at least 28 must be completed at the graduate level. The required courses are distributed as follows:

(1) Three core courses, taken during the first year of study; World Arts and Cultures 200, 201, and 202.

(2) Seven additional courses, chosen in consultation with the student's academic adviser and advisory committee. At least four of these courses must be graduate-level courses taken within the department.

No more than two 500-series independent study courses (e.g., World Arts and Cultures 596A) may be applied toward the graduate course requirement.

The minimum course load is 12 units per quarter. Students must be registered and enrolled at all times unless they are on an official leave of absence.

Teaching Experience

Teaching experience is encouraged but not required.

Field Experience

Field experience is not required but is expected of students whose theses are based on ethnographic research.

Comprehensive Examination Plan

Students who select this plan take a comprehensive examination that consists of a series of essay questions. This examination is designed to test the student's knowledge of theories and methods in the study of performance and expressive culture, and their ability to apply these ideas and techniques to the study of particular traditions, genres, geo-cultural areas, social groups, or historical periods. The examination is administered and evaluated by the student's advisory committee, which consists of no fewer than three and no more than five members, a majority of whom must be ladder faculty in the department. Students who opt to specialize in dance studies or folklore studies are expected to demonstrate competence in those fields. Students who fail the comprehensive examination are allowed to retake it once, no later than the following quarter. In general, M.A. students who seek to apply to the Ph.D. program in Culture and Performance are advised to select the comprehensive examination plan as preparation for their doctoral studies.

Thesis Plan

The purpose of the master's thesis is to demonstrate a student's ability to conduct research in the areas of performance and expressive culture, to interpret the results, to demonstrate the relevance of the work to conceptual and practical issues in selected disciplines, and to present the findings in lucid prose. Students who pursue this plan must submit an acceptable thesis, prepared under the direction of their academic adviser and thesis committee. The thesis committee must be appointed no later than Fall Quarter of the student's second year.

Time-to-Degree

The master's degree is designed as a two-year program. Normal progress toward the degree is as follows:

Core course requirements -- expected time of completion: end of third quarter.

Thesis committee -- expected time of nomination: fourth quarter.

Language requirement -- expected time of completion: before advancement to candidacy petition is filed.

Advancement to candidacy -- expected time of completion: fourth quarter.

Doctoral Degree

Advising

The Ph.D. degree is organized around the relationship between the individual student, the student's adviser, and the doctoral committee. Each entering student is assigned an academic adviser, from among the ladder faculty of the department, who takes primary responsibility for academic advising. Each student is expected to choose a dissertation adviser and form an advisory committee during the first year of academic residence. The departmental graduate adviser is fundamentally responsible for advising students in regard to program requirements, policies, and University regulations.

Major Fields or Subdisciplines

Students may opt to develop specialized skills and knowledge in the fields of dance studies or folklore studies by successfully completing a two-quarter course sequence:

Dance studies: World Arts and Cultures 203 and 204.

Folklore studies: World Arts and Cultures 205 and 206 or an approved folklore seminar in another department.

Further specialized training in these fields may be accomplished through additional coursework, in World Arts and Cultures or other departments.

Foreign Language Requirement

Students must demonstrate reading competence in one foreign language. The purpose of the language requirement is to ensure that students have the necessary skills to conduct independent research. Any foreign language useful for field study and/or library research is acceptable. The language requirement must be completed no later than the end of the fifth quarter of residence.

The language requirement may be met by: (1) passing a departmental examination, administered by the department's Graduate Foreign Language Examination Committee; (2) demonstrating the equivalent of five quarters or four semesters of training in an approved foreign language, completed within the last five years before admission with a grade of B or higher in the final courses; (3) placing at level six on the Foreign Language Placement Examination; or (4) petitioning to use English as a foreign language (only for international students whose native language is not English).

Course Requirements

All students must successfully complete a total of 32 units (normally eight courses in the 200 and 500 series) taken for a letter grade, with a minimum 3.0 grade-point average. These courses are chosen in consultation with the student's academic adviser and advisory committee. At least four of these courses must be taken within the department. No more than three 500-series independent study courses (e.g., World Arts and Cultures 596A) may be applied toward the graduate course requirement.

Teaching Experience

Teaching experience is encouraged but not required.

Written and Oral Qualifying Examinations

Academic Senate regulations require all doctoral students to complete and pass University written and oral qualifying examinations prior to doctoral advancement to candidacy. Also, under Senate regulations the University oral qualifying examination is open only to the student and appointed members of the doctoral committee. In addition to University requirements, some graduate programs have other pre-candidacy examination requirements. What follows in this section is how students are required to fulfill all of these requirements for this doctoral program.

The Ph.D. qualifying examinations are composed of a written and an oral examination. The timing of these examinations is determined in consultation with the members of the doctoral committee. Students must successfully complete all required coursework (including the core courses and foreign language requirement) before scheduling their examination, and must be registered and enrolled during the quarter in which the examination is administered. The committee determines the conditions for re-examination should students not pass either of the examinations.

The written qualifying examination is administered by the student's doctoral committee. This examination takes the form of essay questions, developed in consultation with the student's adviser and committee, and tailored to the theoretical and substantive interests of the student, and to the refinement of a dissertation topic. The written examination evaluates competence in three main areas relevant to the student's dissertation topic: (1) theoretical concepts and problems; (2) geo-cultural and/or historical field of specialization; and (3) expressive genre(s) or media.

The University Oral Qualifying Examination is primarily a defense of the dissertation proposal and is administered by the student's doctoral committee.

Advancement to Candidacy

Students are advanced to candidacy upon successful completion of the written and oral qualifying examinations.

Doctoral Dissertation

Every doctoral degree program requires the completion of an approved dissertation that demonstrates the student's ability to perform original, independent research and constitutes a distinct contribution to knowledge in the principal field of study.

Final Oral Examination (Defense of Dissertation)

Not required for all students in the program. The decision as to whether a defense is required is made by the doctoral committee.

Time-to-Degree

Expected time to degree for the Ph.D. degree is four years from the M.A. degree (three years for students who hold the M.A. degree in Culture and Performance), depending on prior academic and language preparation and the length of dissertation. Under typical circumstances, a student would complete all course requirements during the first year in residence. Fall and Winter quarters of the second year would be devoted to any additional coursework, including completion of language requirements, if necessary; to the development of grant proposals; and to preparation for the qualifying examinations, typically taken no later than Spring Quarter of the second year of residency. 

Normal progress (post-M.A.) toward the degree is as follows:

Core course requirements (if necessary) -- expected time of completion: end of third quarter

Thirty-two units of coursework -- expected time of completion: end of fifth quarter

Completion of foreign language requirement -- expected time of completion: end of fifth quarter (must be completed before the nomination of committee and the qualifying examinations)

Doctoral committee -- expected time of nomination: end of fifth quarter

Written and oral qualifying examinations and advancement to candidacy -- expected time of completion: sixth quarter

Final oral examination (defense of dissertation [if required]) and filing of dissertation -- expected time of completion: no later than the end of the twelfth quarter (i.e., six quarters of doctoral candidacy status allowed)

Post-M.A. to Ph.D. degree -- expected time of completion: twelve quarters

Termination of Graduate Study and Appeal of Termination

University Policy

A student who fails to meet the above requirements may be recommended for termination of graduate study. A graduate student may be disqualified from continuing in the graduate program for a variety of reasons. The most common is failure to maintain the minimum cumulative grade point average (3.00) required by the Academic Senate to remain in good standing (some programs require a higher grade point average). Other examples include failure of examinations, lack of timely progress toward the degree and poor performance in core courses. Probationary students (those with cumulative grade point averages below 3.00) are subject to immediate dismissal upon the recommendation of their department. University guidelines governing termination of graduate students, including the appeal procedure, are outlined in Standards and Procedures for Graduate Study at UCLA.

Special Departmental or Program Policy

A recommendation for termination is made by the chair of the department after a vote of the department's graduate faculty. Before the recommendation is sent to the Graduate Division, a student is notified in writing and given two weeks to respond in writing to the chair. An appeal is reviewed by the department's graduate faculty, which makes the final departmental recommendation to the Graduate Division.

Page 1 -- Dance

Program Requirements

Culture and Performance