Preparatory Requirements

3b. Preparatory Requirements

The Preparatory Requirements (Writing and Presentation and Scholarly Preparation), provide experience in scholarly writing, research and instruction and assist you in the timely completion of your degree. You should complete them within two and a half years (five semesters) of full-time study. The GGC will work with you to accommodate them in your program.

3b.1.  Writing and Presentation: Possessing clear writing and associated analytical skills is essential for your career as a graduate student and later, scholar. The writing and presentation requirement is a systematic approach to strengthening your abilities in these areas. It has four elements:

3b.1.i  Review Essay: assessing several books related to your primary interest to be written and presented in your first semester to the Doctoral Seminar.

3b.1.ii  First Year Paper: writing a literature review in your area of the primary interest to be presented to the Doctoral Seminar during the second semester of full-time study. You begin it under the guidance of the Doctoral Seminar instructor and also work with other Graduate Group faculty. The literature survey requirement aims to allow you to identify gaps in knowledge, to formulate a research question around a particular issue, and devise a research design to explore that question.

3b.1.iii  Second Year Paper: undertaking original research of publishable quality in your area of interest to be presented at Doctoral Seminar in your third semester of full-time study. Ideally, this paper will evolve from the First Year Paper. As you undertake this paper, you should be working with your principal advisor since this paper will be the foundation of your dissertation. Given the significance of the requirement, you should begin working on the paper in the summer between your first and second years. You are also expected to submit your Second Year Paper (or some equivalent research) for presentation at an academic conference by the Fall of your third year. If your paper is accepted for presentation, the Graduate Group will cover your travel expenses to the conference.

3b.1.iv  Draft Dissertation Proposal: You will present a draft dissertation proposal to the Doctoral Seminar in your fourth semester. By this time, you will be working with your principal advisor who should serve as the chair of your Examination and Dissertation committees.

The four writing requirements will be satisfied by a passing grade in the Doctoral Seminar as noted in the Degree Audit in Path for the semester the papers were written.

3b.2.  Scholarly Preparation

3b.2.i Fellowships:  The faculty develops enduring mentoring relationships with you through your serving four semesters as a Research Fellow (RF) or Teaching Fellow (TF). The RF and TF positions require, on average, ten hours a week of work. Ordinarily, you will begin your fellowship in your first year (first or second semester) of full-time study and complete it in your second or third year (fourth-fifth semesters). The TF assignments will be in either CPLN 5000 or CPLN 5010. You may fulfill the requirement by assisting in one course for two semesters, or one semester each course.  The teaching requirement will be indicated as satisfied on your Degree Audit in Path at the end of the term.

After your first year, you are required to attend the three-day Teaching Assistant Workshop sponsored by the Center for Teaching and Learning, School of Arts and Sciences).

3b.2.ii  Jury Service:  Finally, you will serve as master’s level critics four times, ideally during your first five semesters of full-time study   Each student should forward an email from the studio instructor to the Graduate Group Administrator indicating they participated in the studio review. 

3b.2.iii  Other options

CTL Teaching Certificate You may opt to earn a CTL Teaching Certificate from Penn’s Center for Teaching and Learning. While you will be very busy in pursuing your research, teaching is a vital component of an academic career. Pursuing this certificate not only offers you a means to reflect on what constitutes excellent teaching and to enhance your own pedagogical skills but also to add to your own qualifications when you begin your job search. Requirements are: completion of five CTL-approved workshops, completion of two semesters as a teaching fellowship, an observation and review of a full teaching session, and development of a statement of teaching philosophy. For more information see: https://ctl.upenn.edu/programs/grad-students/ctl-teaching-certificate/

Graduate Urban Studies Certificate: The Graduate Urban Studies Program in the School of Arts and Sciences offers a Certificate in Urban Studies to be taken in conjunction with a Ph.D. offered by the University. It is aimed at students who want to augment their disciplinary studies to address urban topics or problems from an interdisciplinary perspective. The Program draws on faculty and encourages course-taking from the various departments of the School of Arts and Sciences and other schools of the University. Students’ interests have focused on many areas of the world and include housing, employment, economic development, finance, social welfare, poverty, education, community organization, history, ethnicity, culture, family, architecture, urban design, planning, law, and policy. For more information, see https://urban.sas.upenn.edu/students/graduate-certificate-program