Portfolio

In developing a plan for your Portfolio Exam, you should work closely with your main advisor to make sure to receive the appropriate training to work effectively as a teacher and scholar in the chosen field(s). The selection of fields is up to you and your faculty advisor, but should be conceived broadly in order to provide you with exposure to a range of approaches and fields. A field might be organized around a particular author or group of authors, or a particular historical period. It can also be organized around a broad theoretical inquiry. In addition to preparing you for your dissertation project, the fields also serve to establish expertise in potential teaching areas. It is therefore important for them to include material directly relating to teaching.

Your portfolio will be divided into three fields of specialization:

  1. One of these, the “major” field, completed with your main advisor in the department of Romance Studies.
  2. The other two, the "minor" fields, completed with other faculty in Romance Studies.
  3. In addition to the work completed for the three sections of the portfolio, you must also submit an intellectual statement of three to five pages describing his/her overall agenda and explaining how the three fields cohere.

Each field must be accompanied by a reading list connected to the particular field, which will inform the written work presented. The written materials themselves will in many cases include work produced for graduate classes taken during the first two years. You may also decide to use previous papers as a basis for expanded theoretical or methodological essays.

Your portfolio can include book reviews, critical essays, historiographical reviews, annotated bibliographies, course syllabi, and research papers. The intention is to build on your previous work by assigning a set of written projects that will allow you to demonstrate your understanding and engagement with a particular body of work. As elements of the portfolio are completed, you should meet with the members of the committee to discuss your progress.