Jewish Studies

The Program in Jewish Studies offers a combined PhD in conjunction with several departments: Comparative Literature, French, History, Philosophy, and Religious Studies.  To be considered for admission to this program, applicants may only apply for the PhD in Jewish Studies in conjunction with their application to one of these five partnering departments; applicants must thus indicate both the Jewish Studies Program and one of the participating departments listed above on their applications. Students already pursuing a PhD in one of the partnering departments may apply for transfer into the combined PhD in Jewish Studies in the first or second year of their degree study unless they have fulfilled all requirements, in which case they may apply for transfer into the combined PhD in Jewish Studies any time prior to completing their comprehensive exams. Graduate students in other departments and programs may also petition to pursue an ad hoc combined degree.  Students are encouraged to draw from multiple disciplines in their intellectual pursuits, both in preparation for their qualifying examinations and in their dissertation research and writing. Students determine their research and doctoral foci and select an area of concentration in consultation with their advisors and the directors of graduate studies (DGS) of Jewish Studies and the partnering department. An area of concentration must either be a field of study offered by the partnering department or program or fall within the rubric of such a field. An area of concentration may follow the fields of study already established within a single discipline, for example, the study of late-antique Judaism in Religious Studies or Hebrew literature in Comparative Literature, or they may be comparative or interdisciplinary.