Doctoral Program

Admission to the Ph.D. program is contingent upon completion of ALL requirements prior to that level. M.A. thesis candidates attending UTK who are conditionally accepted into the Ph.D. program can enroll as Ph.D. students the semester following conferral of the M.A. degree. Students holding Master's degrees from other institutions must apply by January 15 for admission the following Fall and must begin their studies in the Fall semester.

Admission to the Ph.D. program is based upon the applicant' s academic record, credentials, and on the fit between the individual's interests and the faculty's areas of research specialization. Applicants will not be admitted to the Ph.D. program unless appropriate faculty members are available to chair and serve on the doctoral committee. Doctoral program applicants should communicate directly with the potential chairperson and two additional members of the anthropology faculty who will be asked to serve on the committee.

All Ph.D. program applications are screened initially by the departmental admissions committee. Dossiers of applicants who receive votes to admit from at least one of the three committee members are then circulated to obtain votes of all faculty members in the respective subdiscipline. In order to be admitted, a prospective student must have one faculty member committed to serve as chair and at least two additional faculty members willing to serve on the committee.

Application Questions? Contact: Donna L. Griffin, Principal Secretary

Financial Aid

Anthropology Graduate Assistantship Application

Information on types of local and national funding available to graduate students at UTK is available in the GradSource (PDF document).

Ph.D. Requirements

1. ADMISSION. Applicants to the Ph.D. Program should meet the same academic standards as M.A. program applicants; those applying for admission to UTK at the Ph.D. level should furnish the same materials as applicants to the M.A. program.

Admission to the Ph.D. program requires either:

(a) acceptance of a Master's degree in anthropology OR

(b) acceptance of a Master's degree in another discipline, with the provision that the student will follow the first-year program with entering M.A. students: i.e., complete the core courses (Method & Theory in Archaeology, Method & Theory in Cultural Anthropology, Method & Theory in Physical Anthropology) and pass the Graduate Evaluation Examinations.

2. THE PH.D. COMMITTEE. Following admission to the Ph.D. program, The Graduate School, upon receiving recommendation from the Head of the Department, appoints a committee of no fewer than four members of the faculty, including the student' s major professor, who serves as committee chairperson, and one member from outside the department. Three of the four members, including the major professor, must be approved to direct doctoral dissertations. In consultation with this committee, the student defines his/her future program of studies. When the student and the committee have agreed upon the specific fields of specialized competence in which the student will be examined, a brief delineation of the fields by the student, approved by the members of the committee, is presented to the Department Head and the student's graduate advisor. As early as possible, but no later than a full semester after advancing to candidacy, the student shall formally present a written dissertation proposal to the Department Head and the student's graduate advisor.

3. RESIDENCE AND COURSE WORK REQUIREMENTS. Every Ph.D. candidate must complete two consecutive semesters of full-time residence at the University of Tennessee prior to taking the doctoral comprehensive examination. A candidate for a doctoral degree must complete a minimum of 24 hours of graduate coursework beyond the Master's degree. A minimum of 12 of the 24 hours must be graded A-F, and a minimum of 6 semester hours must consist of 600-level seminars in anthropology. Students are required to take at least nine hours of 500- or 600-level coursework outside of anthropology, chosen in consultation with the doctoral committee, particularly the outside member who represents a minor or cognate area of study. Outside coursework may constitute a minor in a single discipline or be distributed across two or more disciplines as appropriate to the individual's program of study.

4. STATISTICS REQUIREMENT. Demonstration of competence in statistics by completing Statistics 537 and 538 with a grade of "B" or better.

5. LANGUAGE REQUIREMENT. Demonstration of knowledge of one foreign language. This language should normally be French, German, Russian or Spanish, but another language may be substituted at the committee's discretion. This requirement may be met by either:

(a) Successful performance on a language examination administered by the appropriate language department. A student electing this alternative should consult with the advisor; or

(b) Completion of the second semester of specialized reading courses for graduate students with a grade of "B" or better. The Anthropology Department does not accept completion of the intermediate (200 level) sequence of a language as a formal option for fulfilling the language requirement.

6. DOCTORAL COMPREHENSIVE EXAM

(a) Comprehensive Written Examination. When the Ph.D. aspirant has completed all of the foregoing requirements and is judged by his/her advisory committee to be prepared in his/her field(s) of concentration, he/she will be required to take a comprehensive written examination. The examination will consist of three sections and be given by the student's committee. All three sections must be taken within seven consecutive days.

(b) Comprehensive Oral Examination. This examination follows shortly after successful completion of the Comprehensive Written Examination. The major professor acts as chairperson of the orals committee.

7. ADVANCEMENT TO CANDIDACY, Upon successful completion of the Comprehensive Examination and with the formal approval of The Graduate School, the aspirant is advanced to candidacy for the Ph.D. degree. The formal dissertation prospectus must be filed no later than one full semester after advancement to candidacy.

8. RESEARCH FOR THE DISSERTATION. This period of research and writing will be under the direct guidance of the candidate's principal faculty advisor. The major professor will act as chairperson of the candidate's dissertation committee, which ordinarily will consist of the four advisors and other members designated by The Graduate School on the recommendation of the Department. The candidate must earn a minimum of 24 hours in Anthropology 600 and maintain continuous registration until the dissertation is accepted. The option of presenting publishable papers as a dissertation, described on pages 39-40 in the Guide to Dissertations/Theses distributed by the Graduate School, is not a formal option for the Anthropology Department.

9. DEFENSE OF DISSERTATION EXAMINATION. When the dissertation has been tentatively accepted by the dissertation committee, a final oral examination will be held. The examining committee consists of the four-member Ph.D. committee described in section 2. This examination ordinarily will be held as a colloquium in which the candidate will expound on the nature and significance of his/her contribution to anthropological knowledge as set forth in the dissertation. Upon successful completion of this examination, the candidate will be certified for award of the Ph.D. degree. In addition to the two copies required by The Graduate School, one bound copy of the dissertation is to be presented to the Department and one bound copy to each committee member. Other members of the faculty may participate in the examination.