2 G5.5 MA Portfolio

Students in the MA program shall submit a research portfolio consisting of three term papers from graduate courses in this program. Two of the term papers must be from a Portuguese class and one must be from a Spanish class. Students submitting portfolios shall be allowed, but not required, to include in their portfolio a brief statement (approximately 1,000 words) explaining their anticipated doctoral research agenda. Each term paper included in the portfolio shall represent a different curricular area. Before submitting their portfolio pieces, students shall revise them in accordance with the corrections and comments provided by their course professors during the initial evaluation of those materials. Students shall submit their portfolio by March 1, and the portfolio review committee shall bring their recommendations to the Executive Committee for discussion and final decision at the committee’s March meeting.

To maintain the curricular breadth of our MA program, students shall be required to take at least three credits in each of the curricular fields within their concentration that are not represented by their portfolio selections. Thus, students concentrating in literature shall be required to take three credits in one field not represented in their portfolios. If no course is offered in a given area during a student’s four semesters of MA coursework, that student shall be granted an exemption from that requirement.

Each portfolio shall be reviewed and evaluated by a committee composed of the faculty members for whose courses the portfolio pieces were initially submitted. The review committee shall assess each portfolio to confirm that the student has achieved the applicable MA learning goals as enumerated in the department’s Graduate Assessment Plan, and the review committee’s recommendation shall then be subject to revision and final decision by the Departmental Committee or the Executive Committee, as appropriate, as described further below. The assessment criteria relating to written scholarship read as follows:

A.        Articulates, critiques, and elaborates the theories, methods, terminology and approaches to inquiry in Lusophone literary studies.

B.        Identifies and pursues promising avenues of inquiry, finds and makes use of appropriate bibliography, analyzes literary/cultural works or linguistic evidence, and develops speaking and writing skills.

C.        Demonstrates knowledge and understanding of Lusophone cultures or Spanish/Spanish American cultures or Spanish linguistics in a historical, socio-cultural and global context.

D.        Evaluates or synthesizes information pertaining to questions or challenges in the field of study.

E.        Communicates fluently and clearly in Portuguese in ways appropriate to the field of study.

A grade of pass on the portfolio shall certify adequate achievement of those goals, and it will qualify the student to receive the MA degree pending completion of all other requirements. It will not, however, qualify the student for automatic admission to the Portuguese and Spanish PhD program. A grade of high pass will indicate that the student has met and exceeded standard expectations in these respects by demonstrating a distinct capacity for original analytical, critical and theoretical thought and strong potential for success as a doctoral-level researcher. A grade of high pass will qualify the student to receive the MA degree pending completion of all other requirements, and it will also grant him or her admission to the Portuguese and Spanish  PhD program.

Students who receive a failing grade on the MA portfolio will be required to revise their portfolio pieces on the basis of the review committee’s feedback before resubmitting them for reevaluation by October 31 of the following semester. Those students must obtain at least a passing grade on the revised portfolio in order to complete the requirements for the MA degree.

Admission to the PhD program shall also require a minimum grade point average of 3.40 in the MA program. In general, the objective of the portfolio review shall be to evaluate each student’s capacity to design, research and write a doctoral dissertation in the near future. Therefore, portfolio pieces shall not be evaluated primarily in relation to individual course content. Rather, they shall be evaluated jointly, along with the statement on future research (if submitted), as evidence of the student’s capacity to present persuasive and fully articulated arguments and to use primary and secondary sources in a way that shows both responsible research and original thinking.

If the three members of the portfolio review committee do not agree unanimously on a portfolio grade, the grade recommended by the majority of committee members shall prevail. Before reaching a final judgment, the committee may consult with other faculty members in the curricular area of the student’s primary interest to solicit additional advice regarding the student’s potential for doctoral study.

In the event a student does not obtain a high pass from the portfolio review committee, there will be a thorough discussion and subsequent ratification of the case by the Executive Committee. If the candidate receives a pass but two professors are willing to defend the candidate and state that they support his or her entrance into the PhD program, both professors being willing to direct his or her dissertation, the candidate shall be admitted to the department’s doctoral program in literature, depending on the MA concentration. Both professors must be specialists in Lusophone literature and must represent one or two of the three areas represented in the portfolio. The student will be obliged to complete his or her dissertation under the supervision of one of the two professors who defended the candidate at the departmental meeting. Students wishing to continue to the PhD are advised to approach professors with whom they believe they may want to work before the portfolio review. The student should be aware of the possibility that the two professors may work in different field