African Cultural Studies
Researching and teaching the languages and expressive cultures of Africa and Africans around the world since 1964

Preliminary Examination Policy

Adopted 6 September 2018

Students must begin the preliminary exam, as described below, by the beginning of the fourth semester in the doctoral program if they earned the MA in our department, or in the sixth semester in the doctoral program if they earned an MA elsewhere. The objectives of this exam are to determine if students have developed a strong overall understanding of the scope of the interdisciplinary field of African cultural studies as well as more in-depth understanding of the theories and research findings related to questions of specific concern to them. These include the theories on which research in the field is based; the type of questions that researchers in African cultural studies address; and the variety of techniques used to answer these questions.

  1. Effective Fall 2018, the Preliminary Examination shall comprise a written take-home examination.
  2. The written take-home exam shall comprise two questions:
    1. A theoretical question relevant to the field of African cultural studies, or an appropriate subfield; and
    2. A question geared toward the student’s specific research interests.
  3. The student’s response to each question should be in the form of a paper of approximately 20 pages, double-spaced, not including references. Citation style will be agreed upon by the committee chair and student before the exam begins.
  4. The written examination questions shall be given to the candidate at the beginning of any two-week period, and the candidate must complete the exam by the end of that period. The exact beginning and ending date and time will be agreed upon by the student and the committee chair.
  5. During the exam period, the student may consult digital and print sources, but may not consult with other people.
  6. The examination committee shall consist of three professors. The expected director of the candidate’s dissertation shall chair the committee and organize it in consultation with the candidate and the Director of Graduate Studies. All committee members shall be faculty of the Department of African Cultural Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. In consultation with the committee chair, the candidate will select one member of the committee. The third member will be appointed by the Director of Graduate Studies, rotating among faculty members.
  7. The examination committee chair shall be responsible for coordinating and, when necessary, editing the examination questions in close collaboration with the other members of the committee. A copy of the questions and a copy of the answers shall be deposited with the Director of Graduate Studies.
  8. The examination committee shall render judgment on the candidate’s examination within two weeks after the candidate has submitted the answers and inform both the candidate and the Director of Graduate Studies. All three committee members shall read and evaluate all parts of the examination.
  9. The decision to pass or fail a candidate’s examination shall be reached by a simple majority vote of the examination committee after oral or written deliberation, a summary of which shall be given to the student and to the Director of Graduate Studies. If the vote indicates a “low pass” for any written portion of the examination, the committee shall administer an oral examination for that portion within two weeks following announcement of the committee’s judgment on the written examination. The committee shall then render a “pass” or “fail” judgment for that portion of the Preliminary Examination on the basis of the oral examination.
  10. A candidate who fails his or her first attempt on any portion of the Preliminary Examination shall have only one opportunity to pass a second written exam on that portion. The candidate’s examination committee shall administer the retake no less than two weeks and no more than one semester after rendering judgment on the first attempt. Following a second failure, the candidate will not be allowed to proceed to the PhD in our Department.
  11. The following policy applies to students who earned an MA at UW-Madison:
    1. Coursework should be completed in four semesters. Students who need more time to complete coursework must make a written request and justification for an extension by the end of the third semester, to be presented by their adviser at a faculty meeting for approval by the faculty. No more than one such extension will be granted.
    2. By the beginning of the fourth semester, the candidate proceeds to the Preliminary Examination.
    3. Students who have not scheduled their Preliminary Exam by the beginning of the fourth semester must write a brief request and justification for a one-semester extension, to be presented by their advisor at a faculty meeting for approval by the faculty. No more than one such extension will be granted.
    4. A student who has not attempted the Preliminary Exam by the beginning of their fifth semester, or passed it by the end of the fifth semester, will leave the program.
  12. The following policy applies to students who earned an MA elsewhere:
    1. Coursework should be completed in six semesters. Students who need more time to complete coursework must make a written request and justification for an extension by the end of the fifth semester, to be presented by their adviser at a faculty meeting for approval by the faculty. No more than one such extension will be granted.
    2. By the beginning of the sixth semester, the candidate proceeds to the Preliminary Examination.
    3. Students who have not scheduled their Preliminary Exam by the beginning of the sixth semester must write a brief request and justification for a one-semester extension, to be presented by their advisor at a faculty meeting for approval by the faculty. No more than one such extension will be granted.
    4. A student who has not attempted the Preliminary Exam by the beginning of their seventh semester, or passed it by the end of the seventh semester, will leave the program with an MA (provided they have at least 30 credits).
  13. Once students complete all coursework (including the minor) and pass the Preliminary Exam, they will advance to candidacy (dissertator status) at which time the Graduate School’s Five Year Rule will go into effect.
  14. The oral defense of the dissertation proposal, must occur within one semester after the candidate has completed the preliminary exam. It is the candidate’s responsibility to submit a completed proposal to the three internal members of their dissertation committee at least two weeks prior to the proposal defense. No proposal defense shall take place while the University is in recess. The committee for the oral defense of the dissertation proposal shall normally comprise three members of the Department’s faculty, selected by the candidate in consultation with the committee chair, who shall guide the candidate until he or she completes the dissertation. This committee may be different from the examination committee and may include a fourth professor from outside the Department, but only Departmental members have voting rights on the proposal defense.