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Language Requirements

    The Advanced Research Collaborative (ARC) is the focal point of the collaborative research activities of the Graduate Center. It promotes interdisciplinary research, partners with GC Research Centers, Institutes and Interdisciplinary Committees, connects the research activities of CUNY faculty at the Colleges to GC research programs and seminars, and provides a home for outstanding visiting scholars to collaborate with faculty and students. ARC offers support to GC doctoral students pursuing research as well as to postdoctoral students who have completed their initial projects.
 

Language Requirements

Students are not required to meet the language requirement within a fixed number of years, but they must do so before they may advance to candidacy and, thus, achieve Level III status.

Students must demonstrate language reading proficiency in two languages besides English in any of three ways.

  1. Students may take and pass one of the English Program's regularly administered examinations in French, German, Ancient Greek, Italian, Classical Latin, Medieval Latin, and Spanish. Members of the Program's Languages and Comprehensive Examination Committee prepare tests in each of these languages; they are given three times a year (in August, January, and May). The examination dates are posted on a bulletin board in the English Program Office and are announced via e-mail. Students are asked to sign up for an exam in the Program Office at least three weeks before the test date. Students who wish to be examined in another language that is warranted by their research interests should speak to the EO at least three months in advance. Each examination lasts one hour and consists of a written translation of a passage taken from a text that is identified at many months beforehand (a list of works for all the languages is posted on a bulletin board in the Program Office). A dictionary is the only translation aid that may be brought into the examination room.
  2. Students may enroll in the Graduate Center Language Reading Program (LRP), taking an intensive reading course - either Level One or Two - and earning a course (not final examination) grade of at least B. The LRP schedules several courses in various languages throughout the year. There is a separate tuition fee for the LRP. Students who must fulfill requirements in an ancient language should also consider the Latin/Greek Institute, an eleven-week summer program of total immersion, which includes instruction in language and literature. Questions should be directed to the program's director, Dr. Fleischer (Room 4415; ext.: 2081; rfleischer@gc.cuny.edu).
  3. Students may demonstrate that they have passed a foreign language reading requirement in another graduate program within five years of matriculating in the English Program; they should present appropriate documentation - such as a transcript - to the APO.