Contact Info

Contact:	Jessica Flannigan
Phone:	314-935-5566
Email:	flanniganj@wustl.edu
Website:	http://music.wustl.edu/graduate

Doctoral Candidacy

To earn a PhD at Washington University, a student must complete all courses required by their department; maintain satisfactory academic progress; pass certain examinations; fulfill residence and Mentored Experience Requirements; write, defend, and submit a dissertation; and apply to graduate via Workday Student. For the details of doctoral degree general requirements in Arts & Sciences, including an explanation of Satisfactory Academic Progress, students should review the Doctoral Degree Academic Information page of the Arts & Sciences Bulletin.

Program Requirements

• Total Units Required: 72 (Note: Remission applies for a maximum of 72 graduate-level units.)
• Degree Length: 6 years
  • Note: Students must be enrolled in 9 graduate credits each semester to retain full-time status. As students complete their coursework, if enrolled in fewer than 9 graduate credits, they must enroll in a specific Arts & Sciences graduate course that will show 0 units but does count as full-time status. Students should connect with their department to ensure proper enrollment prior to Add/Drop.
• Grade Requirement: A grade of B- or better is required for courses to count toward the degree. Students are expected to maintain a cumulative grade point average of at least 3.0 on a 4.0 scale in courses that count toward their credit units.

The PhD degree in Music Theory requires a total of 72 units of graduate study: 30 units of music theory, 15 units of music history and culture, 6 units of composition, 6 units outside music, 6 units of qualifying projects, and 9 units of electives or dissertation research. Also required are keyboard proficiency, reading knowledge of two foreign languages (German and either French or Italian; a computer language may be substituted for the second language, according to the student's needs), a program-defined Mentored Experience Requirement, three qualifying projects, the dissertation, and the final oral defense of the dissertation. Students who have completed a master's degree at another institution may receive up to 24 units of transfer credit toward the PhD.

Required Courses

Course List

Code	Title	Units
MUSIC 5020	Introduction to Musicological Research I	3
MUSIC 5022	Introduction to Musicological Research II	3
MUSIC 5070	Introduction to Contemporary Music Theory	3
MUSIC 5104	Analysis I	3

Elective Courses

• 24 units of Music Theory
• 9 units of Music History and Culture
• 6 units of Composition
• 6 units outside of Music
• 6 units of Qualifying Projects
• 9 units of electives and dissertation research

Qualifying Examinations

Progress toward the PhD is contingent upon the student passing examinations that are variously called preliminary, qualifying, general, comprehensive, or major field exams. The qualifying process varies according to the program. In some programs, it consists of a series of incremental, sequential, and cumulative exams over a considerable time. In others, the exams are held during a relatively short period of time. Exams may be replaced by one or more papers. The program, which determines the structure and schedule of the required examinations, is responsible for notifying the Office of Graduate Studies, Arts & Sciences, of the student’s outcome, whether successful or unsuccessful.

Mentored Experience Requirements

Doctoral students at Washington University must complete a department-defined Mentored Experience. The Mentored Experience Requirement is a doctoral degree requirement that is notated on the student’s transcript when complete. Each department has an established Mentored Experience Implementation Plan in which the number of units that a student must earn through Mentored Teaching Experience(s) and/or Mentored Professional Experience(s) is defined. The Mentored Experience Implementation Plans outline how doctoral students within the discipline will be mentored to achieve competencies in teaching at basic and advanced levels. Some departments may elect to include Mentored Professional Experiences as an avenue for completing some units of the Mentored Experience Requirement. Doctoral students will enroll in ASGS 8005, 8010, or 8015 Mentored Teaching Experience - Assistant in Instruction; ASGS 8020 Mentored Teaching Experience - Mentored Independent Teaching; or ASGS 8120 Mentored Professional Experience to signify their progression toward completing the overall Mentored Experience Requirement for the degree.

The Doctoral Dissertation

A Research Advisory Committee (RAC) must be created no later than the end of the student's third year; departments may set shorter timelines (e.g., by the end of the student's second year) for this requirement. As evidence of the mastery of a specific field of knowledge and of the capacity for original scholarly work, each candidate must complete a dissertation that is approved by their RAC.

A Title, Scope & Procedure Form for the dissertation must be signed by the committee members and by the program chair. It must be submitted to the Office of Graduate Studies, Arts & Sciences, at least six months before the degree is expected to be conferred or before the beginning of the fifth year of full-time enrollment, whichever is earlier.

A Doctoral Dissertation Guide and a Dissertation Template that give instructions regarding the format of the dissertation are available on the website of the Office of Graduate Studies, Arts & Sciences. Both should be read carefully at every stage of dissertation preparation.

The Office of Graduate Studies, Arts & Sciences, requires each student to make the full text of the dissertation available to the committee members for their review at least one week before the defense. Most degree programs require two or more weeks for the review period; students should check with their faculty.

The Dissertation Defense

Approval of the written dissertation by the Research Advisory Committee (RAC) is strongly recommended before the student can orally defend the dissertation. The Doctoral Dissertation Committee that examines the student during the defense consists of at least five members. Normally, the members of the RAC also serve on the Doctoral Dissertation Committee. The dissertation committee is then additionally augmented to ensure that the following criteria are met:

1. Three of the five members (or a similar proportion of a larger committee) must be full-time Washington University in St. Louis faculty members or, for programs involving Washington University in St. Louis-affiliated partners, full-time members of a Washington University in St. Louis-affiliated partner institution. All members must be authorized to supervise PhD students and have appropriate expertise in the proposed field of study. One of these three members must be the PhD student's primary thesis advisor, and one may be a member of the emeritus faculty.
2. All other committee members must be active in research/scholarship and have appropriate expertise in the proposed field of study whether at Washington University in St. Louis, at another university, in government, or in industry.
3. At least one of the five members must bring expertise outside of the student's field of study to the committee, as judged by the relevant department/program and approved by the Office of Graduate Studies, Arts & Sciences.

The approval processes outlined in the RAC section of the Doctoral Council bylaws also apply to the doctoral dissertation committee, including approval of each dissertation committee by the Office of Graduate Studies, Arts & Sciences.

The student is responsible for making the full text of the dissertation accessible to their committee members for their review in advance of the defense according to program rules. Washington University in St. Louis community members and guests of the student who are interested in the subject of the dissertation are normally welcome to attend all or part of the defense but may ask questions only at the discretion of the committee chair. Although there is some variation among degree programs, the defense ordinarily focuses on the dissertation itself and its relation to the student's field of expertise.

Attendance by a minimum of four members of the Doctoral Dissertation Committee, including the committee chair and an outside member, is required for the defense to take place. This provision is designed to permit the student's defense to proceed in case of a situation that unexpectedly prevents one of the five members from attending. Students should not plan in advance to only have four members in attendance. If four members cannot attend, the defense must be rescheduled. The absence of all outside members or of the committee chair also requires rescheduling the defense.

Students, with the support of their Doctoral Dissertation Committee chair, may opt to hold their dissertation defense in person or by utilizing a virtual or hybrid format.

Submission of the Dissertation

After the defense, the student must submit an electronic copy of the dissertation online to the Office of Graduate Studies, Arts & Sciences. The submission website requires students to choose among publishing and copyrighting services offered by ProQuest’s ETD Administrator. Students are asked to submit the Survey of Earned Doctorates separately. The degree program is responsible for delivering the final approval form, signed by the committee members at the defense and then by the program chair or director, to the Office of Graduate Studies, Arts & Sciences. Students who defend their dissertations successfully have not yet completed their PhD requirements; they finish earning their degree only when their electronic dissertation submission has been accepted by the Office of Graduate Studies, Arts & Sciences.

As part of their degree requirements, PhD students must complete a program-defined Mentored Experience Requirement (MER) as per these guidelines. The Mentored Experience Implementation Plan (MEIP) is the written articulation of a program-defined degree requirement for PhD students to engage in mentored teaching activities and/or mentored professional activities, collectively referred to as MERs.

Mentored Experience Requirements (MERs)

Philosophy of Teaching

Virtually all music scholars teach in some capacity. Most of our PhD students hope to teach at the university level. Depending on where they find employment, they could work with a range of students, from conservatory students preparing for professional careers as performers or music educators to liberal arts students taking music courses to fulfill humanities requirements. Interviews for university positions almost always include a teaching demonstration. In the past decade or so, music scholars have increasingly given the study of pedagogy a prominent place at national conferences and in peer-reviewed journals.

Pedagogy is also an important aspect of training for PhD students who go on to work outside the academy. Working for a museum, library, or an arts organization, for instance, requires a scholar to engage with the public (and even with their colleagues) as an educator.

Preparatory Engagement

Preparatory Engagement activities are those that represent an introduction to the foundational skills associated with teaching or communication. Pedagogical preparation engagement activities are normally completed before students are permitted to engage in assisting or teaching in a classroom.

The pedagogical training that students obtain in Music 5020–5022 fulfills the requirement of two Preparatory Engagement activities. If students want to undertake additional, voluntary Preparatory Engagement activities, they may participate in workshops sponsored by the university’s Center for Teaching and Learning.

During their first year in the PhD program, all Music students take Music 5020 and 5022 (Introduction to Musicological Research I–II). These seminars explore a variety of issues, including pedagogy. Training includes explorations of specific issues (selecting textbooks, teaching “difficult” topics, designing discussion questions, conceiving survey courses) as well as mock lectures. The second semester culminates with students designing an original course syllabus.

Mentored Teaching Experiences (MTEs)

Assistant in Instruction (AI)

An Assistant in Instruction (AI) is a PhD student who is directly engaged in the organization, instruction, and/or support of a semester-long course primarily taught by a faculty member. An AI receives mentorship from a faculty member related to best practices in classroom engagement, instruction in the field, interpersonal engagement, and other relevant skills. Students and mentors complete a mentorship plan prior to the start of each AI experience. To complete each AI assignment and to ensure that it applies toward their degree requirements, students must register for the appropriate course number for each semester of engagement. Refer to the "Required Pathways for Completion" section below for course numbers and details.

Music requires five or six AI engagements at 10 MER units each. The number of AI engagements is dependent upon whether a student opts to take one MIT or one MPE. Duties for AIs include the following:

• For musicology courses: attend class meetings, give two guest lectures during the semester, and grade assignments.
• For music theory courses: attend class meetings, give two guest lectures during the semester, and lead two sections of a weekly musicianship lab.

Even when students do not choose an MIT opportunity, they will still take on AI experiences that involve increasing levels of leadership and draw on accumulated pedagogical experience. For instance, AIs with more than 20 MTE units of experience in the music theory division may serve as the musicianship lab coordinator, a role in which they are mentored by a music theory faculty member while they in turn mentor AIs who are leading musicianship labs for the first time.

Mentored Independent Teaching (MIT)

MIT is a semester-long experience for PhD students who engage as the primary instructor or co-instructor of a course under the mentorship of a faculty member as part of the MER. Students and mentors complete a mentorship plan prior to the start of each MIT experience. To complete each MIT assignment and to ensure that it applies toward their degree requirements, students must register for the appropriate course number (ASGS 8020) for each semester of engagement. Refer to the "Required Pathways for Completion" section below for more details.

A student's teaching experience in our department may culminate with an MIT opportunity to teach a course as the instructor of record (20 MTE units). We extend this opportunity only to students who are making satisfactory progress in the program and who are able to design and teach a course that complements our current undergraduate offerings. Students seeking to pursue this MIT opportunity must submit a course proposal to the chair, division head, and director of graduate studies no less than one academic year in advance. (This course proposal can be based on the syllabus the student designed for Music 5022.) The academic unit that owns the course can vary: students with Harvey Fellowships, for example, are required to teach a course for AMCS, which would simultaneously fulfill this part of Music’s MTE requirement.

Mentored Professional Experiences (MPEs)

The MPE is an unpaid professional experience for PhD students that allows students to develop skills and experiences relevant to their intended career outcomes. Students and mentors complete a mentorship plan prior to the start of each MPE. To complete each MPE assignment and to ensure that it applies toward their degree requirements, students must submit the Mentorship Registration Request form for approval and register for the appropriate course number (ASGS 8120) for each semester of engagement. Refer to the "Required Pathways for Completion" section below for more details.

We are open to students fulfilling their mentored experience requirements through other means, including one MPE opportunity (20 MTE units). If a student would like to pursue such an opportunity, they must submit a proposal to the chair, division head, and Director of Graduate Studies the previous semester.

Required Pathways for Completion

Students work with their faculty mentor and their Director of Graduate Studies to plan how and when they will complete their MERs. Students register during the normal registration period for courses in accordance with one of these approved pathways.

Music requires 60 to 70 units of AI engagements.

Pathway #1 (AI only)

UG Spanish Seminar

ASGS 8010	Take six times

Pathway #2 (AI & MIT)

UG Spanish Seminar

ASGS 8010	Take five times
ASGS 8020	Take one time

Pathway #3 (AI & MPE)

UG Spanish Seminar

ASGS 8010	Take five times
ASGS 8120	Take one time

Optional Activity: Teaching Intensive Pathway (TIP)

The TIP is an optional pathway for those students whose career interests lie in academia or another field that would benefit from extended teaching experiences. This immersive experience allows students to further explore the breadth and depth of teaching best practices and pedagogy related to their respective field. Students who are interested in participating in this elective experience must formally request to participate, which is subject to program approval. Due to this experience being an elective, unpaid experience, students who participate in the TIP will not receive compensation.

Students who wish to obtain additional experience with courses inside and outside Music may opt for a teaching intensive track totaling 80 MTE units after completing either Pathway #1 or #2 requirements.

Optional Pathway After Completion of Required Pathway #1

UG Spanish Seminar

ASGS 8020	Take one time

Optional Pathway After Completion of Required Pathway #2

UG Spanish Seminar

ASGS 8010	Take one time

Optional Pathway After Completion of Required Pathway #3

UG Spanish Seminar

ASGS 8010	Take one time
ASGS 8020	Take one time