Overview
The Slavic Department PhD program emphasizes close work with individual students and programming tailored to meet their needs. Incoming students will clarify their professional interests and work together with faculty to design a program that makes the best use of our resources toward reaching their goals. While many of our students will continue to train for academic positions, we offer flexibility for students to push the boundaries of the field itself and to allow students to train for fields outside academia.
The main thrust of our program is interdisciplinary approaches to culture, with an emphasis on literature and the visual arts. Russian, Polish, Czech, Ukrainian, and Balkan languages and literatures are taught by accomplished faculty with a broad variety of specializations, from medieval Slavic literature and the classic realist novel to modernist, socialist realist, and post-communist cultural production.
We work carefully from the point of admission to meet the learning objectives of our students, and in return ask that our students commit to achieving their own goals and satisfying departmental expectations, including timely progress toward the degree (typically within six years). Under a new funding model, students now teach only as necessary for professional training and receive a full stipend for the duration of their time in the program.
For more information on program requirements, see the links below for the most recent Graduate Handbook and Pedagogical Training Plan.
Graduate Program
Doctoral Degree Program
The Slavic Department is currently admitting students to its doctoral degree program focused on interdisciplinary approaches to the cultures of Eastern Europe, Russia, and Eurasia. The Ph.D. program provides rigorous professional training in Slavic languages, literatures and cultures in a supportive atmosphere and interdisciplinary framework.
To apply for the PhD program in Slavic Studies, you must submit your application through the Humanities Division Admissions website at https://humanities.uchicago.edu/students/admissions. The deadline is December 2, 2024.
Information about application opening and deadlines is found at https://humanities.uchicago.edu/students/admissions. Once you submit your application to the Humanities Division, it will be forwarded to our department for review. Please note that we cannot consider late applications.
Joint Ph.D. Degree Programs
Students who apply to Slavic Languages and Literatures as a second Ph.D. program at the University of Chicago are required to fulfill all of the Department’s Ph.D. requirements. Courses from their primary program of Ph.D. study may be used to satisfy the minor field requirement. Students wishing to pursue a joint degree with Slavic should consult with the Director of Graduate Studies, as well as the guidelines provided by the Humanities Division.
Master of Arts Degree
The University of Chicago offers MA training in Slavic Studies through the Masters of Arts Program in Humanities. This is a one or two-year program: in the one-year format, students build their own curriculum with graduate-level courses in any humanities department (including Slavic Languages and Literatures) and complete a thesis with a University of Chicago faculty advisor. In the two-year option, students receive additional training in their language(s) of specialization at a vastly reduced tuition cost.
The Division of Humanities accepts two rounds of applications to this program, with deadlines of January 6, and April 30, 2025. See the MAPH website for more details.
How to Apply
Required application materials include:
- a statement of purpose written in English
- a writing sample of 15-20 pages in English or the language of specialization
- a current c.v.
- 3 letters of recommendation
- transcripts for all previous degrees and coursework
- TOEFL or IELTS test scores from within the preceding 2 years if needed to meet the English Language Proficiency Requirement
For the online application and more details about the application process, see https://humanities.uchicago.edu/students/admissions/application-instructions.
If you have questions about the status of application materials or about the admissions process, please contact humanitiesadmissions@uchicago.edu or (773) 702-1552.
For questions about the graduate program, please contact the graduate advisor, Bożena Shallcross, Professor and Director of Graduate Studies, bshallcr@uchicago.edu.
If you have any questions about the PhD program that are not answered by our website, please contact us at slavic-department@uchicago.edu.