Applicable only to students admitted during the 2025-2026 academic year.

Integrative Biology and Physiology

College of Letters and Science

Graduate Degrees

The Department of Integrative Biology and Physiology offers the Master of Science (M.S.) degree in Physiological Science.

Admissions Requirements

Master’s Degree

Advising

Students are responsible for becoming acquainted with the departmental faculty and for identifying at the time of application a potential research mentor. Students form an advisory committee by the end of the first quarter of academic residence. Advisory committee membership consists of the research mentor and two or more regular series faculty, one of whom must hold an appointment within the department.

Areas of Study

Consult the department.

Foreign Language Requirement

None.

Course Requirements

Students are required to complete nine courses (36 units), including a second level statistics or research design course approved by the department, a four-unit graduate-level didactic course in molecular biology, Integrative Biology and Physiology 289A-289B, and Integrative Biology and Physiology 270A-270B. Prior completion of Integrative Biology and Physiology 111A-111B (or equivalent) is highly recommended. Should students elect not to take 111A-111B, students must satisfy the physiology course requirement by taking two upper division electives from the pre-approved course list. Consult the department’s SAO for a detailed course list. A minimum of six (24 units) of the nine courses must be graduate level (200-series) courses, toward which two letter-graded 596 courses may be applied. Elective course work is selected by the student and the student’s research mentor, with approval by the graduate affairs committee. All course work must be completed by the end of the second year. Integrative Biology and Physiology 598 may not be applied toward any of the course requirements for the degree. There is no limit on the number of times a master’s student may enroll in course 598.

Teaching Experience

Not required.

Field Experience

Not required.

Capstone Plan

None.

Thesis Plan

Every master’s degree thesis plan requires the completion of an approved thesis that demonstrates the student’s ability to perform original, independent research.

Successful completion of the thesis plan requires completion of the required course work, selected by the student and the student’s research mentor, with approval of the student’s advisory (thesis) committee and the graduate affairs committee, and a master’s thesis. The student advisory (thesis) committee is formed by the end of the first quarter following matriculation and consists of the student’s research mentor from the department and two or more regular series faculty, at least one of whom must hold an appointment in the department.

Students complete a master’s thesis based on original laboratory research in a specific area of physiology. If students have made a good faith effort to complete a laboratory research project but are unable to do so because of circumstances beyond their control, they may petition the Graduate Affairs Committee for approval to submit a non-laboratory research thesis. Approval is granted only under exceptional circumstances. Non-laboratory theses are based on the study of the primary research literature in a current question in modern physiology. Students who are granted approval to submit a non-laboratory thesis are required to make an oral presentation of the thesis topic to the advisory (thesis) committee.

With advisory (thesis) committee approval, students may submit either a thesis or a thesis based on a manuscript that is suitable for publication.

Time-to-Degree

Normal progress from graduate admission to completion of the required course work, is three to four quarters plus an additional one to three quarters for completion of the thesis. If preparation course work is necessary, as much as three additional quarters may be required. Students are normally expected to complete all requirements for the master’s degree within seven quarters.

DEGREE	NORMATIVE TIME TO ATC (Quarters)	NORMATIVE TTD	MAXIMUM TTD
M.S.	7	7	9

Academic Disqualification and Appeal of Disqualification

University Policy

A student who fails to meet the above requirements may be recommended for academic disqualification from graduate study. A graduate student may be disqualified from continuing in the graduate program for a variety of reasons. The most common is failure to maintain the minimum cumulative grade point average (3.00) required by the Academic Senate to remain in good standing (some programs require a higher grade point average). Other examples include failure of examinations, lack of timely progress toward the degree and poor performance in core courses. Probationary students (those with cumulative grade point averages below 3.00) are subject to immediate dismissal upon the recommendation of their department. University guidelines governing academic disqualification of graduate students, including the appeal procedure, are outlined in Standards and Procedures for Graduate Study at UCLA.

Special Departmental or Program Policy

The Graduate Affairs Committee reviews the records of probationary students and may recommend termination, continuation on contract, or continuation on warning. A student may appeal a recommendation for termination to the Graduate Affairs Committee only with the support of a faculty adviser.

Applicable only to students admitted during the 2025-2026 academic year.

Materials Science and Engineering

School of Engineering and Applied Science

Graduate Degrees

The Department of Materials Science and Engineering offers the Master of Science (M.S.) and Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) degrees in Materials Science and Engineering.

Admissions Requirements

Master’s Degree

Advising

Each department in the Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science has a graduate adviser. A current list of graduate advisers can be obtained from the Office of the Associate Dean for Academic and Student Affairs, 6426 Boelter Hall, Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science.

Students are assigned a faculty adviser upon admission to the School. Advisers may be changed upon written request from the student. All HSSEAS faculty serve as advisers.

Provisionally admitted students meet with the program adviser upon matriculation to plan a course of study to remove any deficiencies.

New students should arrange an appointment as early as possible with the faculty adviser to plan the proposed program of study toward the M.S. or Ph.D. degree. Continuing students are required to confer with the adviser or the Students Affairs Officer (SAO) during the time of enrollment each quarter so that progress can be assessed and the study list approved.

Based on the quarterly transcripts, student records are reviewed at the end of each quarter by the departmental graduate adviser and Associate Dean for Academic and Student Affairs. Special attention is given if students were admitted provisionally or are on probation. If their progress is unsatisfactory, students are informed of this in writing by the Associate Dean for Academic and Student Affairs.

Students are strongly urged to consult with the departmental SAO and/or the Office of Academic and Student Affairs regarding procedures, requirements and on the implementation of policies. In particular, advice should be sought on advancement to candidacy for the M.S. degree, on the procedures for taking Ph.D. written and oral examinations, and on the use of the Filing Fee.

Students in the M.S. program may petition to change to the Ph.D. program, after completing M.S courses requirements, if they have a minimum cumulative GPA of 3.5 and pass the Ph.D. preliminary examination.  The student should consult the MSE student affairs officer for details.

Areas of Study

There are five main areas in the M.S. program: ceramics and ceramic processing; electronic and optical materials; structural materials; soft materials; and computational materials science. Students may specialize in any one of the five areas, although most students are more interested in a broader education and select a variety of courses. Basically, students select courses which serve their interests best in regard to thesis research and job prospects.

Foreign Language Requirement

None.

Course Requirements

Thesis Plan. Nine courses (36 units) are required, of which six (24 units) must be graduate courses. These courses are to be selected from the following lists, although suitable substitutions can be made from other engineering disciplines or from chemistry and physics with the approval of the departmental graduate adviser. Two of the six graduate courses may be Materials Science and Engineering 598 (thesis research). The remaining three courses in the total course requirement may be upper division courses.

Capstone Plan. Nine courses, six of which must be graduate courses, selected from the following lists with the same provisions listed under the thesis plan. Three of the nine courses may be upper division courses.

Ceramics and ceramic processing: Materials Science and Engineering 121, 122, 143A, 151, 161, 162, 200, 201, 210, C211, 246D, 298.

Electronic and optical materials: Materials Science and Engineering 121, 122, 143A, 151, 161, 162, 200, 201, 210, C211, 221, 222, 223, 298.

Structural materials: Materials Science and Engineering 121, 122, 143A, 151, 161, 162, 200, 201, 210, C211, 243A, 243C, 250B, 298.

Soft materials: Materials Science and Engineering 121, 122, 143A, 251, 252, 253, CM280, 298.

Computational materials science: Materials Science and Engineering 121, 143A, 262, 270, 271, 272, 298.
As long as a majority of the courses taken are offered by the department, substitutions may be made with the consent of the departmental graduate adviser.

Undergraduate Courses. No lower division courses may be applied toward graduate degrees. In addition, the following upper division courses are not applicable toward graduate degrees: Chemical Engineering M102A, 199; Civil Engineering 106A, 108, 199; Computer Science M152A, M152B, M171L, 199; Electrical Engineering 100, 101, 102, 103, 110L, M116L, M171L, 199; Materials Science and Engineering 104, 110, 120, 130, 131, 131L, 132, 140, 141L, 150, 160, 161L, 199; Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering 102, 103, 105A, 105D, 199.

Teaching Experience

Not required.

Field Experience

Not required.

Capstone Plan

Option 1: Comprehensive Exam

The comprehensive examination is offered during each academic quarter in written format. The student must pass five of six questions offered separately from six of the MSE course subjects selected by the student. Students are required to submit a written request which includes the courses the student has taken and wishes to have as part of the exam.  If the comprehensive examination is failed, the student may be reexamined once with the consent of the graduate adviser.

Option 2: Capstone Project

The Materials Science and Engineering M.S. capstone project provides an opportunity for students to culminate their M.S. studies by combining ideas from their prior course work with their own additional research.  The project is expected to help students to polish their expertise in an area that is especially relevant to their career.  A successful capstone project will combine academic knowledge, research, and professional skills into a coherent final product.  The student will define a capstone project in under the guidance of an MSE faculty member (any rank) or MSE Faculty Emeritus (any rank) and demonstrate competency in project design and management skills, written presentation of complex ideas, and analytical and creative thinking.

A capstone project differs from an MS thesis as the capstone project does not requiring original research.  Instead, the capstone should aim to demonstrate the ability to apply what was learned in the MS courses to a problem in materials science and engineering utilizing original analysis (qualitative, quantitative, or both) of a specific situation, to advance expert understanding of the topic.

The capstone project will be evaluated by three MSE department faculty members: (1) Student faculty adviser, (2) MSE Chair/or Vice –Chair of Graduate Studies, and (3) Another MSE faculty member chosen by the student.  The capstone project document length is expected to range from thirty to forty pages, including text, figures, and references using the same style guidelines as required for an M.S. or Ph.D. research thesis.  The project is expected to be completed in the quarter after M.S advancement to candidacy is approved.

Once the student’s adviser has provided some feedback on the project report, the student should furnish each member of the committee with a copy of the capstone project at least twenty calendar days prior to the due date.  Sufficient time must be allowed for the student to interact with the committee members to incorporate changes, if necessary, before delivering the final version to the Department Student Affairs Office.  If the capstone project is failed, the student may resubmit once with the consent of the graduate adviser.

The following guidelines are to be used for the capstone project report.

• Describe the professional issue of interest — explain what is to be addressed.
• Address the significance of the project
• Provide a literature background–enough description of prior knowledge for readers to understand what the nature of the project and what is known.
• A description of the project, which could be theoretical, analytical, computational, and/or experimental.
• The analysis and results of the project (this should be the main body of the project). Students are encouraged to base the structure of the capstone project on past outstanding examples of successful projects as determined by the student faculty adviser.

Thesis Plan

Every master’s degree thesis plan requires the completion of an approved thesis that demonstrates the student’s ability to perform original, independent research.

In addition to the course requirements, students are required to write a thesis on a research topic in material science and engineering supervised by the thesis adviser. An M.S. thesis committee reviews and approves the thesis. Master’s committees consist of a minimum of three faculty members from UCLA – the faculty adviser as chair and two other faculty members. One of the three may be faculty from other UCLA departments. Members must hold one of the following academic ranks: Professor (any rank, regular series), Professor Emeritus, Adjunct Professor (any rank), Professor-in-Residence (any rank) or Acting Professor (any rank).

Time-to-Degree

The average length of time for students in the M.S. program is six academic quarters. The maximum time allowed for completing the M.S. degree is nine academic quarters from the time of admission to the M.S. program in the School.

DEGREE	NORMATIVE TIME TO ATC (Quarters)	NORMATIVE TTD	MAXIMUM TTD
M.S.	5	6	9

Doctoral Degree

Advising

Each department in the Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science has a graduate adviser. A current list of graduate advisers can be obtained from the Office of the Associate Dean for Academic and Student Affairs, 6426 Boelter Hall, Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science.

Students are assigned a faculty adviser upon admission to the School. Advisers may be changed upon written request from the student. All HSSEAS faculty serve as advisers.

Provisionally admitted students meet with the program adviser upon matriculation to plan a course of study to remedy any deficiencies.

New students should arrange an appointment as early as possible with the faculty adviser to plan the proposed program of study toward the Ph.D. degree. Continuing students are required to confer with the adviser and the Student Affairs Officer (SAO) during the time of enrollment of each quarter so that progress can be assessed and the study list approved.

Based on the quarterly transcripts, student records are reviewed at the end of each quarter by the departmental graduate adviser and Associate Dean for Academic and Student Affairs. Special attention is given if students were admitted provisionally or are on probation. If their progress is unsatisfactory, students are informed of this in writing by the Associate Dean for Academic and Student Affairs.

Students are strongly urged to consult with the departmental SAO and/or the Office of Academic and Student Affairs regarding procedures, requirements and on the implementation of the policies. In particular, advice should be sought on the procedures for taking Ph.D. written and oral examinations, and on the use of the filing fee.

Major Fields or Subdisciplines

Ceramics and ceramic processing; electronic and optical materials; structural materials; soft materials; computational materials science.

Foreign Language Requirement

None.

Course Requirements

The basic program of study for the Ph.D. degree in Materials Science and Engineering is built around one major field and one minor field. The major field has a scope corresponding to a body of knowledge contained in nine courses, at least six of which are graduate courses, plus the current literature in the area of specialization. The major fields named above are described in a Ph.D. major field syllabus, each of which can be obtained in the department office. The minor field normally embraces a body of knowledge equivalent to three courses, at least two of which are graduate courses. Grades of B- or better, with a grade-point average of at least 3.33 in all courses included in the minor field, are required. If the student fails to satisfy the minor field requirements through course work, a minor field examination may be taken (once only). The minor field is chosen to support the major field and is usually a subset of the major field. There is no formal course requirement for the Ph.D. degree and one may substitute course work by examinations with the exception of three quarters of MSE 282 to be taken on S/U basis within the first six quarters of the academic program. For course work by examinations, the student will need to contact the instructor to request to take the final exam during the quarter the course is offered. Please note a that course work by examinations will not fulfill M.S. degree course requirements for students transitioning from PhD to MS program. It is recommended that students take courses to acquire the knowledge needed for the written and oral preliminary examinations.

For information on completing the Engineer degree, see Engineering Schoolwide Programs in Program Requirements for UCLA Graduate Degrees.

Teaching Experience

Not required.

Written and Oral Qualifying Examinations

Academic Senate regulations require all doctoral students to complete and pass university written and oral qualifying examinations prior to doctoral advancement to candidacy. Also, under Senate regulations, the University Oral Qualifying Examination is open only to the student and appointed members of the doctoral committee. In addition to university requirements, some graduate programs have other pre-candidacy examination requirements. What follows in this section is how students are required to fulfill all of these requirements for this doctoral program.

All committee nominations and reconstitutions adhere to the Minimum Standards for Doctoral Committee Constitution.

Oral Preliminary Examination

During the first four quarters of full-time enrollment the Ph.D. graduate program,  students must take the Oral Preliminary Examination.  This examination is based on topics in six areas:  Diffusion & Phase Transformation; Electronic Properties; General Materials Science; Thermodynamics; Characterization; and Mechanical Properties which encompasses the body of knowledge in Materials Science at the level equivalent to that required for a B.S. degree.   A student chooses five of the topics.  Students must pass four out of the five subjects they choose to take for the examination.  If the student does not pass the exam, the exam must be retaken within two academic quarters.  If the student fails the exam for a second time, the student will be recommended for Academic Disqualification from the Ph.D. program.

Oral Qualifying Examination

The University Oral Qualifying Examination is taken after passing the Preliminary Oral Examination, after enrollment in four quarters of academic registration, and after completion of the course requirements. The nature and content of the examination are at the discretion of the doctoral committee, but ordinarily include a broad inquiry into the student’s preparation for research. Students must schedule the qualifying examination within the first seven academic quarters in the Ph.D. program.

Advancement to Candidacy

Students are advanced to candidacy upon successful completion of the written and oral qualifying examinations.

Doctoral Dissertation

Every doctoral degree program requires the completion of an approved dissertation that demonstrates the student’s ability to perform original, independent research and constitutes a distinct contribution to knowledge in the principal field of study.

Final Oral Examination (Defense of Dissertation)

Required for all students in the program.

Time-to-Degree

The normative Time-to-Degree from admission to graduate status (includes M.S. degree) to award of the Ph.D. degree is fifteen academic quarters.

DEGREE	NORMATIVE TIME TO ATC (Quarters)	NORMATIVE TTD	MAXIMUM TTD
Ph.D.	7	15	24

Academic Disqualification and Appeal of Disqualification

University Policy

A student who fails to meet the above requirements may be recommended for academic disqualification from graduate study. A graduate student may be disqualified from continuing in the graduate program for a variety of reasons. The most common is failure to maintain the minimum cumulative grade point average (3.00) required by the Academic Senate to remain in good standing (some programs require a higher grade point average). Other examples include failure of examinations, lack of timely progress toward the degree and poor performance in core courses. Probationary students (those with cumulative grade point averages below 3.00) are subject to immediate dismissal upon the recommendation of their department. University guidelines governing academic disqualification of graduate students, including the appeal procedure, are outlined in Standards and Procedures for Graduate Study at UCLA.

Special Departmental or Program Policy

A recommendation for termination is reviewed by the school’s Associate Dean for Academic and Student Affairs.

Master’s

In addition to the standard reasons noted above, a student may be recommended for termination for

(1) Failure to maintain a grade point average of 3.0 in all courses and in those in the 200 series.

(2) Failure to maintain a grade point average of 3.0 in any two consecutive terms.

(3) Failure of the comprehensive examination.

(4) Failure to complete the thesis to the satisfaction of the committee members.

(5) Failure to maintain satisfactory progress toward the degree within the three-year time limit for completing all degree requirements.

Doctoral

In addition to the standard reasons noted above, a student may be recommended for termination for

(1) Failure to maintain a grade point average of 3.25 in all courses and in any two consecutive quarters.

(2) Failure of the preliminary examination.

(3) Failure of attaining a grade point average of 3.33 in the minor field course work.

(4) Failure of the oral qualifying examination.

(5 ) Failure of the final oral examination (defense of the dissertation).

(6 ) Failure to obtain permission to repeat an examination from an examining committee.

(7 ) Failure to maintain satisfactory progress toward the degree within the specified time limits.

Applicable only to students admitted during the 2017-2018 academic year.

World Arts and Cultures/Dance

School of the Arts and Architecture

Graduate Degrees

The Department of World Arts and Cultures/Dance offers the Master of Fine Arts (M.F.A.) degree in Dance and the Master of Arts (M.A.) and Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) degrees in Culture and Performance.

Culture and Performance

Admissions Requirements

Master’s Degree

Advising

The Master’s degree is organized around the relationship between the individual student, the student’s faculty adviser, and the M.A. committee. The entering student will be assigned a temporary faculty adviser from among the department’s ladder faculty who takes primary responsibility for academic advising for the first year. Each student is expected to choose a committee chair and form an M.A. committee during the first year of academic residence and apply for advancement to candidacy no later than winter quarter of the second year. The faculty adviser is fundamentally responsible for advising students in regard to program requirements, policies, and University regulations.

Areas of Study

This department offers opportunities to develop specialized knowledge and skills in diverse fields ranging from arts and activism, critical theory, curatorial studies, dance studies, ethnography and new media, festivals,  healing, visual cultures, to specific area studies, among others.  Students will designate a Major Field of study in consultation with their faculty adviser. The Major Field for Master’s students will consist of at least three courses.  The faculty strongly advise that one of these should be a course that provides introduction to the special methods or discourse of the student’s Major Field, whether in World Arts and Cultures/Dance (WACD) or in another department.  Examples of some possible fields would include dance studies, healing, museology, or field studies in African, Caribbean, or Indigenous Peoples’  cultures. The student is expected to consult with their faculty advisor on a regular basis regarding area(s) of interest to determine associated coursework and research focus, and to plan the instructional schedule appropriately.

Foreign Language Requirement

Students in the Master’s degree program must demonstrate competence in one foreign language. The purpose of the language requirement is to ensure that students have the necessary skills to conduct independent research. Any foreign language useful for field study and/or library research in their topics or major field of study and geo-cultural regions of choice is acceptable. The appropriateness of a particular language should be discussed with the student’s faculty adviser. The language requirement must be completed before students file the advancement to candidacy petition for the degree.

The language requirement may be met by: (1) passing a departmental examination, administered by the department’s Graduate Foreign Language Examination Committee; (2) demonstrating the equivalent of five quarters or four semesters of training in an approved foreign language, completed within the last five years before admission with a grade of B or higher in the final courses; (3) placing at level six on the Foreign Language Placement Examination; or (4) petitioning to use English as a foreign language (only for international students whose native language is not English).

Course Requirements

All Master’s students must successfully complete a total of 36 units (normally nine courses) taken for a letter grade (unless only offered S/U) and with a minimum 3.0 grade-point average. Of the 36 units, at least 24 must be completed at the graduate level. No more than 8 units of 500-series independent study courses (e.g., World Arts and Cultures 596A) may be applied toward the graduate course requirement.

The required courses are distributed as follows:

(1) Four core courses (16 units), taken during the first year of study; World Arts and Cultures 200, 201, 202, and 204. Students must earn a “B” or higher in each core course to count towards the degree requirements.

(2) Three courses (12 units) in the designated major field, chosen in consultation with the student’s faculty advisor. The Major Field for doctoral students will consist of at least four courses. The faculty strongly advise that one of these should be a course that provides introduction to the special methods or discourse of the Major Field (whether in WAC/D or in another department).

(3) Two elective courses (8 units).

Of the combined three major field and two elective courses, at least three of the five courses must be graduate level courses taken within the department.

The minimum course load is 12 units per quarter. Students must be registered and enrolled at all times unless they are on an official leave of absence.

Teaching Experience

Teaching experience is encouraged but not required.

Field Experience

Field experience is not required but is expected of students whose theses are based on ethnographic research.

Capstone Plan

Students who select this plan take a comprehensive examination that consists of three essay questions (chosen from six possible questions) posed by the student’s M.A. committee members. The questions are based on reading lists developed in advance by the student in consultation with the student’s M.A. committee members. This examination is designed to test the student’s knowledge of theories and methods in their research field, as well as their ability to apply these ideas and techniques to the study of particular traditions, genres, geo-cultural areas, social groups, or historical periods.

The Master’s comprehensive examination is graded: (1) Fail; (2) Pass with awarding of the Master’s degree; or (3) Pass with awarding of the Master’s degree and recommendation to proceed to the doctoral program. If it is recommended that the student continue to the doctoral program, departmental faculty make the final determination regarding admission to the doctoral program. Students who fail the comprehensive examination are allowed to retake it once, no later than the following quarter.

Thesis Plan

Every master’s degree thesis plan requires the completion of an approved thesis that demonstrates the student’s ability to perform original, independent research.

The purpose of the Master’s thesis is to demonstrate a student’s ability to conduct research in their chosen field, to interpret the results, to demonstrate the relevance of the work to conceptual and practical issues in selected disciplines, and to present the findings in lucid prose. Students who pursue this plan must submit an acceptable thesis, prepared under the direction of their faculty adviser and thesis committee. The thesis committee should be appointed no later than winter quarter of the student’s second year.

Master’s degree students who seek to apply to the doctoral program in Culture and Performance are advised to select the master’s thesis plan as preparation for their doctoral studies.

Continuing from the M.A. to the Ph.D. program: Whether choosing the capstone plan or the thesis plan, students interested in pursuing the doctoral degree will submit a formal request to continue in the Department as a doctoral student.  These requests should be submitted to the department’s Vice Chair of Graduate Affairs the week before the completion of their Master’s exam or thesis. Students should include with their requests a 500 word abstract of their dissertation research and the name of their proposed dissertation committee chair.

After a student requests acceptance into the doctoral program from the Master’s program, the Culture and Performance faculty will make the final determination regarding the student’s continuation to the doctoral program within fourteen days of receiving the student’s request.

Time-to-Degree

The Master’s degree is designed as a two-year program. Students are considered beyond “normative time” after their second year in the MA program.

Normal progress toward the degree is as follows:

Core course requirements: third quarter.

Completion of foreign language requirement: fifth quarter (must be completed prior to the nomination of committee)

Approval of Master’s Committee: fifth quarter.

Advancement to candidacy: sixth quarter.

Completion of Master’s Degree: sixth quarter

DEGREE	NORMATIVE TIME TO ATC (Quarters)	NORMATIVE TTD	MAXIMUM TTD
M.A.	6	6	9

Doctoral Degree

Advising

The doctoral degree is organized around the relationship between the individual student, the student’s faculty adviser, and the doctoral dissertation committee. The entering student will be assigned a temporary faculty adviser, from among the department’s ladder faculty, who takes primary responsibility for academic advising for the first year. Each student is expected to choose a primary adviser and begin forming a dissertation committee during the first year of academic residence. The faculty adviser is fundamentally responsible for advising students in regard to program requirements, policies, and University regulations.

Major Fields or Subdisciplines

The department offers opportunities to develop specialized knowledge and skills in diverse fields ranging from arts and activism, critical theory, curatorial studies, dance studies, ethnography and new media, festivals,  healing, and visual cultures to specific area studies, among others. Students will designate a Major Field of study in consultation with their faculty adviser. Examples of some possible fields would include dance studies, healing, museology, or field studies in African, Caribbean, or cultures of Indigenous People. The student is expected to consult with their academic faculty advisor on a regular basis regarding area(s) of interest to determine associated coursework and research focus, and to plan the instructional schedule appropriately.

Foreign Language Requirement

Doctoral students must demonstrate competence in one foreign written and/or oral language. The purpose of the language requirement is to ensure that students have the necessary skills to conduct independent research. Any foreign language useful for field study and/or library research in their topics and geo-cultural regions of choice is acceptable. The appropriateness of a particular language should be discussed with the student’s faculty adviser. The foreign language requirement must be completed before the student takes their qualifying exams for their dissertation.

The language requirement may be met by: (1) passing a departmental examination, administered by the department’s Graduate Foreign Language Examination Committee; (2) demonstrating the equivalent of five quarters or four semesters of training in an approved foreign language, completed within the last five years before admission with a grade of B or higher in the final courses; (3) placing at level six on the Foreign Language Placement Examination; or (4) petitioning to use English as a foreign language (only for international students whose native language is not English). If the student has already fulfilled this requirement as a Master’s student in this department, this fulfillment also counts as fulfillment of the language requirement for the doctoral degree.

Course Requirements

All doctoral students must successfully complete a total of 48 units (normally 12 courses) taken for a letter grade (unless only offered S/U), and with a minimum 3.0 grade-point average. These courses are chosen in consultation with the student’s faculty adviser. No more than 8 units of 500-series independent study courses may be applied toward the graduate course requirement.

The required courses are distributed as follows:

(1) Four core courses (16 units), taken during the first year of study; World Arts and Cultures 200, 201, 202, and 204. Students must earn a “B” or higher in each core course for them to count toward their degree requirements.

(2) Four courses (16 units) in the designated major field, chosen in consultation with the student’s faculty adviser.

(3) Four elective courses (16 units).

Of the combined four major field and four elective courses, at least four of the eight courses must be graduate level courses taken within the department.

Students who enter the doctoral program from the department’s own Master’s degree program are not required to repeat courses. Having completed the four core courses (World Arts and Cultures 200, 201, 202, and 204), and if these students continue in the same major field, they will need to complete one additional major field course (4 units) and two elective courses (8 units), in consultation with their faculty adviser. If these students choose a new major field, they will need to complete four major field courses (16 units) and two elective courses (8 units), in consultation with their faculty adviser.

Teaching Experience

Teaching experience is encouraged but not required.

Written and Oral Qualifying Examinations

Academic Senate regulations require all doctoral students to complete and pass university written and oral qualifying examinations prior to doctoral advancement to candidacy. Also, under Senate regulations, the University Oral Qualifying Examination is open only to the student and appointed members of the doctoral committee. In addition to university requirements, some graduate programs have other pre-candidacy examination requirements. What follows in this section is how students are required to fulfill all of these requirements for this doctoral program.

All committee nominations and reconstitutions adhere to the Minimum Standards for Doctoral Committee Constitution.

The doctoral qualifying examinations are composed of a written and an oral examination. The timing of these examinations is determined in consultation with the chair of the doctoral committee. Students must successfully complete all required course work (including the core courses and foreign language requirement) before scheduling their examination, and must be registered and enrolled during the quarter in which the examination is administered. Students who fail the written or oral examinations are allowed to retake them once, but no later than in the following quarter. A second failure leads to a recommendation to the Graduate Division for termination from the doctoral program.

The written qualifying examination is administered by the student’s doctoral committee. This examination takes the form of four essay questions (chosen from eight possible questions), developed in consultation with the student’s faculty adviser and committee, and tailored to the theoretical and substantive interests of the student, and to the refinement of a dissertation topic. The written examination evaluates competence in three main areas relevant to the student’s dissertation topic: (1) theoretical concepts and problems; (2) geo-cultural and/or historical field of specialization; and (3) expressive genre(s) or media.

Examination answers are evaluated as pass or fail. If one answer is fail, the written examination receives an overall evaluation of fail. Any examination question that originally receives a fail evaluation may be retaken once. If a student fails any single question on the written examination a second time, the student has failed the written examination. A failed written examination leads to a recommendation to the Graduate Division for termination from the doctoral program.

The University Oral Qualifying Examination is primarily a defense of the dissertation proposal and is administered by the student’s doctoral committee. A pass examination evaluation cannot have more than one committee member who votes fail regardless of the size of the committee. Students may retake the oral examination once within the next quarter. If the second oral examination results in a second fail evaluation, the student has failed the oral examination. A failed oral examination leads to a recommendation to the Graduate Division for termination from the doctoral program.

Evaluation results of written and oral examinations are communicated to the student in writing within 14 days from the date of the completion of the examinations. However, the doctoral committee usually informs the student of the evaluation result of the oral examination immediately upon completion of the examination.

Advancement to Candidacy

Students are advanced to candidacy upon successful completion of the written and oral qualifying examinations.

Doctoral Dissertation

Every doctoral degree program requires the completion of an approved dissertation that demonstrates the student’s ability to perform original, independent research and constitutes a distinct contribution to knowledge in the principal field of study.

Final Oral Examination (Defense of Dissertation)

Not required for all students in the program. The decision as to whether a defense is required is made by the doctoral committee.

Time-to-Degree

For students entering the doctoral program with an approved Master’s degree, normative time to candidacy is eight quarters from their entering date. After reaching candidacy, these students have two years to complete their doctoral degree to remain within normative time.

For students entering the doctoral program without an approved Master’s degree, normative time to complete our Master’s degree is two years from their entering date. After completing their Master’s in this department, students have three years to complete their doctoral degree to remain within normative time.

Normal progress toward the doctoral degree is as follows for students with a Master’s degree:

Core course requirements:  third quarter

Forty-eight units of course work: fifth quarter

Completion of foreign language requirement: sixth quarter (must be completed prior to the nomination of committee and the qualifying examinations)

Approval of doctoral committee: eighth quarter

Written and oral qualifying examinations: eighth quarter

Advancement to Candidacy: eighth quarter

Completion of doctoral dissertation and final oral examination (if required): end of fifth year

Normal progress toward the doctoral degree is as follows for students in the department’s Master’s degree program and continuing to doctoral program:

Core course requirements: third quarter

Completion of foreign language requirement: fifth quarter (must be completed prior to the nomination of committee and the qualifying examinations)

Approval of Master’s Committee: fifth quarter

Advancement to candidacy: sixth quarter

Completion of Master’s Degree: sixth quarter

Twelve to twenty-four units of additional course work (depending on whether the student changes their Major Field): tenth quarter

Approval of Doctoral Committee: tenth quarter

Written and oral qualifying examinations: twelfth quarter

Advancement to Candidacy: twelfth quarter

Completion of doctoral dissertation and final oral examination (if required): sixth year

DEGREE	NORMATIVE TIME TO ATC (Quarters)	NORMATIVE TTD	MAXIMUM TTD
Ph.D.	8	18	24

Termination of Graduate Study and Appeal of Termination

University Policy

A student who fails to meet the above requirements may be recommended for termination of graduate study. A graduate student may be disqualified from continuing in the graduate program for a variety of reasons. The most common is failure to maintain the minimum cumulative grade point average (3.00) required by the Academic Senate to remain in good standing (some programs require a higher grade point average). Other examples include failure of examinations, lack of timely progress toward the degree and poor performance in core courses. Probationary students (those with cumulative grade point averages below 3.00) are subject to immediate dismissal upon the recommendation of their department. University guidelines governing termination of graduate students, including the appeal procedure, are outlined in Standards and Procedures for Graduate Study at UCLA.

Special Departmental or Program Policy

A recommendation for termination is made by the Chair of the department after a vote of the department’s graduate faculty. Examples of reasons for termination include failure of examinations, lack of timely progress toward the degree (being “beyond normative time”), and poor performance in classes (earning less than a “B” in each core course). Before the recommendation is sent to the Graduate Division, a student is notified in writing and given two weeks to respond in writing to the chair. An appeal is reviewed by the department’s graduate faculty, which makes the final departmental recommendation to the Graduate Division.

Applicable only to students admitted during the 2018-2019 academic year.

World Arts and Cultures/Dance

School of the Arts and Architecture

Graduate Degrees

The Department of World Arts and Cultures/Dance offers the Master of Fine Arts (M.F.A.) degree in Dance and the Master of Arts (M.A.) and Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) degrees in Culture and Performance.

Culture and Performance

Admissions Requirements

Master’s Degree

Advising

The Master’s degree is organized around the relationship between the individual student, the student’s faculty adviser, and the M.A. committee. The entering student will be assigned a temporary faculty adviser from among the department’s ladder faculty who takes primary responsibility for academic advising for the first year. Each student is expected to choose a committee chair and form an M.A. committee during the first year of academic residence and apply for advancement to candidacy no later than winter quarter of the second year. The faculty adviser is fundamentally responsible for advising students in regard to program requirements, policies, and University regulations.

Areas of Study

This department offers opportunities to develop specialized knowledge and skills in diverse fields ranging from arts and activism, critical theory, curatorial studies, dance studies, ethnography and new media, festivals,  healing, visual cultures, to specific area studies, among others.  Students will designate a Major Field of study in consultation with their faculty adviser. The Major Field for Master’s students will consist of at least three courses.  The faculty strongly advise that one of these should be a course that provides introduction to the special methods or discourse of the student’s Major Field, whether in World Arts and Cultures/Dance (WACD) or in another department.  Examples of some possible fields would include dance studies, healing, museology, or field studies in African, Caribbean, or Indigenous Peoples’  cultures. The student is expected to consult with their faculty advisor on a regular basis regarding area(s) of interest to determine associated coursework and research focus, and to plan the instructional schedule appropriately.

Foreign Language Requirement

Students in the Master’s degree program must demonstrate competence in one foreign language. The purpose of the language requirement is to ensure that students have the necessary skills to conduct independent research. Any foreign language useful for field study and/or library research in their topics or major field of study and geo-cultural regions of choice is acceptable. The appropriateness of a particular language should be discussed with the student’s faculty adviser. The language requirement must be completed before students file the advancement to candidacy petition for the degree.

The language requirement may be met by: (1) passing a departmental examination, administered by the department’s Graduate Foreign Language Examination Committee; (2) demonstrating the equivalent of five quarters or four semesters of training in an approved foreign language, completed within the last five years before admission with a grade of B or higher in the final courses; (3) placing at level six on the Foreign Language Placement Examination; or (4) petitioning to use English as a foreign language (only for international students whose native language is not English).

Course Requirements

All Master’s students must successfully complete a total of 36 units (normally nine courses) taken for a letter grade (unless only offered S/U) and with a minimum 3.0 grade-point average. Of the 36 units, at least 24 must be completed at the graduate level. No more than 8 units of 500-series independent study courses (e.g., World Arts and Cultures 596A) may be applied toward the graduate course requirement.

The required courses are distributed as follows:

(1) Four core courses (16 units), taken during the first year of study; World Arts and Cultures 200, 201, 202, and 204. Students must earn a “B” or higher in each core course to count towards the degree requirements.

(2) Three courses (12 units) in the designated major field, chosen in consultation with the student’s faculty advisor. The Major Field for doctoral students will consist of at least four courses. The faculty strongly advise that one of these should be a course that provides introduction to the special methods or discourse of the Major Field (whether in WAC/D or in another department).

(3) Two elective courses (8 units).

Of the combined three major field and two elective courses, at least three of the five courses must be graduate level courses taken within the department.

The minimum course load is 12 units per quarter. Students must be registered and enrolled at all times unless they are on an official leave of absence.

Teaching Experience

Teaching experience is encouraged but not required.

Field Experience

Field experience is not required but is expected of students whose theses are based on ethnographic research.

Capstone Plan

Students who select this plan take a comprehensive examination that consists of three essay questions (chosen from six possible questions) posed by the student’s M.A. committee members. The questions are based on reading lists developed in advance by the student in consultation with the student’s M.A. committee members. This examination is designed to test the student’s knowledge of theories and methods in their research field, as well as their ability to apply these ideas and techniques to the study of particular traditions, genres, geo-cultural areas, social groups, or historical periods.

The Master’s comprehensive examination is graded: (1) Fail; (2) Pass with awarding of the Master’s degree; or (3) Pass with awarding of the Master’s degree and recommendation to proceed to the doctoral program. If it is recommended that the student continue to the doctoral program, departmental faculty make the final determination regarding admission to the doctoral program. Students who fail the comprehensive examination are allowed to retake it once, no later than the following quarter.

Thesis Plan

Every master’s degree thesis plan requires the completion of an approved thesis that demonstrates the student’s ability to perform original, independent research.

The purpose of the Master’s thesis is to demonstrate a student’s ability to conduct research in their chosen field, to interpret the results, to demonstrate the relevance of the work to conceptual and practical issues in selected disciplines, and to present the findings in lucid prose. Students who pursue this plan must submit an acceptable thesis, prepared under the direction of their faculty adviser and thesis committee. The thesis committee should be appointed no later than winter quarter of the student’s second year.

Master’s degree students who seek to apply to the doctoral program in Culture and Performance are advised to select the master’s thesis plan as preparation for their doctoral studies.

Continuing from the M.A. to the Ph.D. program: Whether choosing the capstone plan or the thesis plan, students interested in pursuing the doctoral degree will submit a formal request to continue in the Department as a doctoral student.  These requests should be submitted to the department’s Vice Chair of Graduate Affairs the week before the completion of their Master’s exam or thesis. Students should include with their requests a 500 word abstract of their dissertation research and the name of their proposed dissertation committee chair.

After a student requests acceptance into the doctoral program from the Master’s program, the Culture and Performance faculty will make the final determination regarding the student’s continuation to the doctoral program within fourteen days of receiving the student’s request.

Time-to-Degree

The Master’s degree is designed as a two-year program. Students are considered beyond “normative time” after their second year in the MA program.

Normal progress toward the degree is as follows:

Core course requirements: third quarter.

Completion of foreign language requirement: fifth quarter (must be completed prior to the nomination of committee)

Approval of Master’s Committee: fifth quarter.

Advancement to candidacy: sixth quarter.

Completion of Master’s Degree: sixth quarter

DEGREE	NORMATIVE TIME TO ATC (Quarters)	NORMATIVE TTD	MAXIMUM TTD
M.A.	6	6	9

Doctoral Degree

Advising

The doctoral degree is organized around the relationship between the individual student, the student’s faculty adviser, and the doctoral dissertation committee. The entering student will be assigned a temporary faculty adviser, from among the department’s ladder faculty, who takes primary responsibility for academic advising for the first year. Each student is expected to choose a primary adviser and begin forming a dissertation committee during the first year of academic residence. The faculty adviser is fundamentally responsible for advising students in regard to program requirements, policies, and University regulations.

Major Fields or Subdisciplines

The department offers opportunities to develop specialized knowledge and skills in diverse fields ranging from arts and activism, critical theory, curatorial studies, dance studies, ethnography and new media, festivals,  healing, and visual cultures to specific area studies, among others. Students will designate a Major Field of study in consultation with their faculty adviser. Examples of some possible fields would include dance studies, healing, museology, or field studies in African, Caribbean, or cultures of Indigenous People. The student is expected to consult with their academic faculty advisor on a regular basis regarding area(s) of interest to determine associated coursework and research focus, and to plan the instructional schedule appropriately.

Foreign Language Requirement

Doctoral students must demonstrate competence in one foreign written and/or oral language. The purpose of the language requirement is to ensure that students have the necessary skills to conduct independent research. Any foreign language useful for field study and/or library research in their topics and geo-cultural regions of choice is acceptable. The appropriateness of a particular language should be discussed with the student’s faculty adviser. The foreign language requirement must be completed before the student takes their qualifying exams for their dissertation.

The language requirement may be met by: (1) passing a departmental examination, administered by the department’s Graduate Foreign Language Examination Committee; (2) demonstrating the equivalent of five quarters or four semesters of training in an approved foreign language, completed within the last five years before admission with a grade of B or higher in the final courses; (3) placing at level six on the Foreign Language Placement Examination; or (4) petitioning to use English as a foreign language (only for international students whose native language is not English). If the student has already fulfilled this requirement as a Master’s student in this department, this fulfillment also counts as fulfillment of the language requirement for the doctoral degree.

Course Requirements

All doctoral students must successfully complete a total of 48 units (normally 12 courses) taken for a letter grade (unless only offered S/U), and with a minimum 3.0 grade-point average. These courses are chosen in consultation with the student’s faculty adviser. No more than 8 units of 500-series independent study courses may be applied toward the graduate course requirement.

The required courses are distributed as follows:

(1) Four core courses (16 units), taken during the first year of study; World Arts and Cultures 200, 201, 202, and 204. Students must earn a “B” or higher in each core course for them to count toward their degree requirements.

(2) Four courses (16 units) in the designated major field, chosen in consultation with the student’s faculty adviser.

(3) Four elective courses (16 units).

Of the combined four major field and four elective courses, at least four of the eight courses must be graduate level courses taken within the department.

Students who enter the doctoral program from the department’s own Master’s degree program are not required to repeat courses. Having completed the four core courses (World Arts and Cultures 200, 201, 202, and 204), and if these students continue in the same major field, they will need to complete one additional major field course (4 units) and two elective courses (8 units), in consultation with their faculty adviser. If these students choose a new major field, they will need to complete four major field courses (16 units) and two elective courses (8 units), in consultation with their faculty adviser.

Teaching Experience

Teaching experience is encouraged but not required.

Written and Oral Qualifying Examinations

Academic Senate regulations require all doctoral students to complete and pass university written and oral qualifying examinations prior to doctoral advancement to candidacy. Also, under Senate regulations, the University Oral Qualifying Examination is open only to the student and appointed members of the doctoral committee. In addition to university requirements, some graduate programs have other pre-candidacy examination requirements. What follows in this section is how students are required to fulfill all of these requirements for this doctoral program.

All committee nominations and reconstitutions adhere to the Minimum Standards for Doctoral Committee Constitution.

The doctoral qualifying examinations are composed of a written and an oral examination. The timing of these examinations is determined in consultation with the chair of the doctoral committee. Students must successfully complete all required course work (including the core courses and foreign language requirement) before scheduling their examination, and must be registered and enrolled during the quarter in which the examination is administered. Students who fail the written or oral examinations are allowed to retake them once, but no later than in the following quarter. A second failure leads to a recommendation to the Graduate Division for termination from the doctoral program.

The written qualifying examination is administered by the student’s doctoral committee. This examination takes the form of four essay questions (chosen from eight possible questions), developed in consultation with the student’s faculty adviser and committee, and tailored to the theoretical and substantive interests of the student, and to the refinement of a dissertation topic. The written examination evaluates competence in three main areas relevant to the student’s dissertation topic: (1) theoretical concepts and problems; (2) geo-cultural and/or historical field of specialization; and (3) expressive genre(s) or media.

Examination answers are evaluated as pass or fail. If one answer is fail, the written examination receives an overall evaluation of fail. Any examination question that originally receives a fail evaluation may be retaken once. If a student fails any single question on the written examination a second time, the student has failed the written examination. A failed written examination leads to a recommendation to the Graduate Division for termination from the doctoral program.

The University Oral Qualifying Examination is primarily a defense of the dissertation proposal and is administered by the student’s doctoral committee. A pass examination evaluation cannot have more than one committee member who votes fail regardless of the size of the committee. Students may retake the oral examination once within the next quarter. If the second oral examination results in a second fail evaluation, the student has failed the oral examination. A failed oral examination leads to a recommendation to the Graduate Division for termination from the doctoral program.

Evaluation results of written and oral examinations are communicated to the student in writing within 14 days from the date of the completion of the examinations. However, the doctoral committee usually informs the student of the evaluation result of the oral examination immediately upon completion of the examination.

Advancement to Candidacy

Students are advanced to candidacy upon successful completion of the written and oral qualifying examinations.

Doctoral Dissertation

Every doctoral degree program requires the completion of an approved dissertation that demonstrates the student’s ability to perform original, independent research and constitutes a distinct contribution to knowledge in the principal field of study.

Final Oral Examination (Defense of Dissertation)

Not required for all students in the program. The decision as to whether a defense is required is made by the doctoral committee.

Time-to-Degree

For students entering the doctoral program with an approved Master’s degree, normative time to candidacy is eight quarters from their entering date. After reaching candidacy, these students have two years to complete their doctoral degree to remain within normative time.

For students entering the doctoral program without an approved Master’s degree, normative time to complete our Master’s degree is two years from their entering date. After completing their Master’s in this department, students have three years to complete their doctoral degree to remain within normative time.

Normal progress toward the doctoral degree is as follows for students with a Master’s degree:

Core course requirements:  third quarter

Forty-eight units of course work: fifth quarter

Completion of foreign language requirement: sixth quarter (must be completed prior to the nomination of committee and the qualifying examinations)

Approval of doctoral committee: eighth quarter

Written and oral qualifying examinations: eighth quarter

Advancement to Candidacy: eighth quarter

Completion of doctoral dissertation and final oral examination (if required): end of fifth year

Normal progress toward the doctoral degree is as follows for students in the department’s Master’s degree program and continuing to doctoral program:

Core course requirements: third quarter

Completion of foreign language requirement: fifth quarter (must be completed prior to the nomination of committee and the qualifying examinations)

Approval of Master’s Committee: fifth quarter

Advancement to candidacy: sixth quarter

Completion of Master’s Degree: sixth quarter

Twelve to twenty-four units of additional course work (depending on whether the student changes their Major Field): tenth quarter

Approval of Doctoral Committee: tenth quarter

Written and oral qualifying examinations: twelfth quarter

Advancement to Candidacy: twelfth quarter

Completion of doctoral dissertation and final oral examination (if required): sixth year

DEGREE	NORMATIVE TIME TO ATC (Quarters)	NORMATIVE TTD	MAXIMUM TTD
Ph.D.	8	18	24

Termination of Graduate Study and Appeal of Termination

University Policy

A student who fails to meet the above requirements may be recommended for termination of graduate study. A graduate student may be disqualified from continuing in the graduate program for a variety of reasons. The most common is failure to maintain the minimum cumulative grade point average (3.00) required by the Academic Senate to remain in good standing (some programs require a higher grade point average). Other examples include failure of examinations, lack of timely progress toward the degree and poor performance in core courses. Probationary students (those with cumulative grade point averages below 3.00) are subject to immediate dismissal upon the recommendation of their department. University guidelines governing termination of graduate students, including the appeal procedure, are outlined in Standards and Procedures for Graduate Study at UCLA.

Special Departmental or Program Policy

A recommendation for termination is made by the Chair of the department after a vote of the department’s graduate faculty. Examples of reasons for termination include failure of examinations, lack of timely progress toward the degree (being “beyond normative time”), and poor performance in classes (earning less than a “B” in each core course). Before the recommendation is sent to the Graduate Division, a student is notified in writing and given two weeks to respond in writing to the chair. An appeal is reviewed by the department’s graduate faculty, which makes the final departmental recommendation to the Graduate Division.

Applicable only to students admitted during the 2019-2020 academic year.

World Arts and Cultures/Dance

School of the Arts and Architecture

Graduate Degrees

The Department of World Arts and Cultures/Dance offers the Master of Fine Arts (M.F.A.) degree in Choreographic Inquiry and the Master of Arts (M.A.) and Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) degrees in Culture and Performance.

Culture and Performance

Admissions Requirements

Master’s Degree

Advising

The master’s degree is organized around the relationship between the individual student, the student’s faculty adviser, and the M.A. Committee. The entering student will be assigned a temporary faculty adviser from among the department’s ladder faculty who will take primary responsibility for academic advising for the first year. Each student is expected to choose a committee Chair and form an M.A. Committee during the first year of academic residence and apply for advancement to candidacy no later than Winter Quarter of the second year. The faculty adviser is fundamentally responsible for advising students in regard to program requirements, policies, and University regulations.

Areas of Study

This department offers opportunities to develop specialized knowledge and skills in a diverse range of interdisciplinary fields such as arts activism, curatorial studies, dance studies, film studies, performance studies, and visual studies. Students will designate a major field of study in consultation with their faculty adviser. The student is expected to consult with their faculty adviser on a regular basis regarding area(s) of interest to determine associated coursework and research focus, and to plan the instructional schedule appropriately.

Foreign Language Requirement

Students in the master’s degree program must demonstrate competence in one foreign language. The purpose of the language requirement is to ensure that students have the necessary skills to conduct independent research. Any foreign language useful for field study and/or library research in their topics or major field of study and geo-cultural regions of choice is acceptable. The appropriateness of a particular language should be discussed with the student’s faculty adviser. The language requirement must be completed before students file the advancement to candidacy petition for the degree.

The language requirement may be met by: (1) passing a departmental examination, administered by a departmental faculty member approved by the Vice-Chair of Graduate Affairs; (2) demonstrating the equivalent of five quarters or four semesters of training in an approved foreign language, completed within the last five years before admission with an average grade of B or higher in the courses; (3) placing at level six on the Foreign Language Placement Examination; or (4) petitioning to use English as a foreign language (only for international students whose native language is not English).

Course Requirements

All master’s students must successfully complete a total of 36 units (normally nine courses) taken for a letter grade (unless only offered S/U) and with a minimum 3.0 grade-point average. Of the 36 units, at least 24 must be completed at the graduate level. No more than eight units of 500-series independent study courses (e.g., World Arts and Cultures 596A) may be applied toward the graduate course requirement. World Arts and Cultures 375, 495 and 496 (courses required for teaching assistants) cannot be counted towards the course requirements.

The required courses are distributed as follows:

1. Four core courses (16 units), taken during the first year of study; World Arts and Cultures 200, 201, 202, and 204. Students must earn a “B” or higher in each core course to count towards the degree requirements.
2. Three courses (12 units) in the designated major field, chosen in consultation with the student’s faculty adviser. One of these should be a course that provides introduction to the special methods or discourse of the major field. Examples of methodologies include archival research, choreographic analysis, discourse analysis, ethnography, museum studies, oral history, phenomenology, visual analysis, and interdisciplinary frameworks.
3. Two elective courses (8 units).

Of the combined three major field and two elective courses, at least three of the five courses must be graduate level courses taken within the department.

The minimum course load is 12 units per quarter. Students must be registered and enrolled full time during the academic year unless they are on an official leave of absence.

Teaching Experience

Teaching experience is encouraged but not required.

Field Experience

Field experience is not required but is expected of students whose theses are based on ethnographic research.

Capstone Plan

Students who select this plan take a comprehensive examination that consists of three essay questions (chosen from six possible questions) based on reading lists developed in advance by the student in consultation with the student’s M.A. Committee. This examination is designed to test the student’s knowledge of theories and methods in their research field, as well as their ability to apply these ideas and techniques to the study of particular practices, genres, geo-cultural areas, social groups, or historical periods.

The master’s comprehensive examination is graded either fail or pass. Students who fail the comprehensive examination are allowed to retake it once, no later than the following quarter. Students who pass will be awarded the M.A. in Culture and Performance and will continue working towards the Ph.D. in Culture and Performance.

Thesis Plan

Every master’s degree thesis plan requires the completion of an approved thesis that demonstrates the student’s ability to perform original, independent research.

The purpose of the master’s thesis is to demonstrate a student’s ability to conduct research in their chosen field, to interpret the results, to demonstrate the relevance of the work to conceptual and practical issues in selected disciplines, and to present the findings in lucid prose. Students who pursue this plan must submit an acceptable thesis prepared under the direction of their faculty adviser and the student’s Master’s Committee. The Master’s Committee should be appointed no later than Winter Quarter of the student’s second year. The length of the thesis will be determined by the student’s Chair and committee members, with most theses 80-100 pages long.

Time-to-Degree

The master’s degree is designed as a two-year program. Students are considered beyond “normative time” after their second year in the M.A. program.

Normal progress toward the degree is as follows:

• Completion of core course requirements: third quarter.
• Completion of foreign language requirement: fifth quarter (must be completed prior to the nomination of committee).
• Approval of Master’s Committee: fifth quarter.
• Advancement to candidacy (ATC): sixth quarter.
• Completion of master’s degree: sixth quarter.

DEGREE	NORMATIVE TIME TO ATC (Quarters)	NORMATIVE TTD	MAXIMUM TTD
M.A.	6	6	9

Doctoral Degree

Advising

The doctoral degree is organized around the relationship between the individual student, the student’s faculty adviser and the Doctoral Committee. The entering student will be assigned a temporary faculty adviser, from among the department’s ladder faculty, who takes primary responsibility for academic advising for the first year. Each student is expected to choose a primary adviser and begin forming a Doctoral Committee during the second year of academic residence. The faculty adviser is fundamentally responsible for advising students in regard to program requirements, policies, and University regulations.

Major Fields or Subdisciplines

The department offers opportunities to develop specialized knowledge and skills in a diverse range of interdisciplinary fields such as activism, critical theory, curatorial studies, dance studies, film studies, performance studies, and visual studies. Students will designate a major field of study in consultation with their faculty adviser. Examples of methodologies include archival research, choreographic analysis, discourse analysis, ethnography, museum studies, oral history, or phenomenology. Students should also identify an area of geographical, cultural, and/or temporal focus. The student is expected to consult with their academic faculty adviser on a regular basis regarding area(s) of interest to determine associated coursework and research focus, and to plan the instructional schedule appropriately.

Foreign Language Requirement

Doctoral students must demonstrate competence in one foreign written and/or oral language. The purpose of the language requirement is to ensure that students have the necessary skills to conduct independent research. Any foreign language useful for field study and/or library research in their topics and geo-cultural regions of choice is acceptable. The appropriateness of a particular language should be discussed with the student’s faculty adviser. The foreign language requirement must be completed before the student takes their qualifying exams for their dissertation.

The language requirement may be met by: (1) passing a departmental examination, administered by a departmental faculty member approved by the Vice-Chair of Graduate Affairs; (2) demonstrating the equivalent of five quarters or four semesters of training in an approved foreign language, completed within the last five years before admission with a grade of B or higher average in the courses; (3) placing at level six on the Foreign Language Placement Examination; or (4) petitioning to use English as a foreign language (only for international students whose native language is not English). If the student has already fulfilled this requirement as a master’s student in this department, this fulfillment also counts as fulfillment of the language requirement for the doctoral degree.

Course Requirements

All doctoral students must successfully complete a total of 48 units (normally 12 courses) taken for a letter grade (unless only offered S/U), and with a minimum 3.0 grade-point average. These courses are chosen in consultation with the student’s faculty adviser. No more than eight units of 500-series independent study courses may be applied toward the graduate course requirement. World Arts and Cultures 375, 495 and 496 (courses required for teaching assistants) cannot be counted towards the course requirements.

The required courses are distributed as follows:

1. Four core courses (16 units), taken during the first year of study; World Arts and Cultures 200, 201, 202, and 204. Students must earn a “B” or higher in each core course for them to count toward their degree requirements.
2. Four courses (16 units) in the designated major field, chosen in consultation with the student’s faculty adviser.
3. Four elective courses (16 units).

Of the combined four major field and four elective courses, at least four of the eight courses must be graduate level courses taken within the department.

Students who enter the doctoral program from the department’s own master’s degree program are not required to repeat courses. Having completed the four core courses (World Arts and Cultures 200, 201, 202, and 204), and if these students continue in the same major field, they will need to complete one additional major field course (4 units) and two elective courses (8 units), in consultation with their faculty adviser. If these students choose a new major field, they will need to complete four major field courses (16 units) and two elective courses (8 units), in consultation with their faculty adviser.

Teaching Experience

Teaching experience is encouraged but not required.

Written and Oral Qualifying Examinations

Academic Senate regulations require all doctoral students to complete and pass university written and oral qualifying examinations prior to doctoral advancement to candidacy. Also, under Senate regulations, the University Oral Qualifying Examination is open only to the student and appointed members of the doctoral committee. In addition to university requirements, some graduate programs have other pre-candidacy examination requirements. What follows in this section is how students are required to fulfill all of these requirements for this doctoral program.

All committee nominations and reconstitutions adhere to the Minimum Standards for Doctoral Committee Constitution.

The doctoral qualifying examinations are composed of a written and an oral examination. The timing of these examinations is determined in consultation with the Chair of the Doctoral Committee. Students must successfully complete all required course work and foreign language requirement before scheduling their examination, and must be registered and enrolled during the quarter in which the examination is administered. Students who fail the written or oral examinations are allowed to retake them once, but no later than in the following quarter. A second failure leads to a recommendation to the Graduate Division for academic disqualification from the doctoral program.

The written qualifying examination is administered by the student’s Doctoral Committee. This examination takes the form of four essay questions (chosen from eight possible questions), developed in consultation with the student’s faculty adviser and Doctoral Committee, and tailored to the theoretical and substantive interests of the student, and to the refinement of a dissertation topic. The written examination evaluates competence in three main areas relevant to the student’s dissertation topic: (1) theoretical concepts and problems; (2) geo-cultural and/or historical field of specialization; and (3) expressive genre(s) or media.

Examination answers are evaluated as pass or fail. If one answer is fail, the written examination receives an overall evaluation of fail. Any examination question that originally receives a fail evaluation may be retaken once upon the approval of the student’s Doctoral Committee. If a student fails any single question on the written examination a second time, the student has failed the written examination. A failed written examination leads to a recommendation to the Graduate Division for academic disqualification from the doctoral program.

Following the completion of the written examinations, students are required to complete a dissertation prospectus of 25 to 30 pages in length. The prospectus puts forward an introduction to the dissertation topic, research questions, and methodology. It typically consists of an overview, literature review, statement of originality and importance, discussion of research methods and methodologies, and a dissertation outline. The student should work on the prospectus with the committee Chair before circulating it to the Doctoral Committee.

The University Oral Qualifying Examination is primarily a defense of the dissertation proposal and is administered by the student’s Doctoral Committee. A pass examination evaluation cannot have more than one committee member who votes fail regardless of the size of the committee. Students may retake the oral examination once within the next quarter with the approval of their Doctoral Committee. If the second oral examination results in a second fail evaluation, the student has failed the oral examination. A failed oral examination leads to a recommendation to the Graduate Division for academic disqualification from the doctoral program.

Evaluation results of written and oral examinations are communicated to the student in writing within 14 days from the date of the completion of the examinations. However, the Doctoral Committee may choose to inform the student of the evaluation result immediately upon the completion of the oral examination.

Advancement to Candidacy

Students are advanced to candidacy upon successful completion of the written and oral qualifying examinations.

Doctoral Dissertation

Every doctoral degree program requires the completion of an approved dissertation that demonstrates the student’s ability to perform original, independent research and constitutes a distinct contribution to knowledge in the principal field of study.

Students are required to submit the final draft of their dissertation to their Doctoral Committee one month prior to UCLA Graduate Division’s filing deadlines for review and approval.

Final Oral Examination (Defense of Dissertation)

Not required for all students in the program. The decision as to whether a defense is required is made by the Doctoral Committee and is determined during the student’s oral qualifying examination.

Time-to-Degree

For students entering the doctoral program with an approved master’s degree, normative time to candidacy is eight quarters from their entering date. After reaching candidacy, these students have two years to complete their doctoral degree to remain within normative time.

For students entering the doctoral program without an approved master’s degree, normative time to complete our master’s degree is two years from their entering date. After completing their master’s in this department, students have three years to complete their doctoral degree to remain within normative time.

Normal progress toward the doctoral degree is as follows for students with a master’s degree:

• Core course requirements: third quarter.
• 48 units of course work: fifth quarter.
• Completion of foreign language requirement: sixth quarter (must be completed prior to the nomination of committee and the qualifying examinations).
• Approval of Doctoral Committee: eighth quarter.
• Written and oral qualifying examinations: eighth quarter.
• Advancement to Candidacy: eighth quarter.
• Completion of doctoral dissertation and final oral examination (if required): end of fifth year.

Normal progress toward the doctoral degree is as follows for students in the department’s master’s degree program and continuing to doctoral program:

• Core course requirements: third quarter.
• Completion of foreign language requirement: fifth quarter (must be completed prior to the nomination of committee and the qualifying examinations).
• Approval of Master’s Committee: fifth quarter.
• Advancement to candidacy: sixth quarter.
• Completion of master’s degree: sixth quarter.
• 12 to 24 units of additional course work (depending on whether the student changes their major field): tenth quarter.
• Approval of Doctoral Committee: tenth quarter.
• Written and oral qualifying examinations: twelfth quarter.
• Advancement to Candidacy: twelfth quarter.
• Completion of doctoral dissertation and final oral examination (if required): sixth year.

DEGREE	NORMATIVE TIME TO ATC (Quarters)	NORMATIVE TTD	MAXIMUM TTD
Ph.D.	8	18	24

Termination of Graduate Study and Appeal of Termination

University Policy

A student who fails to meet the above requirements may be recommended for termination of graduate study. A graduate student may be disqualified from continuing in the graduate program for a variety of reasons. The most common is failure to maintain the minimum cumulative grade point average (3.00) required by the Academic Senate to remain in good standing (some programs require a higher grade point average). Other examples include failure of examinations, lack of timely progress toward the degree and poor performance in core courses. Probationary students (those with cumulative grade point averages below 3.00) are subject to immediate dismissal upon the recommendation of their department. University guidelines governing termination of graduate students, including the appeal procedure, are outlined in Standards and Procedures for Graduate Study at UCLA.

Special Departmental or Program Policy

A recommendation for academic disqualification is made by the Chair of the department after a vote of the department’s graduate faculty. Examples of reasons for academic disqualification include failure of examinations, lack of timely progress toward the degree (being “beyond normative time”), and poor performance in courses (earning less than a “B” in any of the core courses). Before the recommendation is sent to the Graduate Division, a student is notified in writing and given two weeks to respond in writing to the Chair. An appeal is reviewed by the department’s graduate faculty, which makes the final departmental recommendation to the Graduate Division.

Applicable only to students admitted during the 2020-2021 academic year.

World Arts and Cultures/Dance

School of the Arts and Architecture

Graduate Degrees

The Department of World Arts and Cultures/Dance offers the Master of Fine Arts (M.F.A.) degree in Choreographic Inquiry and the Master of Arts (M.A.) and Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) degrees in Culture and Performance.

Culture and Performance

Admissions Requirements

Master’s Degree

Advising

The master’s degree is organized around the relationship between the individual student, the student’s faculty adviser, and the M.A. Committee. The entering student will be assigned a temporary faculty adviser from among the department’s ladder faculty who will take primary responsibility for academic advising for the first year. Each student is expected to choose a committee Chair and form an M.A. Committee during the first year of academic residence and apply for advancement to candidacy no later than Winter Quarter of the second year. The faculty adviser is fundamentally responsible for advising students in regard to program requirements, policies, and University regulations.

Areas of Study

This department offers opportunities to develop specialized knowledge and skills in a diverse range of interdisciplinary fields such as arts activism, curatorial studies, dance studies, film studies, performance studies, and visual studies. Students will designate a major field of study in consultation with their faculty adviser. The student is expected to consult with their faculty adviser on a regular basis regarding area(s) of interest to determine associated coursework and research focus, and to plan the instructional schedule appropriately.

Foreign Language Requirement

Students in the master’s degree program must demonstrate competence in one foreign language. The purpose of the language requirement is to ensure that students have the necessary skills to conduct independent research. Any foreign language useful for field study and/or library research in their topics or major field of study and geo-cultural regions of choice is acceptable. The appropriateness of a particular language should be discussed with the student’s faculty adviser. The language requirement must be completed before students file the advancement to candidacy petition for the degree.

The language requirement may be met by: (1) passing a departmental examination, administered by a departmental faculty member approved by the Vice-Chair of Graduate Affairs; (2) demonstrating the equivalent of five quarters or four semesters of training in an approved foreign language, completed within the last five years before admission with an average grade of B or higher in the courses; (3) placing at level six on the Foreign Language Placement Examination; or (4) petitioning to use English as a foreign language (only for international students whose native language is not English).

Course Requirements

All master’s students must successfully complete a total of 36 units (normally nine courses) taken for a letter grade (unless only offered S/U) and with a minimum 3.0 grade-point average. Of the 36 units, at least 24 must be completed at the graduate level. No more than eight units of 500-series independent study courses (e.g., World Arts and Cultures 596A) may be applied toward the graduate course requirement. World Arts and Cultures 375, 495 and 496 (courses required for teaching assistants) cannot be counted towards the course requirements.

The required courses are distributed as follows:

1. Four core courses (16 units), taken during the first year of study; World Arts and Cultures 200, 201, 202, and 204. Students must earn a “B” or higher in each core course to count towards the degree requirements.
2. Three courses (12 units) in the designated major field, chosen in consultation with the student’s faculty adviser. One of these should be a course that provides introduction to the special methods or discourse of the major field. Examples of methodologies include archival research, choreographic analysis, discourse analysis, ethnography, museum studies, oral history, phenomenology, visual analysis, and interdisciplinary frameworks.
3. Two elective courses (8 units).

Of the combined three major field and two elective courses, at least three of the five courses must be graduate level courses taken within the department.

The minimum course load is 12 units per quarter. Students must be registered and enrolled full time during the academic year unless they are on an official leave of absence.

Teaching Experience

Teaching experience is encouraged but not required.

Field Experience

Field experience is not required but is expected of students whose theses are based on ethnographic research.

Capstone Plan

Students who select this plan take a comprehensive examination that consists of three essay questions (chosen from six possible questions) based on reading lists developed in advance by the student in consultation with the student’s M.A. Committee. This examination is designed to test the student’s knowledge of theories and methods in their research field, as well as their ability to apply these ideas and techniques to the study of particular practices, genres, geo-cultural areas, social groups, or historical periods.

The master’s comprehensive examination is graded either fail or pass. Students who fail the comprehensive examination are allowed to retake it once, no later than the following quarter. Students who pass will be awarded the M.A. in Culture and Performance and will continue working towards the Ph.D. in Culture and Performance.

Thesis Plan

Every master’s degree thesis plan requires the completion of an approved thesis that demonstrates the student’s ability to perform original, independent research.

The purpose of the master’s thesis is to demonstrate a student’s ability to conduct research in their chosen field, to interpret the results, to demonstrate the relevance of the work to conceptual and practical issues in selected disciplines, and to present the findings in lucid prose. Students who pursue this plan must submit an acceptable thesis prepared under the direction of their faculty adviser and the student’s Master’s Committee. The Master’s Committee should be appointed no later than Winter Quarter of the student’s second year. The length of the thesis will be determined by the student’s Chair and committee members, with most theses 80-100 pages long.

Time-to-Degree

The master’s degree is designed as a two-year program. Students are considered beyond “normative time” after their second year in the M.A. program.

Normal progress toward the degree is as follows:

• Completion of core course requirements: third quarter.
• Completion of foreign language requirement: fifth quarter (must be completed prior to the nomination of committee).
• Approval of Master’s Committee: fifth quarter.
• Advancement to candidacy (ATC): sixth quarter.
• Completion of master’s degree: sixth quarter.

DEGREE	NORMATIVE TIME TO ATC (Quarters)	NORMATIVE TTD	MAXIMUM TTD
M.A.	6	6	9

Doctoral Degree

Advising

The doctoral degree is organized around the relationship between the individual student, the student’s faculty adviser and the Doctoral Committee. The entering student will be assigned a temporary faculty adviser, from among the department’s ladder faculty, who takes primary responsibility for academic advising for the first year. Each student is expected to choose a primary adviser and begin forming a Doctoral Committee during the second year of academic residence. The faculty adviser is fundamentally responsible for advising students in regard to program requirements, policies, and University regulations.

Major Fields or Subdisciplines

The department offers opportunities to develop specialized knowledge and skills in a diverse range of interdisciplinary fields such as activism, critical theory, curatorial studies, dance studies, film studies, performance studies, and visual studies. Students will designate a major field of study in consultation with their faculty adviser. Examples of methodologies include archival research, choreographic analysis, discourse analysis, ethnography, museum studies, oral history, or phenomenology. Students should also identify an area of geographical, cultural, and/or temporal focus. The student is expected to consult with their academic faculty adviser on a regular basis regarding area(s) of interest to determine associated coursework and research focus, and to plan the instructional schedule appropriately.

Foreign Language Requirement

Doctoral students must demonstrate competence in one foreign written and/or oral language. The purpose of the language requirement is to ensure that students have the necessary skills to conduct independent research. Any foreign language useful for field study and/or library research in their topics and geo-cultural regions of choice is acceptable. The appropriateness of a particular language should be discussed with the student’s faculty adviser. The foreign language requirement must be completed before the student takes their qualifying exams for their dissertation.

The language requirement may be met by: (1) passing a departmental examination, administered by a departmental faculty member approved by the Vice-Chair of Graduate Affairs; (2) demonstrating the equivalent of five quarters or four semesters of training in an approved foreign language, completed within the last five years before admission with a grade of B or higher average in the courses; (3) placing at level six on the Foreign Language Placement Examination; or (4) petitioning to use English as a foreign language (only for international students whose native language is not English). If the student has already fulfilled this requirement as a master’s student in this department, this fulfillment also counts as fulfillment of the language requirement for the doctoral degree.

Course Requirements

All doctoral students must successfully complete a total of 48 units (normally 12 courses) taken for a letter grade (unless only offered S/U), and with a minimum 3.0 grade-point average. These courses are chosen in consultation with the student’s faculty adviser. No more than eight units of 500-series independent study courses may be applied toward the graduate course requirement. World Arts and Cultures 375, 495 and 496 (courses required for teaching assistants) cannot be counted towards the course requirements.

The required courses are distributed as follows:

1. Four core courses (16 units), taken during the first year of study; World Arts and Cultures 200, 201, 202, and 204. Students must earn a “B” or higher in each core course for them to count toward their degree requirements.
2. Four courses (16 units) in the designated major field, chosen in consultation with the student’s faculty adviser.
3. Four elective courses (16 units).

Of the combined four major field and four elective courses, at least four of the eight courses must be graduate level courses taken within the department.

Students who enter the doctoral program from the department’s own master’s degree program are not required to repeat courses. Having completed the four core courses (World Arts and Cultures 200, 201, 202, and 204), and if these students continue in the same major field, they will need to complete one additional major field course (4 units) and two elective courses (8 units), in consultation with their faculty adviser. If these students choose a new major field, they will need to complete four major field courses (16 units) and two elective courses (8 units), in consultation with their faculty adviser.

Teaching Experience

Teaching experience is encouraged but not required.

Written and Oral Qualifying Examinations

Academic Senate regulations require all doctoral students to complete and pass university written and oral qualifying examinations prior to doctoral advancement to candidacy. Also, under Senate regulations, the University Oral Qualifying Examination is open only to the student and appointed members of the doctoral committee. In addition to university requirements, some graduate programs have other pre-candidacy examination requirements. What follows in this section is how students are required to fulfill all of these requirements for this doctoral program.

All committee nominations and reconstitutions adhere to the Minimum Standards for Doctoral Committee Constitution.

The doctoral qualifying examinations are composed of a written and an oral examination. The timing of these examinations is determined in consultation with the Chair of the Doctoral Committee. Students must successfully complete all required course work and foreign language requirement before scheduling their examination, and must be registered and enrolled during the quarter in which the examination is administered. Students who fail the written or oral examinations are allowed to retake them once, but no later than in the following quarter. A second failure leads to a recommendation to the Graduate Division for academic disqualification from the doctoral program.

The written qualifying examination is administered by the student’s Doctoral Committee. This examination takes the form of four essay questions (chosen from eight possible questions), developed in consultation with the student’s faculty adviser and Doctoral Committee, and tailored to the theoretical and substantive interests of the student, and to the refinement of a dissertation topic. The written examination evaluates competence in three main areas relevant to the student’s dissertation topic: (1) theoretical concepts and problems; (2) geo-cultural and/or historical field of specialization; and (3) expressive genre(s) or media.

Examination answers are evaluated as pass or fail. If one answer is fail, the written examination receives an overall evaluation of fail. Any examination question that originally receives a fail evaluation may be retaken once upon the approval of the student’s Doctoral Committee. If a student fails any single question on the written examination a second time, the student has failed the written examination. A failed written examination leads to a recommendation to the Graduate Division for academic disqualification from the doctoral program.

Following the completion of the written examinations, students are required to complete a dissertation prospectus of 25 to 30 pages in length. The prospectus puts forward an introduction to the dissertation topic, research questions, and methodology. It typically consists of an overview, literature review, statement of originality and importance, discussion of research methods and methodologies, and a dissertation outline. The student should work on the prospectus with the committee Chair before circulating it to the Doctoral Committee.

The University Oral Qualifying Examination is primarily a defense of the dissertation proposal and is administered by the student’s Doctoral Committee. A pass examination evaluation cannot have more than one committee member who votes fail regardless of the size of the committee. Students may retake the oral examination once within the next quarter with the approval of their Doctoral Committee. If the second oral examination results in a second fail evaluation, the student has failed the oral examination. A failed oral examination leads to a recommendation to the Graduate Division for academic disqualification from the doctoral program.

Evaluation results of written and oral examinations are communicated to the student in writing within 14 days from the date of the completion of the examinations. However, the Doctoral Committee may choose to inform the student of the evaluation result immediately upon the completion of the oral examination.

Advancement to Candidacy

Students are advanced to candidacy upon successful completion of the written and oral qualifying examinations.

Doctoral Dissertation

Every doctoral degree program requires the completion of an approved dissertation that demonstrates the student’s ability to perform original, independent research and constitutes a distinct contribution to knowledge in the principal field of study.

Students are required to submit the final draft of their dissertation to their Doctoral Committee one month prior to UCLA Graduate Division’s filing deadlines for review and approval.

Final Oral Examination (Defense of Dissertation)

Not required for all students in the program. The decision as to whether a defense is required is made by the Doctoral Committee and is determined during the student’s oral qualifying examination.

Time-to-Degree

For students entering the doctoral program with an approved master’s degree, normative time to candidacy is eight quarters from their entering date. After reaching candidacy, these students have two years to complete their doctoral degree to remain within normative time.

For students entering the doctoral program without an approved master’s degree, normative time to complete our master’s degree is two years from their entering date. After completing their master’s in this department, students have three years to complete their doctoral degree to remain within normative time.

Normal progress toward the doctoral degree is as follows for students with a master’s degree:

• Core course requirements: third quarter.
• 48 units of course work: fifth quarter.
• Completion of foreign language requirement: sixth quarter (must be completed prior to the nomination of committee and the qualifying examinations).
• Approval of Doctoral Committee: eighth quarter.
• Written and oral qualifying examinations: eighth quarter.
• Advancement to Candidacy: eighth quarter.
• Completion of doctoral dissertation and final oral examination (if required): end of fifth year.

Normal progress toward the doctoral degree is as follows for students in the department’s master’s degree program and continuing to doctoral program:

• Core course requirements: third quarter.
• Completion of foreign language requirement: fifth quarter (must be completed prior to the nomination of committee and the qualifying examinations).
• Approval of Master’s Committee: fifth quarter.
• Advancement to candidacy: sixth quarter.
• Completion of master’s degree: sixth quarter.
• 12 to 24 units of additional course work (depending on whether the student changes their major field): tenth quarter.
• Approval of Doctoral Committee: tenth quarter.
• Written and oral qualifying examinations: twelfth quarter.
• Advancement to Candidacy: twelfth quarter.
• Completion of doctoral dissertation and final oral examination (if required): sixth year.

DEGREE	NORMATIVE TIME TO ATC (Quarters)	NORMATIVE TTD	MAXIMUM TTD
Ph.D.	8	18	24

Academic Disqualification and Appeal of Disqualification

University Policy

A student who fails to meet the above requirements may be recommended for academic disqualification from graduate study. A graduate student may be disqualified from continuing in the graduate program for a variety of reasons. The most common is failure to maintain the minimum cumulative grade point average (3.00) required by the Academic Senate to remain in good standing (some programs require a higher grade point average). Other examples include failure of examinations, lack of timely progress toward the degree and poor performance in core courses. Probationary students (those with cumulative grade point averages below 3.00) are subject to immediate dismissal upon the recommendation of their department. University guidelines governing academic disqualification of graduate students, including the appeal procedure, are outlined in Standards and Procedures for Graduate Study at UCLA.

Special Departmental or Program Policy

A recommendation for academic disqualification is made by the Chair of the department after a vote of the department’s graduate faculty. Examples of reasons for academic disqualification include failure of examinations, lack of timely progress toward the degree (being “beyond normative time”), and poor performance in courses (earning less than a “B” in any of the core courses). Before the recommendation is sent to the Graduate Division, a student is notified in writing and given two weeks to respond in writing to the Chair. An appeal is reviewed by the department’s graduate faculty, which makes the final departmental recommendation to the Graduate Division.

Applicable only to students admitted during the 2021-2022 academic year.

World Arts and Cultures/Dance

School of the Arts and Architecture

Graduate Degrees

The Department of World Arts and Cultures/Dance offers the Master of Fine Arts (M.F.A.) degree in Choreographic Inquiry and the Master of Arts (M.A.) and Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) degrees in Culture and Performance.

Culture and Performance

Admissions Requirements

Master’s Degree

Advising

The master’s degree is organized around the relationship between the individual student, the student’s faculty adviser, and the M.A. Committee. The entering student will be assigned a temporary faculty adviser from among the department’s ladder faculty who will take primary responsibility for academic advising for the first year. Each student is expected to choose a committee Chair and form an M.A. Committee during the first year of academic residence and apply for advancement to candidacy no later than Winter Quarter of the second year. The faculty adviser is fundamentally responsible for advising students in regard to program requirements, policies, and University regulations.

Areas of Study

This department offers opportunities to develop specialized knowledge and skills in a diverse range of interdisciplinary fields such as arts activism, curatorial studies, dance studies, film studies, performance studies, and visual studies. Students will designate a major field of study in consultation with their faculty adviser. The student is expected to consult with their faculty adviser on a regular basis regarding area(s) of interest to determine associated coursework and research focus, and to plan the instructional schedule appropriately.

Foreign Language Requirement

Students in the master’s degree program must demonstrate competence in one foreign language. The purpose of the language requirement is to ensure that students have the necessary skills to conduct independent research. Any foreign language useful for field study and/or library research in their topics or major field of study and geo-cultural regions of choice is acceptable. The appropriateness of a particular language should be discussed with the student’s faculty adviser. The language requirement must be completed before students file the advancement to candidacy petition for the degree.

The language requirement may be met by: (1) passing a departmental examination, administered by a departmental faculty member approved by the Vice-Chair of Graduate Affairs; (2) demonstrating the equivalent of five quarters or four semesters of training in an approved foreign language, completed within the last five years before admission with an average grade of B or higher in the courses; (3) placing at level six on the Foreign Language Placement Examination; or (4) petitioning to use English as a foreign language (only for international students whose native language is not English).

Course Requirements

All master’s students must successfully complete a total of 36 units (normally nine courses) taken for a letter grade (unless only offered S/U) and with a minimum 3.0 grade-point average. Of the 36 units, at least 24 must be completed at the graduate level. No more than eight units of 500-series independent study courses (e.g., World Arts and Cultures 596A) may be applied toward the graduate course requirement. World Arts and Cultures 375, 495 and 496 (courses required for teaching assistants) cannot be counted towards the course requirements.

The required courses are distributed as follows:

1. Four core courses (16 units), taken during the first year of study; World Arts and Cultures 200, 201, 202, and 204. Students must earn a “B” or higher in each core course to count towards the degree requirements.
2. Three courses (12 units) in the designated major field, chosen in consultation with the student’s faculty adviser. One of these should be a course that provides introduction to the special methods or discourse of the major field. Examples of methodologies include archival research, choreographic analysis, discourse analysis, ethnography, museum studies, oral history, phenomenology, visual analysis, and interdisciplinary frameworks.
3. Two elective courses (8 units).

Of the combined three major field and two elective courses, at least three of the five courses must be graduate level courses taken within the department.

The minimum course load is 12 units per quarter. Students must be registered and enrolled full time during the academic year unless they are on an official leave of absence.

Teaching Experience

Teaching experience is encouraged but not required.

Field Experience

Field experience is not required but is expected of students whose theses are based on ethnographic research.

Capstone Plan

Students who select this plan take a comprehensive examination that consists of three essay questions (chosen from six possible questions) based on reading lists developed in advance by the student in consultation with the student’s M.A. Committee. This examination is designed to test the student’s knowledge of theories and methods in their research field, as well as their ability to apply these ideas and techniques to the study of particular practices, genres, geo-cultural areas, social groups, or historical periods.

The master’s comprehensive examination is graded either fail or pass. Students who fail the comprehensive examination are allowed to retake it once, no later than the following quarter. Students who pass will be awarded the M.A. in Culture and Performance and will continue working towards the Ph.D. in Culture and Performance.

Thesis Plan

Every master’s degree thesis plan requires the completion of an approved thesis that demonstrates the student’s ability to perform original, independent research.

The purpose of the master’s thesis is to demonstrate a student’s ability to conduct research in their chosen field, to interpret the results, to demonstrate the relevance of the work to conceptual and practical issues in selected disciplines, and to present the findings in lucid prose. Students who pursue this plan must submit an acceptable thesis prepared under the direction of their faculty adviser and the student’s Master’s Committee. The Master’s Committee should be appointed no later than Winter Quarter of the student’s second year. The length of the thesis will be determined by the student’s Chair and committee members, with most theses 80-100 pages long.

Time-to-Degree

The master’s degree is designed as a two-year program. Students are considered beyond “normative time” after their second year in the M.A. program.

Normal progress toward the degree is as follows:

• Completion of core course requirements: third quarter.
• Completion of foreign language requirement: fifth quarter (must be completed prior to the nomination of committee).
• Approval of Master’s Committee: fifth quarter.
• Advancement to candidacy (ATC): sixth quarter.
• Completion of master’s degree: sixth quarter.

DEGREE	NORMATIVE TIME TO ATC (Quarters)	NORMATIVE TTD	MAXIMUM TTD
M.A.	6	6	9

Doctoral Degree

Advising

The doctoral degree is organized around the relationship between the individual student, the student’s faculty adviser and the Doctoral Committee. The entering student will be assigned a temporary faculty adviser, from among the department’s ladder faculty, who takes primary responsibility for academic advising for the first year. Each student is expected to choose a primary adviser and begin forming a Doctoral Committee during the second year of academic residence. The faculty adviser is fundamentally responsible for advising students in regard to program requirements, policies, and University regulations.

Major Fields or Subdisciplines

The department offers opportunities to develop specialized knowledge and skills in a diverse range of interdisciplinary fields such as activism, critical theory, curatorial studies, dance studies, film studies, performance studies, and visual studies. Students will designate a major field of study in consultation with their faculty adviser. Examples of methodologies include archival research, choreographic analysis, discourse analysis, ethnography, museum studies, oral history, or phenomenology. Students should also identify an area of geographical, cultural, and/or temporal focus. The student is expected to consult with their academic faculty adviser on a regular basis regarding area(s) of interest to determine associated coursework and research focus, and to plan the instructional schedule appropriately.

Foreign Language Requirement

Doctoral students must demonstrate competence in one foreign written and/or oral language. The purpose of the language requirement is to ensure that students have the necessary skills to conduct independent research. Any foreign language useful for field study and/or library research in their topics and geo-cultural regions of choice is acceptable. The appropriateness of a particular language should be discussed with the student’s faculty adviser. The foreign language requirement must be completed before the student takes their qualifying exams for their dissertation.

The language requirement may be met by: (1) passing a departmental examination, administered by a departmental faculty member approved by the Vice-Chair of Graduate Affairs; (2) demonstrating the equivalent of five quarters or four semesters of training in an approved foreign language, completed within the last five years before admission with a grade of B or higher average in the courses; (3) placing at level six on the Foreign Language Placement Examination; or (4) petitioning to use English as a foreign language (only for international students whose native language is not English). If the student has already fulfilled this requirement as a master’s student in this department, this fulfillment also counts as fulfillment of the language requirement for the doctoral degree.

Course Requirements

All doctoral students must successfully complete a total of 48 units (normally 12 courses) taken for a letter grade (unless only offered S/U), and with a minimum 3.0 grade-point average. These courses are chosen in consultation with the student’s faculty adviser. No more than eight units of 500-series independent study courses may be applied toward the graduate course requirement. World Arts and Cultures 375, 495 and 496 (courses required for teaching assistants) cannot be counted towards the course requirements.

The required courses are distributed as follows:

1. Four core courses (16 units), taken during the first year of study; World Arts and Cultures 200, 201, 202, and 204. Students must earn a “B” or higher in each core course for them to count toward their degree requirements.
2. Four courses (16 units) in the designated major field, chosen in consultation with the student’s faculty adviser.
3. Four elective courses (16 units).

Of the combined four major field and four elective courses, at least four of the eight courses must be graduate level courses taken within the department.

Students who enter the doctoral program from the department’s own master’s degree program are not required to repeat courses. Having completed the four core courses (World Arts and Cultures 200, 201, 202, and 204), and if these students continue in the same major field, they will need to complete one additional major field course (4 units) and two elective courses (8 units), in consultation with their faculty adviser. If these students choose a new major field, they will need to complete four major field courses (16 units) and two elective courses (8 units), in consultation with their faculty adviser.

Teaching Experience

Teaching experience is encouraged but not required.

Written and Oral Qualifying Examinations

Academic Senate regulations require all doctoral students to complete and pass university written and oral qualifying examinations prior to doctoral advancement to candidacy. Also, under Senate regulations, the University Oral Qualifying Examination is open only to the student and appointed members of the doctoral committee. In addition to university requirements, some graduate programs have other pre-candidacy examination requirements. What follows in this section is how students are required to fulfill all of these requirements for this doctoral program.

All committee nominations and reconstitutions adhere to the Minimum Standards for Doctoral Committee Constitution.

The doctoral qualifying examinations are composed of a written and an oral examination. The timing of these examinations is determined in consultation with the Chair of the Doctoral Committee. Students must successfully complete all required course work and foreign language requirement before scheduling their examination, and must be registered and enrolled during the quarter in which the examination is administered. Students who fail the written or oral examinations are allowed to retake them once, but no later than in the following quarter. A second failure leads to a recommendation to the Graduate Division for academic disqualification from the doctoral program.

The written qualifying examination is administered by the student’s Doctoral Committee. This examination takes the form of four essay questions (chosen from eight possible questions), developed in consultation with the student’s faculty adviser and Doctoral Committee, and tailored to the theoretical and substantive interests of the student, and to the refinement of a dissertation topic. The written examination evaluates competence in three main areas relevant to the student’s dissertation topic: (1) theoretical concepts and problems; (2) geo-cultural and/or historical field of specialization; and (3) expressive genre(s) or media.

Examination answers are evaluated as pass or fail. If one answer is fail, the written examination receives an overall evaluation of fail. Any examination question that originally receives a fail evaluation may be retaken once upon the approval of the student’s Doctoral Committee. If a student fails any single question on the written examination a second time, the student has failed the written examination. A failed written examination leads to a recommendation to the Graduate Division for academic disqualification from the doctoral program.

Following the completion of the written examinations, students are required to complete a dissertation prospectus of 25 to 30 pages in length. The prospectus puts forward an introduction to the dissertation topic, research questions, and methodology. It typically consists of an overview, literature review, statement of originality and importance, discussion of research methods and methodologies, and a dissertation outline. The student should work on the prospectus with the committee Chair before circulating it to the Doctoral Committee.

The University Oral Qualifying Examination is primarily a defense of the dissertation proposal and is administered by the student’s Doctoral Committee. A pass examination evaluation cannot have more than one committee member who votes fail regardless of the size of the committee. Students may retake the oral examination once within the next quarter with the approval of their Doctoral Committee. If the second oral examination results in a second fail evaluation, the student has failed the oral examination. A failed oral examination leads to a recommendation to the Graduate Division for academic disqualification from the doctoral program.

Evaluation results of written and oral examinations are communicated to the student in writing within 14 days from the date of the completion of the examinations. However, the Doctoral Committee may choose to inform the student of the evaluation result immediately upon the completion of the oral examination.

Advancement to Candidacy

Students are advanced to candidacy upon successful completion of the written and oral qualifying examinations.

Doctoral Dissertation

Every doctoral degree program requires the completion of an approved dissertation that demonstrates the student’s ability to perform original, independent research and constitutes a distinct contribution to knowledge in the principal field of study.

Students are required to submit the final draft of their dissertation to their Doctoral Committee one month prior to UCLA Graduate Division’s filing deadlines for review and approval.

Final Oral Examination (Defense of Dissertation)

Not required for all students in the program. The decision as to whether a defense is required is made by the Doctoral Committee and is determined during the student’s oral qualifying examination.

Time-to-Degree

For students entering the doctoral program with an approved master’s degree, normative time to candidacy is eight quarters from their entering date. After reaching candidacy, these students have two years to complete their doctoral degree to remain within normative time.

For students entering the doctoral program without an approved master’s degree, normative time to complete our master’s degree is two years from their entering date. After completing their master’s in this department, students have three years to complete their doctoral degree to remain within normative time.

Normal progress toward the doctoral degree is as follows for students with a master’s degree:

• Core course requirements: third quarter.
• 48 units of course work: fifth quarter.
• Completion of foreign language requirement: sixth quarter (must be completed prior to the nomination of committee and the qualifying examinations).
• Approval of Doctoral Committee: eighth quarter.
• Written and oral qualifying examinations: eighth quarter.
• Advancement to Candidacy: eighth quarter.
• Completion of doctoral dissertation and final oral examination (if required): end of fifth year.

Normal progress toward the doctoral degree is as follows for students in the department’s master’s degree program and continuing to doctoral program:

• Core course requirements: third quarter.
• Completion of foreign language requirement: fifth quarter (must be completed prior to the nomination of committee and the qualifying examinations).
• Approval of Master’s Committee: fifth quarter.
• Advancement to candidacy: sixth quarter.
• Completion of master’s degree: sixth quarter.
• 12 to 24 units of additional course work (depending on whether the student changes their major field): tenth quarter.
• Approval of Doctoral Committee: tenth quarter.
• Written and oral qualifying examinations: twelfth quarter.
• Advancement to Candidacy: twelfth quarter.
• Completion of doctoral dissertation and final oral examination (if required): sixth year.

DEGREE	NORMATIVE TIME TO ATC (Quarters)	NORMATIVE TTD	MAXIMUM TTD
Ph.D.	8	18	24

Academic Disqualification and Appeal of Disqualification

University Policy

A student who fails to meet the above requirements may be recommended for academic disqualification from graduate study. A graduate student may be disqualified from continuing in the graduate program for a variety of reasons. The most common is failure to maintain the minimum cumulative grade point average (3.00) required by the Academic Senate to remain in good standing (some programs require a higher grade point average). Other examples include failure of examinations, lack of timely progress toward the degree and poor performance in core courses. Probationary students (those with cumulative grade point averages below 3.00) are subject to immediate dismissal upon the recommendation of their department. University guidelines governing academic disqualification of graduate students, including the appeal procedure, are outlined in Standards and Procedures for Graduate Study at UCLA.

Special Departmental or Program Policy

A recommendation for academic disqualification is made by the Chair of the department after a vote of the department’s graduate faculty. Examples of reasons for academic disqualification include failure of examinations, lack of timely progress toward the degree (being “beyond normative time”), and poor performance in courses (earning less than a “B” in any of the core courses). Before the recommendation is sent to the Graduate Division, a student is notified in writing and given two weeks to respond in writing to the Chair. An appeal is reviewed by the department’s graduate faculty, which makes the final departmental recommendation to the Graduate Division.

Applicable only to students admitted during the 2022-2023 academic year.

World Arts and Cultures/Dance

School of the Arts and Architecture

Graduate Degrees

The Department of World Arts and Cultures/Dance offers the Master of Fine Arts (M.F.A.) degree in Choreographic Inquiry and the Master of Arts (M.A.) and Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) degrees in Culture and Performance.

Culture and Performance

Admissions Requirements

Master’s Degree

Advising

The master’s degree is organized around the relationship between the individual student, the student’s faculty adviser, and the M.A. Committee. The entering student will be assigned a temporary faculty adviser from among the department’s ladder faculty who will take primary responsibility for academic advising for the first year. Each student is expected to choose a committee Chair and form an M.A. Committee during the first year of academic residence and apply for advancement to candidacy no later than Winter Quarter of the second year. The faculty adviser is fundamentally responsible for advising students in regard to program requirements, policies, and University regulations.

Academic progress is assessed yearly between the faculty and student. First-year students should initiate a formal annual review with their Faculty Adviser in the Spring quarter and submit the completed form to the Graduate Student Affairs Officer by the end of the quarter. Continuing students should initiate a formal annual review in the Fall quarter with their Faculty Adviser or M.A. Committee Chair and submit the completed form to the Graduate Student Affairs Officer no later than the end of the second week in Winter quarter. Annual reviews should be completed in a timely manner to enable accurate evaluation of student performance. Faculty rely on the information from annual review forms for decisions pertaining to funding, fellowships, graduate research assistantships and teaching assistantships. It is the student’s responsibility to 1) fill out their portion of the review form, 2) ensure that their Faculty Adviser or M.A. Committee Chair fills out their portion, and 3) send the form to the department’s Graduate Student Affairs Officer.

Areas of Study

This department offers opportunities to develop specialized knowledge and skills in a diverse range of interdisciplinary fields such as arts activism, curatorial studies, dance studies, film studies, performance studies, and visual studies. Students will designate a major field of study in consultation with their faculty adviser. The student is expected to consult with their faculty adviser on a regular basis regarding area(s) of interest to determine associated coursework and research focus, and to plan the instructional schedule appropriately.

Foreign Language Requirement

Students in the master’s degree program must demonstrate competence in one foreign language. The purpose of the language requirement is to ensure that students have the necessary skills to conduct independent research. Any foreign language useful for field study and/or library research in their topics or major field of study and geo-cultural regions of choice is acceptable. The appropriateness of a particular language should be discussed with the student’s faculty adviser. The language requirement must be completed before students file the advancement to candidacy petition for the degree.

The language requirement may be met by: (1) passing a departmental examination, administered by a departmental faculty member approved by the Vice-Chair of Graduate Affairs; (2) passing an examination administered by an officially accredited language expert outside the department, approved by the Vice-Chair of Graduate Affairs; (3) demonstrating the equivalent of five quarters or four semesters of training in an approved foreign language, completed within the last five years before admission with an average grade of B or higher in the courses; (4) placing at level six on the Foreign Language Placement Examination; or 5) petitioning to use English as a foreign language (only for international students whose native language is not English).

Course Requirements

All master’s students must successfully complete a total of 36 units (normally nine courses) taken for a letter grade (unless only offered S/U) and with a minimum 3.0 grade-point average. Of the 36 units, at least 24 must be completed at the graduate level. No more than eight units of 500-series independent study courses (e.g., World Arts and Cultures 596A) may be applied toward the graduate course requirement. World Arts and Cultures 375, 495 and 496 (courses required for teaching assistants) cannot be counted towards the course requirements.

The required courses are distributed as follows:

1. Four core courses (16 units), taken during the first year of study; World Arts and Cultures 200, 201, 202, and 204. Students must earn a “B” or higher in each core course to count towards the degree requirements.
2. Three courses (12 units) in the designated major field, chosen in consultation with the student’s faculty adviser. One of these should be a course that provides introduction to the special methods or discourse of the major field. Examples of methodologies include archival research, choreographic analysis, discourse analysis, ethnography, museum studies, oral history, phenomenology, visual analysis, and interdisciplinary frameworks.
3. Two elective courses (8 units).

Of the combined three major field and two elective courses, at least three of the five courses must be graduate level courses taken within the department.

The minimum course load is 12 units per quarter. Students must be registered and enrolled full time during the academic year unless they are on an official leave of absence.

Teaching Experience

Teaching experience is encouraged but not required.

Field Experience

Field experience is not required but is expected of students whose theses are based on ethnographic research.

Capstone Plan

Students who select this plan take a comprehensive examination that consists of three essay questions (chosen from six possible questions) based on reading lists developed in advance by the student in consultation with the student’s M.A. Committee. This examination is designed to test the student’s knowledge of theories and methods in their research field, as well as their ability to apply these ideas and techniques to the study of particular practices, genres, geo-cultural areas, social groups, or historical periods.

The master’s comprehensive examination is graded either fail or pass. Students who fail the comprehensive examination are allowed to retake it once, no later than the following quarter. Students who pass will be awarded the M.A. in Culture and Performance and will continue working towards the Ph.D. in Culture and Performance.

Thesis Plan

Every master’s degree thesis plan requires the completion of an approved thesis that demonstrates the student’s ability to perform original, independent research.

The purpose of the master’s thesis is to demonstrate a student’s ability to conduct research in their chosen field, to interpret the results, to demonstrate the relevance of the work to conceptual and practical issues in selected disciplines, and to present the findings in lucid prose. Students who pursue this plan must submit an acceptable thesis prepared under the direction of their faculty adviser and the student’s Master’s Committee. The Master’s Committee should be appointed no later than Winter Quarter of the student’s second year. The length of the thesis will be determined by the student’s Chair and committee members, with most theses 80-100 pages long.

Time-to-Degree

The master’s degree is designed as a two-year program. Students are considered beyond “normative time” after their second year in the M.A. program.

Normal progress toward the degree is as follows:

• Completion of core course requirements: third quarter.
• Completion of foreign language requirement: fifth quarter (must be completed prior to the nomination of committee).
• Approval of Master’s Committee: fifth quarter.
• Advancement to candidacy (ATC): sixth quarter.
• Completion of master’s degree: sixth quarter.

DEGREE	NORMATIVE TIME TO ATC (Quarters)	NORMATIVE TTD	MAXIMUM TTD
M.A.	6	6	9

Doctoral Degree

Advising

The doctoral degree is organized around the relationship between the individual student, the student’s faculty adviser and the Doctoral Committee. The entering student will be assigned a temporary faculty adviser, from among the department’s ladder faculty, who takes primary responsibility for academic advising for the first year. Each student is expected to choose a primary adviser and begin forming a Doctoral Committee during the second year of academic residence. The faculty adviser is fundamentally responsible for advising students in regard to program requirements, policies, and University regulations.

Academic progress is assessed yearly between the faculty and student. First-year students should initiate a formal annual review with their Faculty Adviser in the Spring quarter and submit the completed form to the Graduate Student Affairs Officer by the end of the quarter. Continuing students should initiate a formal annual review in the Fall quarter with their Faculty Adviser or Doctoral Committee Chair and submit the completed form to the Graduate Student Affairs Officer no later than the end of the second week in Winter quarter. Please be aware that the annual reviews should be completed in a timely manner to enable accurate evaluation of student performance. Faculty rely on the information from annual review forms for decisions pertaining to funding, fellowships, graduate research assistantships and teaching assistantships. It is the student’s responsibility to 1) fill out their portion of the review form, 2) ensure that their Faculty Adviser or Doctoral Committee Chair fills out their portion, and 3) send the form to the department’s Graduate Student Affairs Officer.

Major Fields or Subdisciplines

The department offers opportunities to develop specialized knowledge and skills in a diverse range of interdisciplinary fields such as activism, critical theory, curatorial studies, dance studies, film studies, performance studies, and visual studies. Students will designate a major field of study in consultation with their faculty adviser. Examples of methodologies include archival research, choreographic analysis, discourse analysis, ethnography, museum studies, oral history, or phenomenology. Students should also identify an area of geographical, cultural, and/or temporal focus. The student is expected to consult with their academic faculty adviser on a regular basis regarding area(s) of interest to determine associated coursework and research focus, and to plan the instructional schedule appropriately.

Foreign Language Requirement

Doctoral students must demonstrate competence in one foreign written and/or oral language. The purpose of the language requirement is to ensure that students have the necessary skills to conduct independent research. Any foreign language useful for field study and/or library research in their topics and geo-cultural regions of choice is acceptable. The appropriateness of a particular language should be discussed with the student’s faculty adviser. The foreign language requirement must be completed before the student takes their qualifying exams for their dissertation.

The language requirement may be met by: (1) passing a departmental examination, administered by a departmental faculty member approved by the Vice-Chair of Graduate Affairs; (2) passing an examination administered by an officially accredited language expert outside the department, approved by the Vice-Chair of Graduate Affairs; (3) demonstrating the equivalent of five quarters or four semesters of training in an approved foreign language, completed within the last five years before admission with a grade of B or higher average in the courses; (4) placing at level six on the Foreign Language Placement Examination; or (5) petitioning to use English as a foreign language (only for international students whose native language is not English). If the student has already fulfilled this requirement as a master’s student in this department, this fulfillment also counts as fulfillment of the language requirement for the doctoral degree.

Course Requirements

All doctoral students must successfully complete a total of 48 units (normally 12 courses) taken for a letter grade (unless only offered S/U), and with a minimum 3.0 grade-point average. These courses are chosen in consultation with the student’s faculty adviser. No more than eight units of 500-series independent study courses may be applied toward the graduate course requirement. World Arts and Cultures 375, 495 and 496 (courses required for teaching assistants) cannot be counted towards the course requirements.

The required courses are distributed as follows:

1. Four core courses (16 units), taken during the first year of study; World Arts and Cultures 200, 201, 202, and 204. Students must earn a “B” or higher in each core course for them to count toward their degree requirements.
2. Four courses (16 units) in the designated major field, chosen in consultation with the student’s faculty adviser.
3. Four elective courses (16 units).

Of the combined four major field and four elective courses, at least four of the eight courses must be graduate level courses taken within the department.

Students who enter the doctoral program from the department’s own master’s degree program are not required to repeat courses. Having completed the four core courses (World Arts and Cultures 200, 201, 202, and 204), and if these students continue in the same major field, they will need to complete one additional major field course (4 units) and two elective courses (8 units), in consultation with their faculty adviser. If these students choose a new major field, they will need to complete four major field courses (16 units) and two elective courses (8 units), in consultation with their faculty adviser.

Teaching Experience

Teaching experience is encouraged but not required.

Written and Oral Qualifying Examinations

Academic Senate regulations require all doctoral students to complete and pass university written and oral qualifying examinations prior to doctoral advancement to candidacy. Also, under Senate regulations, the University Oral Qualifying Examination is open only to the student and appointed members of the doctoral committee. In addition to university requirements, some graduate programs have other pre-candidacy examination requirements. What follows in this section is how students are required to fulfill all of these requirements for this doctoral program.

All committee nominations and reconstitutions adhere to the Minimum Standards for Doctoral Committee Constitution.

The doctoral qualifying examinations are composed of a written and an oral examination. The timing of these examinations is determined in consultation with the Chair of the Doctoral Committee. Students must successfully complete all required course work and foreign language requirement before scheduling their examination, and must be registered and enrolled during the quarter in which the examination is administered. Students who fail the written or oral examinations are allowed to retake them once, but no later than in the following quarter. A second failure leads to a recommendation to the Graduate Division for academic disqualification from the doctoral program.

The written qualifying examination is administered by the student’s Doctoral Committee. This examination takes the form of four essay questions (chosen from eight possible questions), developed in consultation with the student’s faculty adviser and Doctoral Committee, and tailored to the theoretical and substantive interests of the student, and to the refinement of a dissertation topic. The written examination evaluates competence in three main areas relevant to the student’s dissertation topic: (1) theoretical concepts and problems; (2) geo-cultural and/or historical field of specialization; and (3) expressive genre(s) or media.

Examination answers are evaluated as “pass” or “fail.” If one answer is evaluated as “fail,” the written examination receives an overall evaluation of fail. Any examination question that originally receives a fail evaluation may be retaken once upon the approval of the student’s Doctoral Committee. If a student fails any single question on the written examination a second time, the student has failed the written examination. A failed written examination leads to a recommendation to the Graduate Division for academic disqualification from the doctoral program.

Following the successful completion and passing of the written examinations, students are required to complete a dissertation prospectus of 25 to 30 pages in length. The prospectus puts forward an introduction to the dissertation topic, research questions, and methodology. It typically consists of an overview, literature review, statement of originality and importance, discussion of research methods and methodologies, and a dissertation outline. The student should work on the prospectus with the committee Chair before circulating it to the Doctoral Committee.

The University Oral Qualifying Examination is primarily a defense of the dissertation proposal and is administered by the student’s Doctoral Committee. A pass examination evaluation cannot have more than one committee member who votes fail regardless of the size of the committee. Students may retake the oral examination once within the next quarter with the approval of their Doctoral Committee. If the second oral examination results in a second fail evaluation, the student has failed the oral examination. A failed oral examination leads to a recommendation to the Graduate Division for academic disqualification from the doctoral program.

Evaluation results of written and oral examinations are communicated to the student in writing within 14 days from the date of the completion of the examinations. However, the Doctoral Committee may choose to inform the student of the evaluation result immediately upon the completion of the oral examination.

Advancement to Candidacy

Students are advanced to candidacy upon successful completion of the written and oral qualifying examinations.

Doctoral Dissertation

Every doctoral degree program requires the completion of an approved dissertation that demonstrates the student’s ability to perform original, independent research and constitutes a distinct contribution to knowledge in the principal field of study.

Students are required to submit the final draft of their dissertation to their Doctoral Committee one month prior to UCLA Graduate Division’s filing deadlines for review and approval.

Final Oral Examination (Defense of Dissertation)

Not required for all students in the program. The decision as to whether a defense is required is made by the Doctoral Committee and is determined during the student’s oral qualifying examination.

Time-to-Degree

For students entering the doctoral program with an approved master’s degree, normative time to candidacy is eight quarters from their entering date. After reaching candidacy, these students have two years to complete their doctoral degree to remain within normative time.

For students entering the doctoral program without an approved master’s degree, normative time to complete our master’s degree is two years from their entering date. After completing their master’s in this department, students have three years to complete their doctoral degree to remain within normative time.

Normal progress toward the doctoral degree is as follows for students with a master’s degree:

• Core course requirements: third quarter.
• 48 units of course work: fifth quarter.
• Completion of foreign language requirement: sixth quarter (must be completed prior to the nomination of committee and the qualifying examinations).
• Approval of Doctoral Committee: eighth quarter.
• Written and oral qualifying examinations: eighth quarter.
• Advancement to Candidacy: eighth quarter.
• Completion of doctoral dissertation and final oral examination (if required): end of fifth year.

Normal progress toward the doctoral degree is as follows for students in the department’s master’s degree program and continuing to doctoral program:

• Core course requirements: third quarter.
• Completion of foreign language requirement: fifth quarter (must be completed prior to the nomination of committee and the qualifying examinations).
• Approval of Master’s Committee: fifth quarter.
• Advancement to candidacy: sixth quarter.
• Completion of master’s degree: sixth quarter.
• 12 to 24 units of additional course work (depending on whether the student changes their major field): tenth quarter.
• Approval of Doctoral Committee: tenth quarter.
• Written and oral qualifying examinations: twelfth quarter.
• Advancement to Candidacy: twelfth quarter.
• Completion of doctoral dissertation and final oral examination (if required): sixth year.

DEGREE	NORMATIVE TIME TO ATC (Quarters)	NORMATIVE TTD	MAXIMUM TTD
Ph.D.	8	18	24

Academic Disqualification and Appeal of Disqualification

University Policy

A student who fails to meet the above requirements may be recommended for academic disqualification from graduate study. A graduate student may be disqualified from continuing in the graduate program for a variety of reasons. The most common is failure to maintain the minimum cumulative grade point average (3.00) required by the Academic Senate to remain in good standing (some programs require a higher grade point average). Other examples include failure of examinations, lack of timely progress toward the degree and poor performance in core courses. Probationary students (those with cumulative grade point averages below 3.00) are subject to immediate dismissal upon the recommendation of their department. University guidelines governing academic disqualification of graduate students, including the appeal procedure, are outlined in Standards and Procedures for Graduate Study at UCLA.

Special Departmental or Program Policy

A recommendation for academic disqualification is made by the Chair of the department after a vote of the department’s graduate faculty. Examples of reasons for academic disqualification include failure of examinations, lack of timely progress toward the degree (being “beyond normative time”), and poor performance in courses (earning less than a “B” in any of the core courses). Before the recommendation is sent to the Graduate Division, a student is notified in writing and given two weeks to respond in writing to the Chair. An appeal is reviewed by the department’s graduate faculty, which makes the final departmental recommendation to the Graduate Division.

Applicable only to students admitted during the 2023-2024 academic year.

World Arts and Cultures/Dance

School of the Arts and Architecture

Graduate Degrees

The Department of World Arts and Cultures/Dance offers the Master of Fine Arts (M.F.A.) degree in Choreographic Inquiry and the Master of Arts (M.A.) and Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) degrees in Culture and Performance. The M.A. degree is only offered to students who are accepted into the Culture and Performance Ph.D. program but do not hold an accredited M.A. degree.

Culture and Performance

Admissions Requirements

Master’s Degree

Advising

The Master’s degree is organized around the relationship between the individual student, the student’s faculty adviser, and the M.A. Committee. The entering student will be assigned a temporary faculty adviser from among the department’s ladder faculty who will take primary responsibility for academic advising for the first year. Each student is expected to choose a committee Chair and form an M.A. Committee during the first year of academic residence and apply for advancement to candidacy no later than Winter Quarter of the second year. The faculty adviser is fundamentally responsible for advising students in regard to program requirements, policies, and University regulations.

Academic progress is assessed yearly between the faculty and student. First-year students should initiate a formal annual review with their Faculty Adviser in the Spring quarter and submit the completed form to the Graduate Student Affairs Officer by the end of the quarter. Continuing students should initiate a formal annual review in the Fall quarter with their Faculty Adviser or M.A. Committee Chair and submit the completed form to the Graduate Student Affairs Officer no later than the end of the second week in Winter quarter. Annual reviews should be completed in a timely manner to enable accurate evaluation of student performance. Faculty rely on the information from annual review forms for decisions pertaining to funding, fellowships, graduate research assistantships and teaching assistantships. It is the student’s responsibility to 1) fill out their portion of the review form, 2) ensure that their Faculty Adviser or M.A. Committee Chair fills out their portion, and 3) send the form to the department’s Graduate Student Affairs Officer.

Areas of Study

This department offers opportunities to develop specialized knowledge and skills in a diverse range of interdisciplinary fields such as arts activism, curatorial studies, dance studies, film studies, performance studies, and visual studies. Students will designate a major field of study in consultation with their faculty adviser. The student is expected to consult with their faculty adviser on a regular basis regarding area(s) of interest to determine associated coursework and research focus, and to plan the instructional schedule appropriately.

Foreign Language Requirement

Students in the Master’s degree program must demonstrate competence in one foreign language. The purpose of the language requirement is to ensure that students have the necessary skills to conduct independent research. Any foreign language useful for field study and/or library research in their topics or major field of study and geo-cultural regions of choice is acceptable. The appropriateness of a particular language should be discussed with the student’s faculty adviser. The language requirement must be completed before students file the advancement to candidacy petition for the degree.

The language requirement may be met by: (1) passing a departmental examination, administered by a departmental faculty member approved by the Vice-Chair of Graduate Affairs; (2) passing an examination administered by an officially accredited language expert outside the department, approved by the Vice-Chair of Graduate Affairs; (3) demonstrating the equivalent of five quarters or four semesters of training in an approved foreign language, completed within the last five years before admission with an average grade of B or higher in the courses; (4) placing at level six on the Foreign Language Placement Examination; or 5) petitioning to use English as a foreign language (only for international students whose native language is not English).

Course Requirements

All Master’s students must successfully complete a total of 36 units (normally nine courses) taken for a letter grade (unless only offered S/U) and with a minimum 3.0 grade-point average. Of the 36 units, at least 24 must be completed at the graduate level. No more than eight units of 500-series independent study courses (e.g., World Arts and Cultures 596A) may be applied toward the graduate course requirement. World Arts and Cultures 375, 495 and 496 (courses required for teaching assistants) cannot be counted towards the course requirements.

The required courses are distributed as follows:

1. Four core courses (each at 4 units, for a total of 16 units), taken during the first year of study; World Arts and Cultures 200, 201, 202, and 204. Students must earn a “B” or higher in each core course for it to count towards the degree requirements.
2. A minimum of three courses adding up to 12 units in the designated major field, chosen in consultation with the student’s faculty adviser. One of these should be a course that provides introduction to the special methods or discourse of the major field. Examples of methodologies include archival research, choreographic analysis, discourse analysis, ethnography, museum studies, oral history, phenomenology, visual analysis, and interdisciplinary frameworks.
3. A minimum of two elective courses (8 units).

Of the combined three major field and two elective courses, at least three of the five courses must be graduate-level courses taken within the department.

The minimum course load is 12 units per quarter. Students must be registered and enrolled full-time during the academic year unless they are on an official leave of absence.

Continuation to the Ph.D. Program

Students who complete course requirements and pass the M.A. Capstone or M.A. Thesis requirement (see below) must apply to proceed to the stage of the program. Students need to submit a formal written request in this regard to the Culture and Performance graduate faculty in the same quarter they complete their M.A. requirements, or no later than the subsequent quarter. Requests submitted after this timeframe will be considered only on a discretionary case-by-case basis. The request should include a 500-word abstract of their proposed dissertation research and the name of their proposed dissertation committee Chair. The graduate faculty will vote on their request. Students can continue into the Ph.D. program once they have been notified in writing of the graduate faculty’s approval of their request.

Students who pass their M.A. requirements but are denied permission to continue into the Ph.D. program by graduate faculty will be recommended for academic disqualification. The student will, however, receive a terminal M.A. degree.

Teaching Experience

Teaching experience is encouraged but not required.

Field Experience

Field experience is not required but is expected of students whose theses are based on ethnographic research.

Capstone Plan

Students who select this plan take a comprehensive examination that consists of three essay questions (chosen from six possible questions) based on reading lists developed in advance by the student in consultation with the student’s M.A. Committee. This examination is designed to test the student’s knowledge of theories and methods in their research field, as well as their ability to apply these ideas and techniques to the study of particular practices, genres, geo-cultural areas, social groups, or historical periods.

The Master’s comprehensive examination is graded either fail or pass. Students who fail the comprehensive examination are allowed to retake it once, no later than the following quarter. Students who pass will be awarded the M.A. in Culture and Performance and can make a formal request to continue working towards the Ph.D. in Culture and Performance (see above). Students who do not pass the comprehensive examination on the second attempt will be recommended for academic disqualification and will not be able to make a formal request to continue into the Ph.D. program.

Thesis Plan

Every Master’s degree thesis plan requires the completion of an approved thesis that demonstrates the student’s ability to perform original, independent research.

The purpose of the Master’s thesis is to demonstrate a student’s ability to conduct research in their chosen field, to interpret the results, to demonstrate the relevance of the work to conceptual and practical issues in selected disciplines, and to present the findings in lucid prose. Students who pursue this plan must submit an acceptable thesis prepared under the direction of their faculty adviser and the student’s Master’s Committee. The Master’s Committee should be appointed no later than Winter Quarter of the student’s second year. The length of the thesis will be determined by the student’s Chair and committee members, with most theses 80-100 pages long. Upon passing the M.A. thesis, students can make a formal request to continue working towards the Ph.D. in Culture and Performance. (see above)

Students who do not successfully fulfill this requirement will be recommended for academic disqualification from the M.A. and will not be able to make a formal request to continue into the Ph.D. program.

Time-to-Degree

The Master’s degree is designed as a two-year program. Students are considered beyond “normative time” after their second year in the M.A. program.

Normal progress toward the degree is as follows:

• Completion of core course requirements: third quarter.
• Completion of foreign language requirement: fifth quarter (must be completed prior to the nomination of committee).
• Approval of Master’s Committee: fifth quarter.
• Advancement to candidacy (ATC): sixth quarter.
• Completion of Master’s degree: sixth quarter.

DEGREE	NORMATIVE TIME TO ATC (Quarters)	NORMATIVE TTD	MAXIMUM TTD
M.A.	6	6	9

Doctoral Degree

Advising

The doctoral degree is organized around the relationship between the individual student, the student’s faculty adviser and the Doctoral Committee. The entering student will be assigned a temporary faculty adviser, from among the department’s ladder faculty, who takes primary responsibility for academic advising for the first year. Each student is expected to choose a primary adviser and begin forming a Doctoral Committee during the second year of academic residence. The faculty adviser is fundamentally responsible for advising students in regard to program requirements, policies, and University regulations.

Academic progress is assessed yearly between the faculty and student. First-year students should initiate a formal annual review with their Faculty Adviser in the Spring quarter and submit the completed form to the Graduate Student Affairs Officer by the end of the quarter. Continuing students should initiate a formal annual review in the Fall quarter with their Faculty Adviser or Doctoral Committee Chair and submit the completed form to the Graduate Student Affairs Officer no later than the end of the second week in Winter quarter. Please be aware that the annual reviews should be completed in a timely manner to enable accurate evaluation of student performance. Faculty rely on the information from annual review forms for decisions pertaining to funding, fellowships, graduate research assistantships and teaching assistantships. It is the student’s responsibility to 1) fill out their portion of the review form, 2) ensure that their Faculty Adviser or Doctoral Committee Chair fills out their portion, and 3) send the form to the department’s Graduate Student Affairs Officer.

Major Fields or Subdisciplines

The department offers opportunities to develop specialized knowledge and skills in a diverse range of interdisciplinary fields such as activism, critical theory, curatorial studies, dance studies, film studies, performance studies, and visual studies. Students will designate a major field of study in consultation with their faculty adviser. Examples of methodologies include archival research, choreographic analysis, discourse analysis, ethnography, museum studies, oral history, or phenomenology. Students should also identify an area of geographical, cultural, and/or temporal focus. The student is expected to consult with their academic faculty adviser on a regular basis regarding area(s) of interest to determine associated coursework and research focus, and to plan the instructional schedule appropriately.

Foreign Language Requirement

Doctoral students must demonstrate competence in one foreign written and/or oral language. The purpose of the language requirement is to ensure that students have the necessary skills to conduct independent research. Any foreign language useful for field study and/or library research in their topics and geo-cultural regions of choice is acceptable. The appropriateness of a particular language should be discussed with the student’s faculty adviser. The foreign language requirement must be completed before the student takes their qualifying exams for their dissertation.

The language requirement may be met by: (1) passing a departmental examination, administered by a departmental faculty member approved by the Vice-Chair of Graduate Affairs; (2) passing an examination administered by an officially accredited language expert outside the department, approved by the Vice-Chair of Graduate Affairs; (3) demonstrating the equivalent of five quarters or four semesters of training in an approved foreign language, completed within the last five years before admission with a grade of B or higher average in the courses; (4) placing at level six on the Foreign Language Placement Examination; or (5) petitioning to use English as a foreign language (only for international students whose native language is not English). If the student has already fulfilled this requirement as a Master’s student in this department, this fulfillment also counts as fulfillment of the language requirement for the doctoral degree.

Course Requirements

All doctoral students must successfully complete a total of 48 units (normally 12 courses) taken for a letter grade (unless only offered S/U), and with a minimum 3.0 grade-point average. These courses are chosen in consultation with the student’s faculty adviser. No more than eight units of 500-series independent study courses may be applied toward the graduate course requirement. World Arts and Cultures 375, 495 and 496 (courses required for teaching assistants) cannot be counted towards the course requirements.

The required courses are distributed as follows:

1. Four core courses (at 4 units each; 16 units in total), taken during the first year of study; World Arts and Cultures 200, 201, 202, and 204. Students must earn a “B” or higher in each core course for them to count toward their degree requirements.
2. A minimum of four courses adding up 16 units in the designated major field, chosen in consultation with the student’s faculty adviser.
3. A minimum of four elective courses adding up to 16 units.

Of the combined four major field and four elective courses, at least four of the eight courses must be graduate-level courses taken within the department.

Students who enter the doctoral program from the department’s own Master’s degree program are not required to repeat courses. Having completed the four core courses (World Arts and Cultures 200, 201, 202, and 204), and if these students continue in the same major field, they will need to complete one additional major field course (4 units) and two elective courses (8 units), in consultation with their faculty adviser. If these students choose a new major field, they will need to complete four major field courses (16 units) and two elective courses (8 units), in consultation with their faculty adviser.

Teaching Experience

Teaching experience is encouraged but not required.

Written and Oral Qualifying Examinations

Academic Senate regulations require all doctoral students to complete and pass university written and oral qualifying examinations prior to doctoral advancement to candidacy. Also, under Senate regulations, the University Oral Qualifying Examination is open only to the student and appointed members of the doctoral committee. In addition to university requirements, some graduate programs have other pre-candidacy examination requirements. What follows in this section is how students are required to fulfill all of these requirements for this doctoral program.

All committee nominations and reconstitutions adhere to the Minimum Standards for Doctoral Committee Constitution.

It is recommended that students constitute their Doctoral Committee in Year 2 of the doctoral program; it is required they do so by Year 3, no later than one quarter prior to taking their written and oral examinations.

The doctoral qualifying examinations are composed of a written and an oral examination. The timing of these examinations is determined in consultation with the Chair of the Doctoral Committee. Students must successfully complete all required coursework and foreign language requirement before scheduling their examination, and must be registered and enrolled during the quarter in which the examination is administered. Students who fail the written or oral examinations are allowed to retake them once, upon the approval of their Doctoral Committee, but no later than in the following quarter. A second failure leads to a recommendation to the Division of Graduate Education for academic disqualification from the doctoral program. Barring exceptional circumstances*, students who do not retake the written examination by the following quarter will be recommended for academic disqualification from the doctoral program.

The written qualifying examination is administered by the student’s Doctoral Committee. This examination takes the form of four essay questions (chosen from eight possible questions), developed in consultation with the student’s faculty adviser and Doctoral Committee, and tailored to the theoretical and substantive interests of the student, and to the refinement of a dissertation topic. The written examination evaluates competence in three main areas relevant to the student’s dissertation topic: (1) theoretical concepts and problems; (2) geo-cultural and/or historical field of specialization; and (3) expressive genre(s) or media.

Examination answers are evaluated as “pass” or “fail.” If students do not provide the examination answers within the specified timeframe, the exam will be considered a “fail.” If two answers are evaluated as “fail,” the written examination receives an overall evaluation of fail. Any examination question that originally receives a “fail” evaluation may be retaken once upon the approval of the student’s Doctoral Committee, no later than the following quarter. If a student fails any single question on the written examination a second time, the student has failed the written examination. A failed written examination leads to a recommendation to the Division of Graduate Education for academic disqualification from the doctoral program.

Students are also required to complete a dissertation prospectus of 25 to 30 pages in length. The prospectus puts forward an introduction to the dissertation topic, research questions, and methodology. It typically consists of an overview, literature review, statement of originality and importance, discussion of research methods and methodologies, and a dissertation outline. The student should work on the prospectus with the committee Chair before circulating it to the Doctoral Committee.

The University Oral Qualifying Examination is primarily a defense of the dissertation proposal and is administered by the student’s Doctoral Committee. A pass examination evaluation cannot have more than one committee member who votes fail regardless of the size of the committee. Students may retake the oral examination once within the next quarter with the approval of their Doctoral Committee. If the second oral examination results in a second fail evaluation, the student has failed the oral examination. A failed oral examination leads to a recommendation to the Division of Graduate Education for academic disqualification from the doctoral program.

Evaluation results of written and oral examinations are communicated to the student in writing within 14 days from the date of the completion of the examinations. However, the Doctoral Committee may choose to inform the student of the evaluation result immediately upon the completion of the oral examination.

Students must take the oral and written examinations in consecutive quarters. Students wishing to delay their oral qualifying examination must petition their Doctoral Committee, copying the Student Affairs Officer, Graduate Vice Chair, and department Chair, within the first two weeks of the quarter when the oral exam is to be held, or at the earliest possible time in that quarter if there is an unexpected emergency, specifying the reasons for the proposed exam delay. Requests to delay the oral qualifying examination are only approved in exceptional circumstances. The decision about the petition will be made by the Doctoral Committee, Graduate Vice Chair, and department Chair in a time-sensitive manner and communicated in writing to the student, with a copy sent to the Student Affairs Officer.

Advancement to Candidacy

Students are advanced to candidacy upon successful completion of the written and oral qualifying examinations. Students must advance to candidacy no later than the Spring quarter of their third year in the doctoral program to remain withing normative time. In case of exceptional circumstances, students can submit a written request to delay this timeline once, subject to the approval of the Doctoral Committee, Graduate Vice Chair, and department Chair. If students do not advance to candidacy by the specified time, they will be subject to academic disqualification.

Doctoral Dissertation

Every doctoral degree program requires the completion of an approved dissertation that demonstrates the student’s ability to perform original, independent research and constitutes a distinct contribution to knowledge in the principal field of study.

Students are required to submit the final draft of their dissertation to their Doctoral Committee one month prior to UCLA Division of Graduate Education’s filing deadlines for review and approval.

Final Oral Examination (Defense of Dissertation)

Not required for all students in the program. The decision as to whether a defense is required is made by the Doctoral Committee and is determined during the student’s oral qualifying examination.

Time-to-Degree

For students entering the doctoral program with an approved Master’s degree, normative time to candidacy is eight quarters from their entering date. After reaching candidacy, these students have two years to complete their doctoral degree to remain within normative time.

For students entering the doctoral program without an approved Master’s degree, normative time to complete our Master’s degree is two years from their entering date. After completing their Master’s in this department, students have three years to complete their doctoral degree to remain within normative time.

Normal progress toward the doctoral degree is as follows for students with a Master’s degree:

• Core course requirements: third quarter.
• 48 units of course work: fifth quarter.
• Completion of foreign language requirement: sixth quarter (must be completed prior to the nomination of committee and the qualifying examinations).
• Approval of Doctoral Committee: eighth quarter.
• Written and oral qualifying examinations: eighth quarter.
• Advancement to Candidacy: eighth quarter.
• Completion of doctoral dissertation and final oral examination (if required): end of fifth year.

Normal progress toward the doctoral degree is as follows for students in the department’s Master’s degree program and continuing to doctoral program:

• Core course requirements: third quarter.
• Completion of foreign language requirement: fifth quarter (must be completed prior to the nomination of committee and the qualifying examinations).
• Approval of Master’s Committee: fifth quarter.
• Advancement to candidacy: sixth quarter.
• Completion of Master’s degree: sixth quarter.
• Completion of 12 to 24 units of additional course work (depending on whether the student changes their major field): tenth quarter.
• Approval of Doctoral Committee: tenth quarter.
• Written and oral qualifying examinations: twelfth quarter.
• Advancement to Candidacy: twelfth quarter.
• Completion of doctoral dissertation and final oral examination (if required): sixth year.

DEGREE	NORMATIVE TIME TO ATC (Quarters)	NORMATIVE TTD	MAXIMUM TTD
Ph.D.	8	18	24

Academic Disqualification and Appeal of Disqualification

University Policy

A student who fails to meet the above requirements may be recommended for academic disqualification from graduate study. A graduate student may be disqualified from continuing in the graduate program for a variety of reasons. The most common is failure to maintain the minimum cumulative grade point average (3.00) required by the Academic Senate to remain in good standing (some programs require a higher grade point average). Other examples include failure of examinations, lack of timely progress toward the degree and poor performance in core courses. Probationary students (those with cumulative grade point averages below 3.00) are subject to immediate dismissal upon the recommendation of their department. University guidelines governing academic disqualification of graduate students, including the appeal procedure, are outlined in Standards and Procedures for Graduate Study at UCLA.

Special Departmental or Program Policy

A recommendation for academic disqualification is made by the Chair of the department after a vote of the department’s graduate faculty. Examples of reasons for academic disqualification include failure of examinations, lack of timely progress toward the degree (being “beyond normative time”), and poor performance in courses (earning less than a “B” in any of the core courses). Before the recommendation is sent to the Division of Graduate Education, a student is notified in writing and given two weeks to respond in writing to the Chair. An appeal is reviewed by the department’s graduate faculty, which makes the final departmental recommendation to the Division of Graduate Education.

Applicable only to students admitted during the 2024-2025 academic year.

World Arts and Cultures/Dance

School of the Arts and Architecture

Graduate Degrees

The Department of World Arts and Cultures/Dance offers the Master of Fine Arts (M.F.A.) degree in Choreographic Inquiry and the Master of Arts (M.A.) and Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) degrees in Culture and Performance. The M.A. degree is only offered to students who are accepted into the Culture and Performance Ph.D. program but do not hold an accredited M.A. degree.

Culture and Performance

Admissions Requirements

Master’s Degree

Advising

The Master’s degree is organized around the relationship between the individual student, the student’s faculty adviser, and the M.A. Committee. The entering student will be assigned a temporary faculty adviser from among the department’s ladder faculty who will take primary responsibility for academic advising for the first year. Each student is expected to choose a committee Chair and form an M.A. Committee during the first year of academic residence and apply for advancement to candidacy no later than Winter Quarter of the second year. The faculty adviser is fundamentally responsible for advising students in regard to program requirements, policies, and University regulations.

Academic progress is assessed yearly between the faculty and student. First-year students should initiate a formal annual review with their Faculty Adviser in the Spring quarter and submit the completed form to the Graduate Student Affairs Officer by the end of the quarter. Continuing students should initiate a formal annual review in the Fall quarter with their Faculty Adviser or M.A. Committee Chair and submit the completed form to the Graduate Student Affairs Officer no later than the end of the second week in Winter quarter. Annual reviews should be completed in a timely manner to enable accurate evaluation of student performance. Faculty rely on the information from annual review forms for decisions pertaining to funding, fellowships, graduate research assistantships and teaching assistantships. It is the student’s responsibility to 1) fill out their portion of the review form, 2) ensure that their Faculty Adviser or M.A. Committee Chair fills out their portion, and 3) send the form to the department’s Graduate Student Affairs Officer.

Areas of Study

This department offers opportunities to develop specialized knowledge and skills in a diverse range of interdisciplinary fields such as arts activism, curatorial studies, dance studies, film studies, performance studies, and visual studies. Students will designate a major field of study in consultation with their faculty adviser. The student is expected to consult with their faculty adviser on a regular basis regarding area(s) of interest to determine associated coursework and research focus, and to plan the instructional schedule appropriately.

Foreign Language Requirement

Students in the Master’s degree program must demonstrate competence in one foreign language. The purpose of the language requirement is to ensure that students have the necessary skills to conduct independent research. Any foreign language useful for field study and/or library research in their topics or major field of study and geo-cultural regions of choice is acceptable. The appropriateness of a particular language should be discussed with the student’s faculty adviser. The language requirement must be completed before students file the advancement to candidacy petition for the degree.

The language requirement may be met by: (1) passing a departmental examination, administered by a departmental faculty member approved by the Vice-Chair of Graduate Affairs; (2) passing an examination administered by an officially accredited language expert outside the department, approved by the Vice-Chair of Graduate Affairs; (3) demonstrating the equivalent of five quarters or four semesters of training in an approved foreign language, completed within the last five years before admission with an average grade of B or higher in the courses; (4) placing at level six on the Foreign Language Placement Examination; or 5) petitioning to use English as a foreign language (only for international students whose native language is not English).

Course Requirements

All Master’s students must successfully complete a total of 36 units (normally nine courses) taken for a letter grade (unless only offered S/U) and with a minimum 3.0 grade-point average. Of the 36 units, at least 24 must be completed at the graduate level. No more than eight units of 500-series independent study courses (e.g., World Arts and Cultures 596A) may be applied toward the graduate course requirement. World Arts and Cultures 375, 495 and 496 (courses required for teaching assistants) cannot be counted towards the course requirements.

The required courses are distributed as follows:

1. Four core courses (each at 4 units, for a total of 16 units), taken during the first year of study; World Arts and Cultures 200, 201, 202, and 204. Students must earn a “B” or higher in each core course for it to count towards the degree requirements.
2. A minimum of three courses adding up to 12 units in the designated major field, chosen in consultation with the student’s faculty adviser. One of these should be a course that provides introduction to the special methods or discourse of the major field. Examples of methodologies include archival research, choreographic analysis, discourse analysis, ethnography, museum studies, oral history, phenomenology, visual analysis, and interdisciplinary frameworks.
3. A minimum of two elective courses (8 units).

Of the combined three major field and two elective courses, at least three of the five courses must be graduate-level courses taken within the department.

The minimum course load is 12 units per quarter. Students must be registered and enrolled full-time during the academic year unless they are on an official leave of absence.

Continuation to the Ph.D. Program

Students who complete course requirements and pass the M.A. Capstone or M.A. Thesis requirement (see below) must apply to proceed to the stage of the program. Students need to submit a formal written request in this regard to the Culture and Performance graduate faculty in the same quarter they complete their M.A. requirements, or no later than the subsequent quarter. Requests submitted after this timeframe will be considered only on a discretionary case-by-case basis. The request should include a 500-word abstract of their proposed dissertation research and the name of their proposed dissertation committee Chair. The graduate faculty will vote on their request. Students can continue into the Ph.D. program once they have been notified in writing of the graduate faculty’s approval of their request.

Students who pass their M.A. requirements but are denied permission to continue into the Ph.D. program by graduate faculty will be recommended for academic disqualification. The student will, however, receive a terminal M.A. degree.

Teaching Experience

Teaching experience is encouraged but not required.

Field Experience

Field experience is not required but is expected of students whose theses are based on ethnographic research.

Capstone Plan

Students who select this plan take a comprehensive examination that consists of three essay questions (chosen from six possible questions) based on reading lists developed in advance by the student in consultation with the student’s M.A. Committee. This examination is designed to test the student’s knowledge of theories and methods in their research field, as well as their ability to apply these ideas and techniques to the study of particular practices, genres, geo-cultural areas, social groups, or historical periods.

The Master’s comprehensive examination is graded either fail or pass. Students who fail the comprehensive examination are allowed to retake it once, no later than the following quarter. Students who pass will be awarded the M.A. in Culture and Performance and can make a formal request to continue working towards the Ph.D. in Culture and Performance (see above). Students who do not pass the comprehensive examination on the second attempt will be recommended for academic disqualification and will not be able to make a formal request to continue into the Ph.D. program.

Thesis Plan

Every Master’s degree thesis plan requires the completion of an approved thesis that demonstrates the student’s ability to perform original, independent research.

The purpose of the Master’s thesis is to demonstrate a student’s ability to conduct research in their chosen field, to interpret the results, to demonstrate the relevance of the work to conceptual and practical issues in selected disciplines, and to present the findings in lucid prose. Students who pursue this plan must submit an acceptable thesis prepared under the direction of their faculty adviser and the student’s Master’s Committee. The Master’s Committee should be appointed no later than Winter Quarter of the student’s second year. The length of the thesis will be determined by the student’s Chair and committee members, with most theses 80-100 pages long. Upon passing the M.A. thesis, students can make a formal request to continue working towards the Ph.D. in Culture and Performance. (see above)

Students who do not successfully fulfill this requirement will be recommended for academic disqualification from the M.A. and will not be able to make a formal request to continue into the Ph.D. program.

Time-to-Degree

The Master’s degree is designed as a two-year program. Students are considered beyond “normative time” after their second year in the M.A. program.

Normal progress toward the degree is as follows:

• Completion of core course requirements: third quarter.
• Completion of foreign language requirement: fifth quarter (must be completed prior to the nomination of committee).
• Approval of Master’s Committee: fifth quarter.
• Advancement to candidacy (ATC): sixth quarter.
• Completion of Master’s degree: sixth quarter.

DEGREE	NORMATIVE TIME TO ATC (Quarters)	NORMATIVE TTD	MAXIMUM TTD
M.A.	6	6	9

Doctoral Degree

Advising

The doctoral degree is organized around the relationship between the individual student, the student’s faculty adviser and the Doctoral Committee. The entering student will be assigned a temporary faculty adviser, from among the department’s ladder faculty, who takes primary responsibility for academic advising for the first year. Each student is expected to choose a primary adviser and begin forming a Doctoral Committee during the second year of academic residence. The faculty adviser is fundamentally responsible for advising students in regard to program requirements, policies, and University regulations.

Academic progress is assessed yearly between the faculty and student. First-year students should initiate a formal annual review with their Faculty Adviser in the Spring quarter and submit the completed form to the Graduate Student Affairs Officer by the end of the quarter. Continuing students should initiate a formal annual review in the Fall quarter with their Faculty Adviser or Doctoral Committee Chair and submit the completed form to the Graduate Student Affairs Officer no later than the end of the second week in Winter quarter. Please be aware that the annual reviews should be completed in a timely manner to enable accurate evaluation of student performance. Faculty rely on the information from annual review forms for decisions pertaining to funding, fellowships, graduate research assistantships and teaching assistantships. It is the student’s responsibility to 1) fill out their portion of the review form, 2) ensure that their Faculty Adviser or Doctoral Committee Chair fills out their portion, and 3) send the form to the department’s Graduate Student Affairs Officer.

Major Fields or Subdisciplines

The department offers opportunities to develop specialized knowledge and skills in a diverse range of interdisciplinary fields such as activism, critical theory, curatorial studies, dance studies, film studies, performance studies, and visual studies. Students will designate a major field of study in consultation with their faculty adviser. Examples of methodologies include archival research, choreographic analysis, discourse analysis, ethnography, museum studies, oral history, or phenomenology. Students should also identify an area of geographical, cultural, and/or temporal focus. The student is expected to consult with their academic faculty adviser on a regular basis regarding area(s) of interest to determine associated coursework and research focus, and to plan the instructional schedule appropriately.

Foreign Language Requirement

Doctoral students must demonstrate competence in one foreign written and/or oral language. The purpose of the language requirement is to ensure that students have the necessary skills to conduct independent research. Any foreign language useful for field study and/or library research in their topics and geo-cultural regions of choice is acceptable. The appropriateness of a particular language should be discussed with the student’s faculty adviser. The foreign language requirement must be completed before the student takes their qualifying exams for their dissertation.

The language requirement may be met by: (1) passing a departmental examination, administered by a departmental faculty member approved by the Vice-Chair of Graduate Affairs; (2) passing an examination administered by an officially accredited language expert outside the department, approved by the Vice-Chair of Graduate Affairs; (3) demonstrating the equivalent of five quarters or four semesters of training in an approved foreign language, completed within the last five years before admission with a grade of B or higher average in the courses; (4) placing at level six on the Foreign Language Placement Examination; or (5) petitioning to use English as a foreign language (only for international students whose native language is not English). If the student has already fulfilled this requirement as a Master’s student in this department, this fulfillment also counts as fulfillment of the language requirement for the doctoral degree.

Course Requirements

All doctoral students must successfully complete a total of 48 units (normally 12 courses) taken for a letter grade (unless only offered S/U), and with a minimum 3.0 grade-point average. These courses are chosen in consultation with the student’s faculty adviser. No more than eight units of 500-series independent study courses may be applied toward the graduate course requirement. World Arts and Cultures 375, 495 and 496 (courses required for teaching assistants) cannot be counted towards the course requirements.

The required courses are distributed as follows:

1. Four core courses (at 4 units each; 16 units in total), taken during the first year of study; World Arts and Cultures 200, 201, 202, and 204. Students must earn a “B” or higher in each core course for them to count toward their degree requirements.
2. A minimum of four courses adding up 16 units in the designated major field, chosen in consultation with the student’s faculty adviser.
3. A minimum of four elective courses adding up to 16 units.

Of the combined four major field and four elective courses, at least four of the eight courses must be graduate-level courses taken within the department.

Students who enter the doctoral program from the department’s own Master’s degree program are not required to repeat courses. Having completed the four core courses (World Arts and Cultures 200, 201, 202, and 204), and if these students continue in the same major field, they will need to complete one additional major field course (4 units) and two elective courses (8 units), in consultation with their faculty adviser. If these students choose a new major field, they will need to complete four major field courses (16 units) and two elective courses (8 units), in consultation with their faculty adviser.

Teaching Experience

Teaching experience is encouraged but not required.

Written and Oral Qualifying Examinations

Academic Senate regulations require all doctoral students to complete and pass university written and oral qualifying examinations prior to doctoral advancement to candidacy. Also, under Senate regulations, the University Oral Qualifying Examination is open only to the student and appointed members of the doctoral committee. In addition to university requirements, some graduate programs have other pre-candidacy examination requirements. What follows in this section is how students are required to fulfill all of these requirements for this doctoral program.

All committee nominations and reconstitutions adhere to the Minimum Standards for Doctoral Committee Constitution.

It is recommended that students constitute their Doctoral Committee in Year 2 of the doctoral program; it is required they do so by Year 3, no later than one quarter prior to taking their written and oral examinations.

The doctoral qualifying examinations are composed of a written and an oral examination. The timing of these examinations is determined in consultation with the Chair of the Doctoral Committee. Students must successfully complete all required coursework and foreign language requirement before scheduling their examination, and must be registered and enrolled during the quarter in which the examination is administered. Students who fail the written or oral examinations are allowed to retake them once, upon the approval of their Doctoral Committee, but no later than in the following quarter. A second failure leads to a recommendation to the Division of Graduate Education for academic disqualification from the doctoral program. Barring exceptional circumstances*, students who do not retake the written examination by the following quarter will be recommended for academic disqualification from the doctoral program.

The written qualifying examination is administered by the student’s Doctoral Committee. This examination takes the form of four essay questions (chosen from eight possible questions), developed in consultation with the student’s faculty adviser and Doctoral Committee, and tailored to the theoretical and substantive interests of the student, and to the refinement of a dissertation topic. The written examination evaluates competence in three main areas relevant to the student’s dissertation topic: (1) theoretical concepts and problems; (2) geo-cultural and/or historical field of specialization; and (3) expressive genre(s) or media.

Examination answers are evaluated as “pass” or “fail.” If students do not provide the examination answers within the specified timeframe, the exam will be considered a “fail.” If two answers are evaluated as “fail,” the written examination receives an overall evaluation of fail. Any examination question that originally receives a “fail” evaluation may be retaken once upon the approval of the student’s Doctoral Committee, no later than the following quarter. If a student fails any single question on the written examination a second time, the student has failed the written examination. A failed written examination leads to a recommendation to the Division of Graduate Education for academic disqualification from the doctoral program.

Students are also required to complete a dissertation prospectus of 25 to 30 pages in length. The prospectus puts forward an introduction to the dissertation topic, research questions, and methodology. It typically consists of an overview, literature review, statement of originality and importance, discussion of research methods and methodologies, and a dissertation outline. The student should work on the prospectus with the committee Chair before circulating it to the Doctoral Committee.

The University Oral Qualifying Examination is primarily a defense of the dissertation proposal and is administered by the student’s Doctoral Committee. A pass examination evaluation cannot have more than one committee member who votes fail regardless of the size of the committee. Students may retake the oral examination once within the next quarter with the approval of their Doctoral Committee. If the second oral examination results in a second fail evaluation, the student has failed the oral examination. A failed oral examination leads to a recommendation to the Division of Graduate Education for academic disqualification from the doctoral program.

Evaluation results of written and oral examinations are communicated to the student in writing within 14 days from the date of the completion of the examinations. However, the Doctoral Committee may choose to inform the student of the evaluation result immediately upon the completion of the oral examination.

Students must take the oral and written examinations in consecutive quarters. Students wishing to delay their oral qualifying examination must petition their Doctoral Committee, copying the Student Affairs Officer, Graduate Vice Chair, and department Chair, within the first two weeks of the quarter when the oral exam is to be held, or at the earliest possible time in that quarter if there is an unexpected emergency, specifying the reasons for the proposed exam delay. Requests to delay the oral qualifying examination are only approved in exceptional circumstances. The decision about the petition will be made by the Doctoral Committee, Graduate Vice Chair, and department Chair in a time-sensitive manner and communicated in writing to the student, with a copy sent to the Student Affairs Officer.

Advancement to Candidacy

Students are advanced to candidacy upon successful completion of the written and oral qualifying examinations. Students must advance to candidacy no later than the Spring quarter of their third year in the doctoral program to remain withing normative time. In case of exceptional circumstances, students can submit a written request to delay this timeline once, subject to the approval of the Doctoral Committee, Graduate Vice Chair, and department Chair. If students do not advance to candidacy by the specified time, they will be subject to academic disqualification.

Doctoral Dissertation

Every doctoral degree program requires the completion of an approved dissertation that demonstrates the student’s ability to perform original, independent research and constitutes a distinct contribution to knowledge in the principal field of study.

Students are required to submit the final draft of their dissertation to their Doctoral Committee one month prior to UCLA Division of Graduate Education’s filing deadlines for review and approval.

Final Oral Examination (Defense of Dissertation)

Not required for all students in the program. The decision as to whether a defense is required is made by the Doctoral Committee and is determined during the student’s oral qualifying examination.

Time-to-Degree

For students entering the doctoral program with an approved Master’s degree, normative time to candidacy is eight quarters from their entering date. After reaching candidacy, these students have two years to complete their doctoral degree to remain within normative time.

For students entering the doctoral program without an approved Master’s degree, normative time to complete our Master’s degree is two years from their entering date. After completing their Master’s in this department, students have three years to complete their doctoral degree to remain within normative time.

Normal progress toward the doctoral degree is as follows for students with a Master’s degree:

• Core course requirements: third quarter.
• 48 units of course work: fifth quarter.
• Completion of foreign language requirement: sixth quarter (must be completed prior to the nomination of committee and the qualifying examinations).
• Approval of Doctoral Committee: eighth quarter.
• Written and oral qualifying examinations: eighth quarter.
• Advancement to Candidacy: eighth quarter.
• Completion of doctoral dissertation and final oral examination (if required): end of fifth year.

Normal progress toward the doctoral degree is as follows for students in the department’s Master’s degree program and continuing to doctoral program:

• Core course requirements: third quarter.
• Completion of foreign language requirement: fifth quarter (must be completed prior to the nomination of committee and the qualifying examinations).
• Approval of Master’s Committee: fifth quarter.
• Advancement to candidacy: sixth quarter.
• Completion of Master’s degree: sixth quarter.
• Completion of 12 to 24 units of additional course work (depending on whether the student changes their major field): tenth quarter.
• Approval of Doctoral Committee: tenth quarter.
• Written and oral qualifying examinations: twelfth quarter.
• Advancement to Candidacy: twelfth quarter.
• Completion of doctoral dissertation and final oral examination (if required): sixth year.

DEGREE	NORMATIVE TIME TO ATC (Quarters)	NORMATIVE TTD	MAXIMUM TTD
Ph.D.	8	18	24

Academic Disqualification and Appeal of Disqualification

University Policy

A student who fails to meet the above requirements may be recommended for academic disqualification from graduate study. A graduate student may be disqualified from continuing in the graduate program for a variety of reasons. The most common is failure to maintain the minimum cumulative grade point average (3.00) required by the Academic Senate to remain in good standing (some programs require a higher grade point average). Other examples include failure of examinations, lack of timely progress toward the degree and poor performance in core courses. Probationary students (those with cumulative grade point averages below 3.00) are subject to immediate dismissal upon the recommendation of their department. University guidelines governing academic disqualification of graduate students, including the appeal procedure, are outlined in Standards and Procedures for Graduate Study at UCLA.

Special Departmental or Program Policy

A recommendation for academic disqualification is made by the Chair of the department after a vote of the department’s graduate faculty. Examples of reasons for academic disqualification include failure of examinations, lack of timely progress toward the degree (being “beyond normative time”), and poor performance in courses (earning less than a “B” in any of the core courses). Before the recommendation is sent to the Division of Graduate Education, a student is notified in writing and given two weeks to respond in writing to the Chair. An appeal is reviewed by the department’s graduate faculty, which makes the final departmental recommendation to the Division of Graduate Education.