Before you take the comps:

Almost all doctoral programs require a mastery of large subject areas, knowledge which serves as a basis for a career in teaching and research.

UNM requires you to choose three such fields from among the following (one of your fields must be from the Literary Historical list):

Literary Historical Periods:

• Early Middle Ages (Old English)
• Later Middle Ages (Middle English)
• Early Renaissance
• Later Renaissance
• Restoration and Eighteenth Century
• British and Irish Romanticism
• Victorianism
• Early American
• Nineteenth Century American
• Modern British and American
• Contemporary British and American

Complementary Disciplines:

• Criticism and Theory
• Language and Rhetoric
• Composition
• Postcolonial Literature
• Chicano/a Literature
• American Indian and Indigenous Literature
• Genre (Drama, Novel, Poetry) and other special fields approved by your advisors & the Graduate Committee.

You select these fields early in your doctoral work with the advice of your Committee on Studies. Your coursework addresses these fields. Departmental "Reading Lists" guide you to key works, histories, and theories in the field. Usually, after you complete your coursework, you engage in a prolonged study to synthesize your preparations for the exams themselves.

PhD comprehensives are scheduled on the second, third, and fourth Mondays of February, and the second, third, and fourth Mondays of September.

Each field exam is 4 hours long, with extra time for preparation and breaks. Formats vary and depend in part on discussions between you and your Committee, but exams may include identification questions, short essays, and longer discussion topics.