Learning Outcomes

1. Students will demonstrate mastery of key concepts, debates, and methods in their chosen disciplinary subfield.
2. Students will design and execute an original scholarly research project that makes a significant contribution to geographical scholarship.
3. Students will prepare for careers in higher education and other professional fields.
4. Students will develop competence as classroom instructors.

Degree Requirements (33 Post-Masters Hours)

The doctoral degree requires a minimum of 33 post-master’s degree credit hours comprising a minimum of 21 credit hours of coursework plus a minimum of 12 credit hours of dissertation preparation (GEOG 899). Doctoral students must file a completed D-POS within the first 24 months of full-time enrollment. 

Coursework

Course List

Course	Title	Credits
GEOG 801	Historical and Contemporary Geographic Thought 1	3
Select an advanced techniques or methods course, taken at the 700-level or above, appropriate to the student’s specialization and dissertation topic and selected with advisor approval 1		3
Select a graduate-level statistics course (3 credit hours). If an equivalent course was taken at the master’s level, this requirement will be waived, but the credit hours will not count toward the doctoral degree. 1		3
Select additional courses including at least one course outside of Geography		12
Select Twelve (12) credit hours of Dissertation Preparation (GEOG 899). Students cannot enroll in GEOG 899 until they have an approved dissertation proposal.		12
Total Credit Hours		33

¹

Must be passed with a grade of B or better to advance to candidacy.

The following stipulations apply to doctoral coursework:

1. Half the coursework (not including GEOG 899) listed on the D-POS must be at the 700- or 800-level.
2. No more than 3 credit hours of independent study (e.g., GEOG 705, 706, 805) with any designator may be included on the D-POS.
3. A maximum of 6 credit hours with non-GEOG designators (or 9 credit hours if students take techniques/methods or graduate-level statistics outside of Geography) may appear on the D-POS.
4. During preparation of the dissertation, any student who wishes to use University facilities or to confer with faculty must be enrolled in at least one credit hour of GEOG 899

Admission to Candidacy

Doctoral students must complete the following to be admitted into candidacy:

1. Full admission into the doctoral program;
2. Approval of D-POS; and
3. The successful completion of the following course requirements (see above) with a grade of B or better: GEOG 801; the techniques or methods course at the 700-level or above; and the graduate-level statistics course (3 credit hours). 

These three requirements constitute the Doctoral Qualifying Exam.

Comprehensive Examination

The comprehensive examination consists of (a) the dissertation proposal and its oral defense and (b) a written exam. The proposal defense and the written exam must take place within one regular semester (or the equivalent) of each other, in either order. The comprehensive examination committee has four members only and must include one (but no more than one) member from outside USC Geography.

Dissertation

The dissertation committee has a minimum of four members and a maximum of five members. The dissertation committee must have at least three members from the USC Geography faculty, and at least one member from outside USC Geography. The dissertation committee may or may not have the same members as the comprehensive examination committee.  Dissertations may be traditional or manuscript style. Manuscript style dissertations must contain at least three manuscripts prepared, but not necessarily accepted, for publication. The student must be the sole or senior author on all three manuscripts. 

Teaching Experience

All students must have at least one semester’s worth of experience as an instructor of record or as a laboratory instructor.

Full-Length Research Presentation

All students shall present a 35-45 minute public research presentation. This is a separate requirement from the dissertation defense, and the presentation should differ substantially from the public portion of the defense.