Joint Concentrations

Recommended course (or equivalent as approved by the concentration advisor or DUS): 

• 40-60 level course

Students whose language proficiency places them out of category A take additional courses in categories B and D instead. 

Recommended course (or equivalent as approved by the concentration advisor or DUS):

• 70- or 80-level course
  • A total maximum of two 80-level courses may be taken across categories B and D

• ROM-STD 97 (taken spring semester sophomore year)

Required if RLL is the primary concentration. Optional but recommended if RLL is the allied field. If not taken, replace with 1 additional course from B or D for total of 6.

• At least two of these courses must be taught in the target language.
• At least two must be at the 100 level or above.
• At least one course in category B or D should deal with literature and history from before 1800.
• Maximum of one course at the 80 level counting in category D (another 80-level can be taken for category B, with a maximum of two 80-level courses across categories B and D)

Up to one course that is outside RLL may count toward the concentration. Content must be clearly related to the concentration track. Approved First-Year Seminars or General Education courses may also count. The concentrator advisor or DUS may require that individual research related to the course, such as the final paper, incorporate RLL content.

Fields which RLL concentrators often explore for these courses include History of Art and Architecture; Music; Classics; History; Philosophy; Comparative Literature; Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies; AFVS; Linguistics; Anthropology; Government; History of Science; and Environmental Studies.

Students are not obligated to take a course in a related field and can instead continue to take courses in RLL at the 70 level or higher. The junior tutorial, if taken, can replace the course in a related field.

The junior tutorial provides concentrators who opt in to the semester-long course with a rigorous, well-supported, and deeply relational learning experience where they will be able to take ownership of their intellectual journey by actively constructing their own intellectual project and field of study, honing their reading, writing, research, and interpretative skills. The tutorial provides a structured environment for future thesis writers to work on their junior paper, serving as a natural bridge to the senior tutorial (i.e. the thesis), and provides non-thesis writers with the opportunity to develop the above-mentioned skills in community with fellow concentrators. 

A tutorial section will be offered for each concentration track to be conducted in small groups of 1-4 students, to ensure the formation of a tight-knit community, and be run by a graduate student tutor. The small group format also means that each tutorial section will collectively come up with a time to meet. 

The tutorial will be offered both in the fall and the spring. The spring semester will be the default semester it is offered, but the fall semester will be made available for students who are studying abroad in the spring. If a student is available both semesters, they will be recommended to take the tutorial in the spring. The tutorial will be graded SAT/UNSAT, to encourage students to take intellectual risks, create a collaborative classroom environment, and focus on their learning and intellectual growth, rather than on a grade as an outcome. 

The 13 weeks of the semester will be broken down as follows:

• Weeks 1-2: collaboratively crafting a syllabus that speaks to all the participants' interests (this would probably take the form of identifying an overarching theme or question that everyone is interested in). The syllabus should come up with primary sources for 5 weeks, and secondary sources for 3 weeks, where the secondary sources are selected for their portability (that is to say, their capacity to be applicable to a broad range of texts), so this means more theoretical works of criticism, or works of theory. The syllabus is a living document, which can be updated and tweaked as appropriate, depending on how the tutorial participants’ interests evolve.
• Weeks 3-7: These next five weeks are dedicated to reading, analyzing, and discussing the primary texts, with weekly responses.
• Weeks 8-10: These three weeks are dedicated to reading, analyzing, and discussing the secondary sources, bringing them into conversation with the primary texts. The weekly responses should read the secondary sources and the primary sources together.
• Weeks 11-13: The last 3 weeks of the semester are dedicated to writing the longer-form junior paper (20+ pages), where the idea for the paper will have been conceived in individual meetings with the tutor (and, in the case of thesis writers, in individual meetings with the faculty member who will advise the thesis) leading up to this point, and each session in the last 3 weeks of the semester is the opportunity to share writing with each other and get feedback and support. This paper is, for thesis writers, ideally the initial exploration and formulation of a thesis project. And for non-thesis-writers, this independent work of research serves as a kind of capstone project.

Tutors will be expected to meet with students for 1 or 2 hours a week (at minimum one hour if tutoring just one student, and 2 hours a week if tutoring 2-4 students). They will be expected to give both written and verbal feedback on weekly responses (the verbal feedback is used to launch discussion, and the written feedback gives the student more detailed as well as structural feedback). This feedback is expected to be turned around rapidly, at least a day (preferably more) before the next class meeting. 

With regards to fulfilling concentration requirements, the tutorial can replace a course in a related field.

Students whose primary concentration is in RLL enroll in the senior tutorial in both fall and spring, 99a and 99b. (Reminder: joint concentrations are honors only and require a senior thesis.)

The thesis track is structured around the researching and preparation of a senior thesis. Students who choose this track spend one semester of the third year writing a junior essay in conjunction with a 100-level literature course. Upon successful completion of the junior paper, the concentrator enrolls in the two-semester senior tutorial (99a and 99b, taken SAT/UNSAT) devoted to the preparation of the senior thesis under the direction of a faculty advisor, with weekly assistance from an assigned tutor and scheduled department-wide thesis workshops. The senior thesis is due in mid-March. Thesis writers present their work in a one-hour oral defense, scheduled during reading period in May of their senior year. See Thesis Timeline for more details.

Study abroad, during the summer or the academic year, though not a requirement, is strongly encouraged. 

• Summer courses taught in a Romance language may be approved for up to two courses of concentration credit.
• Term-time study abroad courses for joint concentrators may be approved for a maximum of three courses for one semester.
• Note that RLL joint concentrators must take a minimum three of the required 6 non-thesis courses for the concentration in residence at Harvard.