Doctor of Philosophy

New doctoral students are admitted each Fall semester. The deadline for applications is December 31^st of the previous year. For example, a student applying for admission in Fall 2026 would need to submit an application by December 31^st 2025.

Credit Requirement

Forty-Two credits beyond those accepted for the Master of Arts degree apportioned as follows:

• 18 credits in the major
• 3 credit doctoral seminar to be taken in the first year
• 9 additional credits in or out of the field of concentration to be determined in consultation with the faculty adviser. In some cases, it may be beneficial for students to take courses in a related field of general studies not offered at Revel. Therefore, upon approval of the faculty adviser and dean, 6 of the 9 credits may be taken in those related fields.
• 3 credits (Subject) 9979 Doctoral Planning I, consisting of preparation for doctoral examinations and formulation of a dissertation topic
• 3 credits (Subject) 9980 Doctoral Planning II. If additional semesters are needed for doctoral planning, 0.5 credit Doctoral Planning Extension (may be repeated three times).
• 3 credits of (Subject) 9981 Doctoral Research I
• 3 credits (Subject) 9982 Doctoral Research II. If additional semesters of research are required, 0.5 credit Doctoral Research Extension (may be repeated three times). 

In addition to the 42 credits, a student may be required by the faculty of a given concentration to master particular skills or areas of knowledge deemed necessary for the doctoral research.

Residence Requirement

Setting aside the 12 credits of doctoral planning and research, the PhD program consequently requires 30 course credits beyond the Master of Arts degree. Twenty four of these must be taken at the school or by prior arrangement with the school. It follows that up to 6 credits may be transferred toward the PhD degree from other institutions. These must be doctoral-level courses taught in accredited graduate programs.

Since up to 6 credits may also be transferred toward the Master of Arts degree, a student accepted into the doctoral program who has taken graduate courses in another institution but has not received a master's degree recognized by Revel may transfer up to 12 credits toward the 72-credit requirement. At least six of these must be doctoral-level courses, while the remaining six may be master's-level courses. The applicability of a course to the Revel doctoral program is determined on a case-by-case basis.

Full-Time Residency

For students taking coursework, at least 9 credits each semester are required for full-time status. The dean may certify students in doctoral planning or doctoral research as full-time irrespective of the number of credits for which they are registered.

Language Examinations

The student must pass examinations in French and German, administered or approved by the School, before the approval of a doctoral proposal. With permission of the faculty advisor and the Dean, a research language may be substituted for one of these.

Field Examinations

Upon completing all coursework, the student must pass comprehensive examinations testing:

• A broad knowledge of the field of concentration.
• Knowledge of areas of general and/or Jewish studies related to the field of concentration.
• In some concentrations, skill and ability to handle primary sources.

These examinations are based on knowledge of the primary and secondary literature.

Dissertation Requirement

Dissertation proposal

As a first step, the student meets with a sponsor to develop a potential topic; then the dean in consultation with the sponsor chooses an additional reader of the proposal to further monitor the beginnings of research. Out of these consultations will emerge a formal proposal. Instruction for the proposal can be found here. The sponsor will submit the proposal to the appropriate BRGS faculty who will decide whether to approve the proposal as is or ask for further revisions.  

When a proposal has been approved, the dean, in consultation with the sponsor and the faculty, appoints an appropriate dissertation committee.

Dissertation Writing and Defense

In preparing the written dissertation, students must format their theses according to Dissertation Formatting Guidelines (PDF). Once the dissertation has been completed, and approved by the dissertation committee, and submitted to the Dean, an oral defense in front of the members of the committee (and other interested BRGS faculty members) will be scheduled.

Dissertation Submission

All Ph.D. students are required to submit a dissertation for publication in both the ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global and the Yeshiva Academic Institutional Repository. Once Ms. Spiegel has approved your dissertation, please follow the Dissertation Submissions Guideline from the library website to submit the dissertation.