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Here are a few tips for making a committee for your preliminary exams:
Your committee will have three members, including your chair. You’ll want to reach out to professors who are currently doing/have recently done research in your area of interest (i.e. 20th century American Lit, Rhetoric and Composition). It’s especially helpful if you have taken a class with them and they already know about your interests. That being said, you can also ask professors who you haven’t had a chance to take a class with but you still think would be a good fit! I did this by reaching out via email to ask to meet to discuss potential shared research interests, and this meeting led me to officially ask if the professor would join my committee (which they did.)
Another thing to keep in mind when deciding who will be on your committee is that you will likely have the most contact with your committee chair. They will be in charge of overseeing your exam prep progress and coordinating the dates of your exam. Of course, you may also meet with your other two committee members early on to discuss how you are compiling your reading list, and they will be part of the process of developing questions for the written exam and asking questions during your oral exam.
Assembling your committee may take longer than anticipated–depending on the availability of the professors you want to work with, you may have to reach out to several people before your committee is filled. So I’d recommend you give yourself plenty of time. Theoretically, you’ll want to have your committee assembled before you enter your last semester of course work, in which you’ll take the preliminary exam preparation seminar. With this in mind, starting to assemble it at least one semester before your final semester of coursework is probably a good goal to aim for.
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