In partnership with the Graduate School, PCLS is running a summer session in July and August of 2023, for intensive courses in selected languages. Each course aims to provide graduate students from a variety of disciplines enough reading proficiency in the target language to be able to read journal articles or conduct archival work. PCLS will issue a Certificate of Completion to each student that successfully completes a course.
The Summer Language Reading Knowledge Courses are intensive, fast-paced classes that have a high workload and heavy time commitment. Interested graduate students must be prepared to eliminate all conflicts that will interfere with their attendance during the six-week period. Anyone that drops their enrollment after May 19 will have to consider their fee payment forfeited.
Courses Offered
Assuming sufficient demand, two (2) classes each of French and German will be offered, and one (1) class each of and Italian and Latin will be offered.
Modality
All classes are fully virtual, requiring live synchronous participation. Students can thus be physically located anywhere for the duration of the six weeks, as there will be no in-person components to the course, provided they can ensure a stable enough connection to use Zoom and access Canvas.
Schedule
Classes will meet during the six-week period of July 10 – August 18. All meeting times listed are Princeton local time (Eastern Daylight Time).
| Language | Days | Times | Instructor |
|---|---|---|---|
| French | MTWTh | 09:00am – 11:30am | Saadia El Karfi |
| French | MTWTh | 09:00am – 11:30am | Matthieu Dutil |
| German | MTWTh | 11:00am – 01:30pm | Ron Sadan |
| German | MTWTh | 11:00am – 01:30pm | Benjamin Fries |
| Italian | MTWTh | 12:30pm – 03:00pm | Erica Passoni |
| Latin | MTWThF | 10:00am – 12:00pm | Jermaine Bryant |
Intended Audience
Classes are open to graduate students from any accredited university, or those that will matriculate into a graduate program in the fall of 2023. Courses are not intended to serve the needs of undergraduates or non-students.
No prerequisite knowledge is required for any of these courses.
Those seeking speaking proficiency in a language are not the appropriate audience for the Summer Language Reading Knowledge Courses.
Grading
Instructors will assess students on a Pass/Fail basis. Students that receive a Pass will be issued a Certificate of Completion, signed by the Director of PCLS. Students that receive a Fail will not be issued a Certificate of Completion.
Selection and Enrollment
Enrollment will be limited to 14 students per section. If enrollments are too low, the section will be canceled.
Priority enrollment goes first to Princeton University graduate students, followed by Princeton Theological Seminary students, then graduate students from all other institutions, and lastly to faculty, postdocs, and advanced undergraduates at Princeton University.
A waiting list will be kept for each section that fills before the application closes.
Fees
The course fee for 2023 is $1000, due within 5 days of receiving confirmation of acceptance into a class.
Payment
Princeton University graduate students whose departments are paying PCLS directly must confirm with their department manager in advance that the department agrees to execute a Prime journal to move money to PCLS to fully cover the student's fees.
For all other students enrolling (those who are non-Princeton students, or Princeton students who are not getting funded by their department through a journal transfer), the payment should be made by the student through an ACH transfer from their personal bank account. A wire transfer will be accepted if the student is located internationally and only has a non-US bank account to work with. None of the following can be accepted by Princeton University for the Summer Language Reading Knowledge Courses: credit cards, debit cards, PayPal, mobile payments (Venmo, Apple Pay, etc.).
Enrollment cannot be finalized until full fee payment has been received. Fee payments must be executed within 5 business days of receiving confirmation of being granted a spot in a section.
Refunds
If an enrolled student drops out from their class by 5pm EDT on May 19, they will receive a refund of their fees. No refunds will be granted under any circumstances if a student drops a course after May 19. This also means that students withdrawing after classes have commenced will not be granted a refund, regardless of the reason.
If a course section gets canceled, students on the roster will be notified and their fees refunded.
Application and Deadline
The application deadline for the 2023 program is Friday, May 5, 2023 at 12pm EDT. CLICK HERE TO APPLY.
After receiving your application, our office will confirm by email whether you are granted a spot in a section. If so, we will also include directions about how to initiate your electronic payment of the class fee, depending on whether your department is paying PCLS directly on your behalf, or you are personally paying us out of pocket.
Students wanting to sign up for more than one language should fill out the application multiple times (once for each language class).
Contact
For further information or any questions, please contact Vandana Bajaj.