As people involved in research, our prime concern is with producing top-quality work that in different ways questions the boundaries of the disciplines we work in and seeks to bring new materials, theories and methods into them. The research programme in Iberian and Latin American studies is both exciting and innovative. The expertise of staff ranges across the field - from Golden Age art to Luso-Brazilian imperial history and culture and the colonial literatures and cultures of Spanish America from contemporary Spanish and Portuguese cinema and urban studies to Latin American literature, poetry, cinema and museum studies - and the research published by both staff and students is also groundbreaking. An MPhil/PhD is an advanced postgraduate research degree that requires original research and the submission of a substantial dissertation of 60,000 to 100,000 words. At Birkbeck, you are initially registered on an MPhil and you upgrade to a PhD after satisfactory progress in the first year or two, and after an interview. You need to find a suitable academic supervisor at Birkbeck, who can offer the requisite expertise to guide and support you through your research. Apart from the process of research supervision and the final examination of the thesis, each student has an annual review in which their progress is assessed. The PhD is usually three to four years of full-time study or five to seven years of part-time study. Find out more about undertaking a research degree at Birkbeck. Find out more about studying at Birkbeck.