The PhD in Theatre History, Theory, and Literature at Indiana University has a system of comprehensive exams that cover a wide range of, unsurprisingly, theatre history, theory, and literature. The exams are broken into four categories: Ancient to Medieval times, The Renaissance to 1800, 1800 to World War I, and finally World War I to Contemporary times. After reading all the works from one particular time period, the student takes an oral exam where they discuss the material and field questions from professors. The full exam reading list is mostly based on European and American theatre but there are a significant amount of important theory books and plays from India, Japan, China, and Indonesia. By reading each list, one can discover how theatre during that particular time period was affected by unique cultural, political, and economic forces. The readings are a particularly useful resource to draw upon when holding discussions in class, giving a firm foundation from which to teach plays, theory, and history from any time period.