The Department of English has four graduate programs, each one designed to meet the specific needs of students with varied interests in language and literary studies. Students in all our programs are well and equitably funded, receive excellent ongoing support for the full range of their program activities, and are encouraged to take advantage of the resources, including the interdisciplinary strengths, of the Department and University as a whole.
PhD in English Language & Literature
The doctoral program in English Language & Literature is designed to lead to the PhD in six years of post-baccalaureate study. Students specialize in such diverse fields as British literature, American literature,and literatures of the U.S., Gender Studies, African American literature, Postcolonial Studies, and Feminist Theory, exploring a wide range of critical theoretical and cultural perspectives within those fields.
PhD in English & Education
The Joint PhD Program in English and Education prepares students with prior teaching experience to assume positions as professors of English and/or professors of Education. The Program emphasizes research traditions and methods appropriate to study in the discipline of English as well as those customarily followed in the study of educational issues; because of this, the Program is interdisciplinary in character, and students have the opportunity to take a broad range of courses in English and education, and others outside those fields.
PhD in English & Women's and Gender Studies
The Joint PhD Program in English & Women’s and Gender Studies was designed to serve the needs of students whose interests draw on both disciplines. Building on the strengths and resources of the English Department and Women’s and Gender Studies, students have the opportunity to work out an interdisciplinary approach to a research problem from an early point in their training, and benefit from the kind of interdisciplinary mentorship that is necessary to develop and complete an interdisciplinary dissertation.
Helen Zell Writers' Program
The Helen Zell Writers' Program is a two-year graduate program in creative writing leading to a Master of Fine Arts degree. Students concentrate in either fiction or poetry. The program prepares students for a lifetime of writing and professional publication.
