The Department of English believes in the intrinsic value and the versatility of advanced humanistic training and is committed to supporting its doctoral students in their pursuit of a variety of career trajectories through personal career mentoring, professional training workshops, and funded internships. See below for a detailed summary of our students' career outcomes and recent job placements.
PhD Career Outcomes Summary
The following statistics are intended to provide an overview of the range of opportunities available to our students. We strongly encourage prospective students to seek out comparable data from other schools they may be considering.
Number of currently active students: 89 [this is just for L&L, since the data below reflects only L&L student outcomes]
Number of students admitted since 1994 who have successfully completed the program: 188
Of these graduates, 157 work in education:
- 90 in tenure-track positions
- 38 in non-tenure-track positions (including lectureships and postdocs)
- 11 in libraries
- 11 in higher education administration
- 7 in primary and secondary education
Among those in other sectors:
- 10 are full-time writers or editors
- 10 work in academic-adjacent fields, such as admissions counselling or study abroad program administration
- 5 work in business
- 3 work in design, marketing, and communications
- 2 are lawyers
- 2 are pursuing further educational opportunities
- 1 works for a non-profit
- 1 is a musician
Subfields of the Language & Literature Program in which tenure-track placements have historically exceeded 75%: Medieval, African-American, Asian-American, Postcolonial, 20th-Century British, British literature, and Rhetoric and Composition.
Job Placement by Year
Click the years below for information (updated yearly) about job placement.
