English MA
Admission Requirements
To enter the graduate program in English a candidate must satisfy the requirements of both the Graduate School and the Department of English. A candidate should have a bachelor’s degree, with at least 18 hours in English above the freshmen level. Normally, only students with a grade point average of 3.0 in undergraduate English courses and an overall undergraduate average of 2.75 will be considered. Scores from the Graduate Record Aptitude Exam (GRE) are not required. Letters of recommendation are welcome, but not required for applicants not seeking assistantships. (Students applying for Teaching Assistantships, please see below.)
Applications to the MA in English are considered year-round. However, because spaces in graduate courses are limited, prospective students should submit their applications well before the semester begins.
Teaching Assistantships
A number of teaching assistantships are available for qualified applicants. In addition to the undergraduate record, applications should include two letters of recommendation (preferably from former English instructors), a statement of teaching philosophy, and a sample of expository prose. Applications should be submitted to the graduate coordinator of the English department no later than March 1 preceding the academic year for which the appointment is desired.
Degree Requirements
In addition to the Graduate School requirements, students must complete at least 30 hours, 18 hours of which must be in 5000-level courses. Up to 12 hours may be taken in 4000-level courses approved by the department and Graduate School.
Courses for the MA in English are divided into four categories, and students are required to take classes in at least three. Aside from this core requirement, students build their own program through electives. They might opt to focus tightly on one or two areas, or they might design a program that offers them the broadest possible range of English Studies. Alternatively, they can focus on building a program that best aligns with their unique scheduling needs.
Here are the categories:
Literature and Textual Analysis
These courses focus on primary texts—particularly works of literature—and the practices of textual analysis; students read common texts together and engage in scholarly, critical, and analytical work. Courses that fulfill this requirement include:
| ENGL 5170 | Techniques, Methods, and Effects in Fiction Writing | 3 |
| ENGL 5180 | Form and Theory of Poetry | 3 |
| ENGL 5250 | Studies in Middle English Literature | 3 |
| ENGL 5300 | Renaissance Literature | 3 |
| ENGL 5650 | Critical Studies in African Diasporic Texts | 3 |
| ENGL 5700 | Twentieth-Century American Literature | 3 |
| ENGL 5910 | Studies In Poetry | 3 |
| ENGL 5920 | Studies in Fiction | 3 |
| ENGL 5930 | Studies In Drama | 3 |
| ENGL 5935 | Studies in Film and Television | 3 |
Cultural Studies
These courses tend to be interdisciplinary in nature and focus on the ways in which culture is constructed, politicized, and related to wider systems of power; critical theories of identity often inform these courses. Courses that fulfill this requirement include:
| ENGL 5720 | Studies in Social Justice | 3 |
| ENGL 5730 | Texts and Technology | 3 |
| ENGL 5800 | Modern Linguistics | 3 |
| ENGL 5840 | Theories of Writing | 3 |
| ENGL 5940 | Feminism, Gender, and Sexuality | 3 |
| ENGL 5020 | Topics in Cultural Studies | 3 |
Pedagogy
These courses focus on approaches to teaching in different sub-disciplines of English Studies. They typically center pedagogical methodologies, theories, and applications. Courses that fulfill this requirement include:
| ENGL 5810 | Teaching Creative Writing | 3 |
| ENGL 5110 | Graduate Workshop in Fiction | 3 |
| ENGL 5001 | Methods in English Studies | 3 |
| ENGL 5080 | Writing for Publication | 3 |
| ENGL 5090 | Special Topics in Writing | 3 |
Writing Craft
These courses focus on students’ writing as the core course content; students engage in activities like project development, revision processes, and writing workshops. Courses that fulfill this requirement include:
| ENGL 5100 | Graduate Workshop in Poetry | 3 |
| ENGL 5110 | Graduate Workshop in Fiction | 3 |
| ENGL 5001 | Methods in English Studies | 3 |
| ENGL 5080 | Writing for Publication | 3 |
| ENGL 5090 | Special Topics in Writing | 3 |
Other courses may be used to fulfill these requirements with advisor consent.
Exit Portfolio or Thesis Option
At the end of the degree path, students are required to produce an Exit Portfolio of representative work that confirms mastery of program learning outcomes.
Or, MA students have the option of undertaking a thesis or other independent culminating project or experience during their final two semesters in the program, for a maximum of six credit hours. The nature of the project--including topic, timeline, process, and support mechanisms--must be determined in consultation with their advisor before enrolling for these hours. Students cannot enroll for a thesis or independent project without advisor approval.
Learning Outcomes
Upon completion of the program, graduates will be able to:
- Engage with, respond to, analyze, and use texts and media that exhibit diverse cultural, historical, ethnic, racial, class, and gendered commitments.
- Deploy these texts in written and/or multi-media formats in consonance with the full range of scholarship in English Studies.
- Engage in rhetorical and active listening in seminars and other classes, conferences, and group projects in order to contribute to community-building and the construction of new knowledge.
- Construct purposeful texts that manage shape and form at both the macro- and micro- levels (e.g., manipulations of ideas, thought, organization, and development, and manipulations of language and other surface features) and that are delivered through contextually appropriate media (e.g. written language, sound, visuals, multimodal means).
- Learn to differentiate usage from grammar and to identify code switching and code meshing, in order to develop more diverse and inclusive conceptions of language use.
- Engage in complex revision processes whose elements and methods they can identify and articulate.
- Conduct original and research-based analyses of a variety of primary and secondary sources to deepen their knowledge of the intersectional and fluid nature of such concepts as culture, race, ethnicity, gender, disability, sexuality, class, authority, and power.
- Evaluate the historical dimensions and contemporary implications of texts, language, rhetorics, and literacies.
- Demonstrate familiarity with the aesthetic categories of English Studies and articulate the historical role and function of authorship, genre, mode, form, and criticism.
- Comparatively engage cultural, historical and theoretical frameworks to nuance their own work.
- Share a strong social awareness collaboratively with peers in the program as well as outside of the classroom through their research, conversations, professional endeavors, and further study.