Grad School / Program:
- Contact:
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201 Morrill Hall
Department of English
Michigan State University (MSU)
East Lansing, MI 48824
United States
Phone: 517-355-7572
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- Degrees Granted:
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Masters, Doctorate
- Programs offered:
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On-campus
- Description:
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The English Department offers M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in English. The M.A. degree program provides multiple perspectives and broad background in the advanced study of literature and critical theory. The Ph.D. program offers advanced study at the doctoral level in interdisciplinary, cross-field areas of emphasis, including:
African American Literature and Culture
Feminisms, Genders, Sexualities
Film and Visual Culture
History and Theory of Narrative
Literature of the Americas
Medieval/Early Modern Literature and Culture
Postcolonial and Diaspora Studies
Transatlantic Modernities
Students may also choose to work in more traditional areas of study, such as Renaissance Literature, Antebellum America Literature, or the novel.
The Ph.D. emphasis areas help students to conceptualize their research projects within larger rubrics that cross traditional areas of research. They attempt, in other words, to mirror and to model the innovative changes taking place in the discipline at large. The emphasis areas are intended to be flexible and suggestive, not prescriptive. They are reviewed and modified regularly by the faculty to reflect the faculty’s current and future strengths, and they place students at the forefront of methodological and theoretical change in the profession at large.
Because the emphasis areas are not prescriptive, students may also, with the approval of an advisor, create a specialized emphasis that bridges interdisciplinary areas of interest or that carves out areas of research not represented by existing emphases. Or, they may choose to define themselves within more traditional fields of study and shape a course of study that prepares them to engage in long-standing questions about a period, author, or genre.
- Financial Aids:
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The Department of English supports graduate students in a variety of ways.
First, we employ graduate students as graduate assistants (GAs) and as research assistants (RAs) in the department and in the Center for Integrative Studies in the Arts and Humanities (IAH). These positions are posted each spring for employment in the following academic year. The application process is competitive, based upon GPA, progress toward degree, and letters of recommendation.
Second, we support graduate students in their applications to teach in Writing, Rhetoric, and American Culture (WRAC) and in the Writing Center.
Third, the department offers several fellowships for students, including:
- John A. Yunck Endowed Scholarship
- Graduate Completion Fellowships
Fourth, we nominate our best students at every stage of graduate education for college and university fellowships and awards, including:
- University Fellowships (new students)
- Special College Research Abroad Moneys (SCRAM)
- Graduate Merit Fellowships
- Dissertation Completion Fellowships
- Fall/Spring Travel Grants: Department, College, and Graduate School
Qualified students are also encouraged to pursue external grant opportunities, including:
- Charlotte W. Newcombe Doctoral Dissertation Fellowships
- Woodrow Wilson Dissertation Grants in Women's Studies
- Ford Foundation Fellowships
For post-doctoral funding opportunities, refer to:
- Lilly Fellows Program in Humanities and the Arts
- Woodrow Wilson Postdoctoral Fellowships in the Humanities
- Ford Foundation Fellowships
- Grad Program Website:
- http://www.english.msu.edu/
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