Graduate Program

Graduate
The graduate program in English at Penn State is shaped by the research, creative, and teaching interests of faculty with national and international reputations in their fields. We offer small seminars with close interaction between faculty and students across the full spectrum of areas that define contemporary studies in literature, culture, rhetoric, and writing.

Research and seminars
Much of our program focuses on area groups. These groups include traditional literary periods, rhetoric and composition, newly canonical areas, interdisciplinary studies, and emerging fields of inquiry (for a list of our Area Groups and detailed information, see below). Faculty and students move easily across the boundaries that connect these fields, as they develop their projects. Some students also pursue dual degrees. Faculty commonly work with graduate students to develop their seminar papers, creative work, and dissertation chapters for publication.

Funding and support
Students in the MA-PhD program have six years of funding for courses and research leading to the PhD. (Most of our MAs continue on to the PhD program.) MFA students have three years of funding for courses and writing. In addition, Penn State offers funding for graduate students to present their work at national conferences in their disciplines, to travel to research collections, and to focus on their dissertations. The Department has strong links with institutions like the Folger Shakespeare Library and with major archives for research in this country and abroad.

Teaching
The graduate program aims not just to train scholars and writers but to develop teachers with wide experience in the classroom. Graduate students have extensive pedagogical training as teachers of writing at both the beginning and intermediate levels. Advanced students have the opportunity to teach courses in their fields of specialization. Our students finish their degrees with dissertations fully situated in the major conversations of their fields and with a record of teaching that shows both experience and versatility. This combination of research and teaching, we believe, is the future of the humanities.

Placement
The Department has an outstanding record of placing its students in academic positions. We advise and mentor our students as they consider career possibilities. We hold workshops for students to organize and refine their materials for the job market. We hold mock interviews to prepare them for conference interviews and campus visits. As a result, our students present themselves to the profession as accomplished and attractive candidates. Over the last five years, for instance, Penn State students have found tenure-track appointments at an impressive array of research universities, PhD- and MA-granting institutions, liberal arts colleges, and specialized institutions:

Indiana University, University of Texas at Austin, North Carolina at Chapel Hill, University of Illinois, University of California at Riverside, Bucknell University, University of Connecticut, Long Island University, St. Louis University, University of New Mexico, University of South Carolina, Syracuse University, Mary Washington University, Auburn University , Clemson University, University of New Hampshire, Stockton College, Texas Tech University, University of Maine, West Virginia University, College of Charleston, Drake University, University of Rhode Island, West Point, University of Alberta and Acadia University (Nova Scotia).

Graduate Faculty

Area Groups
Medieval
Renaissance
18th century British Literature
19th century British Literature
American Literature
Modernism and Contemporary Literature
African American Literature
Latino/a Literature
Rhetoric and Composition
Theory and Cultural Studies
Science, Medicine, and Technology in Culture
Book History
Creative Writing

Robert R. Edwards
Director of Graduate Studies

Graduate

MA

MFA

PH.D.

Course Descriptions

Application

Instructions

Ph. D. Students in

the Job Market