Course topics include everything from Old English prose and poetry to modern British literature.
Ph.D. in English – Literary History
English Ph.D. – Literary History
Doctoral students in Literature aspire to a comprehensive knowledge of a literary period, genre, or movement through a systematic historical, theoretical, and critical course of study. They develop advanced techniques and skills in scholarly research, theoretical analysis, and cultural studies.
Students in the Literary History Ph.D. program enjoy:
- Teaching assistantships with competitive stipends and opportunities to teach a range of courses, including introductory undergraduate literature courses
- Generous graduate student travel funding
- Opportunities to enroll in independent studies that allow them to pursue research into specialized literary topics, genres, and/or historical periods than is possible in traditional seminars
- Opportunities to interact with distinguished literary scholars
Pursue What Interests You
English Ph.D. students pursuing Literary History can concentrate in one of three areas.
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British Literature
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American Literature
Course topics include colonial and postcolonial American Literature, 20th-century literature, and African American literature.
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Postcolonial Literature
Course topics include global literature, postcolonial African literature, and colonial and postcolonial ecologies.
Careers with a Ph.D. in English
Explore our Literary History Faculty Expertise
Candidates for a literature degree have the opportunity to study with accomplished specialists in a diverse array of literary periods and genres.
Our faculty focus on literature as old as the Middle Ages and as young as yesterday as we a delve into a diverse array of literary periods and genres.
Literature students have the opportunity to study with accomplished specialists, with coursework conducted in small seminars, ensuring a high level of interaction between graduate students and faculty. The deliberately small size and friendly atmosphere of the program allow for considerable interaction and camaraderie among graduate students themselves, creating a close, supportive community.
English Teaching & Graduate Assistantships
Graduate candidates who receive Teaching Assistantships benefit from professional development opportunities to teach courses such as First Year Writing and Rhetoric, Crossing Cultures with Texts, Introduction to Prose Fiction and Nonfiction, Introduction to Poetry and Drama, Introduction to Literature and Health, Speculative Fiction, and Literature and Justice.
Graduate Assistantships also are available for positions such as Writing Tutor and editorial positions with the department's literary journals.
About the English Ph.D.
The Ph.D. in English is designated primarily as professional preparation for scholars and teachers of Creative Writing, Literature, and Rhetoric/Composition. The program at 51ÂÒÂ× offers students the opportunity to concentrate in one of these three areas of English studies. However, while our program requires students to focus on a particular area, it also enables them to explore other areas, to investigate the intersections of subfields, and even to pursue a hybrid degree. Accordingly, the program includes general and cross-disciplinary requirements as well as specific requirements within each of the concentrations. In all concentrations, student work culminates with a dissertation.
Completion of the program generally requires five academic years, but full-time students who are not teaching assistants may complete the program in less time.
Degree Requirements & Dissertation
The Ph.D. in English requires a minimum of 90 hours, including any credited from prior graduate work. Students must fulfill the requirements for one of the three concentrations (Creative Writing, Literary History, or Rhetoric and Composition). The Director of Graduate Studies will determine which specific courses may fulfill each requirement category.
Doctoral students in Literature aspire to a comprehensive knowledge of a literary period, genre, or movement through a systematic historical, theoretical, and critical course of study. They develop advanced techniques and skills in scholarly research, theoretical analysis, and cultural studies.
Advanced Requirements
All students must successfully complete a comprehensive examination; Literary History and Rhetoric and Composition students must also successfully defend a dissertation prospectus. A minimum of 6 hours of ENG 7940 should be completed for the comprehensive exam.
View English Ph.D. Comprehensive Examination
Culminating Experience
All students complete a dissertation, a book-length manuscript typically at least 200 pages in length, and defend their work to a committee of faculty members both within and outside of the department. A minimum of 6 dissertation hours (ENG 8950) is required and a maximum of 45 dissertation hours (ENG 8950) may count toward degree requirements.
View English Ph.D. Dissertation
Literature Graduate Seminars
Doctoral candidates take literature seminars both in and out of their areas of specialization, as well as courses in theory, language, pedagogy, and rhetoric and composition. After completion of all coursework, candidates take comprehensive exams both in their dissertation area and in an area of literary tradition connected to the dissertation area. The dissertation project itself culminates with a public oral defense.
Related Programs
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English Ph.D. – Creative Writing51ÂÒÂ× is home to a thriving, widely respected graduate program in creative writing, with concentrations in poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction.
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English Ph.D. – Rhetoric and CompositionDoctoral students in Rhetoric and Composition study the history and tradition of the discipline from classical rhetoric through contemporary theories of writing.
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English M.A.The English M.A. degree serves as preparation for a Ph.D. or as an extension of education in the liberal arts beyond the bachelor's degree.