M.A. / Ph.D.
English
Vision Statement
The MA/PhD in English degree (Literature Program) advances a curriculum that develops the analytical tools, diverse perspectives, and historical depth necessary for understanding the present. We explore the reciprocal relations between the marginal and the dominant, the past and the present, and the literary and non-literary. We marshal the most exciting, consequential, and diverse ideas that address the urgent challenges our students will engage.
About the Program
Our Master of Arts and Doctor of Philosophy programs in English will prepare you for teaching and conducting scholarly research at the university, college, and community college levels.
The M.A. is designed both as a basis for the Ph.D. and as a program for students who for personal or professional reasons wish to pursue advanced literary studies. The Ph.D. provides professional training for academic appointments at colleges and universities; we also offer preparation and guidance for those who plan to enter non-academic professions.
Our program is staffed by a strong faculty doing innovative research engaging a full range of current critical methodologies and questions, across nearly all the traditional fields of literature. Additionally, each semester, graduate seminars typically explore cutting-edge issues that intersect both faculty’s current research and emerging critical trends.
See the English Literature M.A./Ph.D. Handbook for full details about the program.
Interdisciplinary Environment
You may concentrate in a number of cross-disciplinary areas :
- American Literature and Culture
- Border Studies
- Gender Studies
- Medieval and Early Modern Studies
- American Indian Studies
- Visual and Digital Cultures
- Cultural Studies and Critical Theory
- Colonial and Post-Colonial Literature and Theory
- Rhetorical Theory
- Comparative Modernisms
Several of our students choose to develop interdisciplinary research profiles, sometimes by minoring in a discipline other than English, among them a newly developed program in Social, Cultural, and Critical Theory. You may also pursue a Ph.D. minor with other UA departments with approval from your committee chair and the Literature Program Director.
Graduate Student Funding
We have the opportunity to award Graduate Teaching Assistantships. The teaching assignment is 3 courses a year; the first year you will teach one course in the Fall and two in the Spring. During your first year, you will be enrolled in a weekly teaching preceptorship designed to instruct and support you as a university teacher. These are renewed for up to five years (assuming satisfactory progress). GTAs receive health insurance and full tuition as well as a small stipend (approximately $20,000 for the academic year). University fees are not covered; for the 2023-2024 academic year, fees are $833.68 per semester if taking 7 units or more.
Contact Us
For general information about the program, please contact Stephanie Mao.
1423 E. University Blvd. Rm. 445
Tucson, AZ 85721-0067 U.S.A.
Specific inquires can be directed to John Melillo, Director, Graduate Literature