Department of English (Graduate)

Return to: Graduate Studies

Website URL:

https://www.cla.purdue.edu/english/gradstudies/index.html

Department/School Head:

Dorsey Armstrong

Academic Programs:

Master’s and Ph.D. Programs

The Purdue English department teaches the adaptive thinking, empathy, and creativity that the current job market demands and that global citizenship requires. We are a diverse, robust, and challenging program of graduate study-and remain among the best English departments for graduate studies in the country. In the Purdue English department, graduate teaching assistants (GTAs) have opportunities to teach introductory composition in our renowned ICaP program, as well as apply for other teaching opportunities in professional writing, film studies, literature courses, creative writing, and more. In addition, research fellowships and other TA positions-such as working for Modern Fiction Studies, the Purdue OWL, on-campus writing lab, or CROW (Corpus & Repository of Writing) Lab-offer alternative, valuable academic opportunities. 

Ph.D. Program

To qualify for a doctoral degree, the candidate must meet University and Department requirements as to minimum hours of credit (30), residence, foreign language proficiency, and grades (cumulative GPA no less than 3.0). The candidate must also:

• Pass one written preliminary examination
• Demonstrate proficiency in a secondary area by either course work or a second written preliminary examination
• Submit and defend a dissertation prospectus
• Write and defend a dissertation.

MA Program

To qualify for a master’s degree, the candidate must meet university and departmental requirements as to hours of credit, residence, required courses, foreign language proficiency, and grades (cumulative GPA no less than 3.0). The candidate must also pass the M.A. examination or write a satisfactory thesis.

All students in Rhetoric and Composition must complete two core courses: ENGL 50100 and one course in English Language and Linguistics. All M.A. students also must take at least one 600-level seminar. All students in Literature, Theory, Cultural Studies must complete ENGL 50100. 

Students concentrating in Literature, Theory, Cultural Studies must take one course in each of four separate areas of literature listed below.

• Medieval & Early Modern
• Transatlantic and Early Atlantic Studies
• 20th Century and Contemporary
• Theory and Cultural Studies

Students emphasizing Rhetoric and Composition must take one course in at least three separate areas of literature from the four listed above.

MFA Program

The MFA program requires completion of thirty-six credits plus twelve thesis credits and a mid-sized book-quality manuscript written under the supervision of a committee chaired by a member of the creative writing committee.

The creative writing concentration has its own core requirements:

• 12 credits of ENGL 60600  or ENGL 60900  (Writing Poetry or Writing Fiction). It is recommended that all 12 hours be taken in the student’s major genre.
• 3 credits in ENGL 60700  (Craft of Fiction or Craft of Poetry), to be taken in the student’s major genre.
• 15 credits chosen from other English Department Graduate Courses.
• 12 credits in ENGL 69800 .

The creative writing concentration does not require ENGL 50100  or ENGL 50600 . It does not require a comprehensive examination, though it does require a thesis defense.

Concentrations (Areas of Study):

• Creative Writing
• Rhetoric and Composition
  
   

• Literature, Theory, Cultural Studies:

  • Medieval & Early Modern
  • Transatlantic and Early Atlantic Studies
  • 20th Century and Contemporary
  • Theory and Cultural Studies

Graduate Certificates (Degree or Non-Degree Students):

• Natural Language Processing
• English Language and Linguistics

Regular Graduate Faculty by Rank:

Professor

Dorsey Armstrong
Elena Benedicto
Kristina Bross
Angelica Duran
John Duvall
Dino Franco Felluga
Wendy Stallard Flory
April Ginther
Sandor Goodhart
Shaun Hughes
Richard Johnson-Sheehan
Christian Knoeller
Robert Lamb
Brian Leung
Maren Linett
Alfred Lopez
Robert Marzec
Daniel Morris
Venetria Patton
Nancy Peterson
Donald Platt
Arkady Plotnitsky
Manushag Powell
Victor Raskin
Thomas Rickert
Charles Ross
Michael Salvo
Tony Silva
Sharon Solwitz
Patricia Sullivan
Irwin Weiser
Paul Whitfield White

Associate Professor

Emily Allen
Jennifer Bay
Samantha Blackmon
Marlo David
Harry Denny
Bradley Dilger
Elaine Francis
Geraldine Friedman
Tara Johnson
Michael Johnston
Christopher Lukasik
Robyn Malo
Jennifer Freeman Marshall
Derek Pacheco
Aparajita Sagar
Ryan Schneider
 

Assistant Professor

Kaveh Akbar
Harris Bras
Terese Mailhot
 

Programs

• English, PHD

• English, MA
• English, MFA

• History of the English Language, Post Baccalaureate Certificate
• Medical and Healthcare Writing, Postbaccalaureate Certificate
• Natural Language Process, Post Baccalaureate Certificate
• Second Language Studies/ESL, Post Baccalaureate Certificate

Courses

• ENGL 50100 - Introduction To English Studies
• ENGL 50200 - Practicum In Teaching College Composition
• ENGL 50500 - Approaches To Teaching College English
• ENGL 50600 - Introduction To English And General Linguistics
• ENGL 50700 - Advanced Poetry Writing
• ENGL 50900 - Advanced Fiction Writing
• ENGL 51000 - History Of The English Language
• ENGL 51100 - Semantics
• ENGL 51200 - English Syntax And Syntactic Theory
• ENGL 51300 - English Phonology
• ENGL 51500 - Advanced Professional Writing
• ENGL 51600 - Teaching English As A Second Language: Theoretical Foundations
• ENGL 51800 - Teaching English As A Second Language: Principles And Practices
• ENGL 52800 - Medieval English Literature
• ENGL 53100 - The Rise Of The Novel
• ENGL 53200 - The English Novel In The Nineteenth Century
• ENGL 53400 - Seventeenth-Century Literature
• ENGL 53500 - Restoration And Early Eighteenth-Century Literature
• ENGL 53800 - English Drama From The Restoration To The Modern Period
• ENGL 54100 - Studies In Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales
• ENGL 54300 - Shakespeare In Critical Perspective
• ENGL 54400 - Milton
• ENGL 54700 - British Romanticism
• ENGL 54800 - Victorian Literature
• ENGL 55200 - Studies In Major American Authors
• ENGL 55300 - Colonial And Early American Literature
• ENGL 55400 - American Literary Culture 1820-1860
• ENGL 55700 - Nineteenth-Century African-American Narrative
• ENGL 55800 - American Literature In The Later Nineteenth Century
• ENGL 56000 - Modern American Poetry
• ENGL 56100 - Modern British Poetry
• ENGL 56300 - Historical Linguistics
• ENGL 56500 - Sociolinguistics
• ENGL 56900 - Contemporary Criticism And Theory
• ENGL 57000 - Introduction To Semiotics
• ENGL 57300 - Tragedy
• ENGL 57800 - Early Twentieth-Century American Fiction
• ENGL 57900 - Modern British Fiction
• ENGL 58000 - Theories Of Modernity And Postmodernity
• ENGL 58300 - U S Ethnic/Multicultural Literature
• ENGL 58500 - Creative Nonfiction Writing
• ENGL 58900 - Directed Writing
• ENGL 59000 - Directed Reading
• ENGL 59100 - Introduction To Composition Theory
• ENGL 59200 - Postcolonial Studies
• ENGL 59300 - Contemporary British Fiction
• ENGL 59400 - Contemporary Poetry
• ENGL 59500 - Contemporary American Fiction
• ENGL 59600 - Advanced Studies In Literature Or Language
• ENGL 59700 - Contemporary Black Feminist Literature
• ENGL 59900 - Academic Language And Content Area Learning
• ENGL 60100 - Teaching Literature At The College Level
• ENGL 60111 - Introduction To Scientific, Technical, Medical, And Healthcare Writing
• ENGL 60211 - Science Writing
• ENGL 60311 - Medical And Healthcare Writing
• ENGL 60400 - Introduction To Inquiry In Second Language Studies
• ENGL 60411 - Writing Proposals And Grants
• ENGL 60500 - Computers In Language And Rhetoric
• ENGL 60511 - Editing And Publishing
• ENGL 60600 - Seminar In Poetry Writing
• ENGL 60611 - Technical Communication
• ENGL 60700 - The Theory And Craft Of Creative Writing
• ENGL 60711 - Designing Documents, Interfaces, And Graphics
• ENGL 60811 - Entrepreneurship Communication
• ENGL 60900 - Seminar In Fiction Writing
• ENGL 60911 - User Experience And Design Thinking
• ENGL 61100 - Old English Language
• ENGL 61200 - Old English Literature
• ENGL 61300 - Middle English Language
• ENGL 61400 - Middle English Literature
• ENGL 61500 - A Reading Of Beowulf
• ENGL 61800 - Quantitative Research In Second Language Studies
• ENGL 61900 - Qualitative Research In Second Language Studies
• ENGL 62000 - Classroom Communication In ESL For Teaching Assistants
• ENGL 62100 - Written Communication For International Graduate Students
• ENGL 62200 - Issues In Composition Studies: Classical Period To The Renaissance
• ENGL 62400 - Issues In Composition Studies: Modern Period
• ENGL 62500 - Seminar On Empirical Research In Writing
• ENGL 62600 - Postmodernism And Issues In Composition Studies
• ENGL 62700 - Seminar In Linguistics
• ENGL 62800 - Natural Language Processing
• ENGL 62900 - Seminar In English As A Second Language
• ENGL 63000 - Seminar In Second Language Writing
• ENGL 63100 - World Englishes
• ENGL 63300 - Seminar In English Literature Before 1660
• ENGL 63500 - Seminar In English Literature 1660-1783
• ENGL 64200 - Seminar In Shakespeare
• ENGL 64700 - Seminar In The Romantic Movement
• ENGL 64800 - Seminar In Victorian Literature
• ENGL 64900 - Seminar In English Literature 1880-1920
• ENGL 65700 - Seminar In American Literature 1630-1900
• ENGL 66500 - Seminar In Comparative Literature
• ENGL 66700 - Seminar In Poetics And Aesthetics
• ENGL 66800 - Seminar In Interpretation And Cultural Theory
• ENGL 66900 - Introduction To Visual Theory And Visual Culture
• ENGL 67200 - Seminar In Women’s Literature And Feminist Theory
• ENGL 67300 - Seminar In Postcolonial Studies
• ENGL 67400 - Seminar In Language Testing
• ENGL 67700 - Seminar In Modern Literature
• ENGL 67800 - Seminar In Modern American Literature
• ENGL 67900 - Seminar In Modern British Fiction

Return to: Graduate Studies