3220 Department of English

Department of English
23 Floor, 25 Park Place Building
404-413-5800
Email: tmcaldwell@gsu.edu
english.gsu.edu

Audrey Goodman, Chair
Elizabeth Sanders Lopez, Associate Chair
Tanya Caldwell, Director of Graduate Studies
 

The Department of English offers the Master of Arts (M.A.), the Master of Fine Arts (M.F.A.), and the Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) degrees. The M.A. degree program provides concentrations in literary studies and rhetoric and composition; the M.F.A. degree program allows students to concentrate in either poetry or fiction; and the Ph.D. degree program provides concentrations in literary studies, creative writing, and rhetoric and composition. The M.A. degree program prepares students for further graduate study or for careers in writing, editing, technical communication, research, or business. Time to degree for the M.A. program is two to three years. The M.F.A. and Ph.D. degree programs prepare students to write, teach at the college level, and conduct scholarly research. The M.F.A. degree usually requires three to four years of study, including coursework, and a substantial creative thesis. The Ph.D. degree usually requires four to six years of study, including coursework, examinations, and a dissertation. In addition to its course offerings in British, American, and Transnational Literatures, as well as literary theory, folklore, rhetoric, composition, technical/professional writing, and creative writing, the department provides opportunities for training in scholarly and textual editing through several long-term publishing and editing projects.

Applicants may obtain additional information about the Department of English by contacting the Director of Graduate Studies at the address above.

Transfer Credit

No more than six semester hours or two courses of graduate work completed at another accredited college or university and approved by Georgia State University may be applied to a graduate degree in English. All transferred coursework must correspond to courses offered by the Georgia State Department of English. Such transferred coursework must have a grade of B (3.0 grade-point average) or higher and must not have been used toward the satisfaction of any previous degree requirements. Transferred credits will be included in the time limitations placed on credits applicable to graduate degrees.

Please note that the acceptance of transfer credit is not automatic; it must be approved and documented by the departmental director of graduate studies and the Office of Graduate Services for the College.

Financial Aid

Students interested in scholarships and student loans should consult the Office of Student Financial Aid. The Department of English currently provides financial support primarily in the form of Graduate Teaching Assistantships, which carry full tuition waivers. Graduate Teaching Assistantships are available on a competitive basis to a limited number of M.F.A., Ph.D., and second-year M.A. students with superior qualifications (the department cannot generally fund M.A. students in their first years). The Paul Bowles Graduate Fellowship, the Virginia Spencer Carr Graduate Fellowship, and the Scholarship Endowment in Creative Writing are awarded to entering fiction writing students who have been admitted to the M.F.A. or Ph.D. program. Again, Graduate Teaching Assistantships are awarded on a competitive basis, and admission alone to any graduate program in English does not automatically guarantee funding. Further information and application forms are available from the Department of English.

Grades

Throughout their coursework students must maintain a B average or higher (not B-). Only those courses in which students earn an A or a B will be credited toward a degree.

Academic Warning and Dismissal

A graduate student whose cumulative grade-point average (GPA) falls below 3.0 at the end of any semester will receive a warning from the associate dean for Graduate Studies of the College of Arts and Sciences. At the end of the next 18 hours of enrollment, the student must achieve a 3.0 cumulative GPA, or the College of Arts and Sciences will dismiss the student. As per the College’s Graduate Assistant Policy, students may not receive assistantship funding while on academic probation.

Non-Degree and Transient Student Admission

Students may be admitted on a non-degree status only if classroom space is available. Preference will be given to degree-seeking students. Students must complete an application, submit two transcripts of all previous college or university work, and provide a list of courses they wish to take. Only six credit hours earned while on non-degree status may later be applied to a degree program. Transient students must reapply each semester.

Further Information

Application forms are available at cas.gsu.edu/graduate-studies/admissions/. If you have any questions about graduate studies in English, please call 404-413-5800 to make an appointment to see the Director of Graduate Studies or email the Director of Graduate Studies. 

Master of Arts

The Department of English offers three master’s degree programs:

1. Master of Arts, Concentration in Literary Studies;
2. Master of Arts, Concentration in Rhetoric and Composition; and
3. Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing (M.F.A.).

Admission

Applicants should be aware that admission is competitive and that meeting the minimum admission requirements does not guarantee admission to the M.A. or M.F.A. program. Before entering the M.A. or M.F.A. program a student must have completed a bachelor’s degree with a major in English or its equivalent from an accredited college or university with at least a B average (3.0) in the undergraduate major. The Department of English admits students to its M.A. programs in the spring and fall semesters of the academic year; admission to the M.F.A. program occurs only in the fall semester. The Director of Graduate Studies in English will consider only complete admission files. Applicants are responsible for seeing that their admission files are complete by the deadlines for admission published in the current edition of this catalog.

The applicant should supply the following materials:

1. A statement of purpose that includes a brief explanation of what the student hopes to accomplish, a clear indication of which degree program the applicant is seeking admission to, and (if the applicant has not yet completed a bachelor’s degree) an indication of the term in which the applicant expects to receive the degree.
2. Transcripts of all previous college or university work. Students should upload unofficial transcripts from every post-secondary institution directly to the application. Any student offered admission will need to have official transcripts sent to the Office of Graduate Services.
3. Two letters of recommendation sent directly from persons who testify to the applicant’s ability to do graduate work.
4. A critical writing sample of approximately eight to twelve pages. The critical sample is not required for the M.F.A.
5. Applications for the M.F.A. program must also contain the following: a portfolio consisting of a minimum of 10 poems; or two or three works of fiction totaling no fewer than 30 and no more than 50 pages. One of the two or three fiction samples may be an excerpt of a longer work (novel, novella, etc.), and fiction samples may include short-short stories/flash fiction, but we ask that the applicant send at least one complete, stand-alone example of short fiction of 15 pages or more. The first page of the creative portfolio should list the student’s name, email address, phone number, and the program the student is applying to (M.F.A. Fiction, M.F.A. Poetry).

Registration and Advisement

Approximately one week before registration begins, the Office of the Registrar will post registration time-ticket assignments on the web, and students can find out the date and time of their registration by entering the GoSOLAR website. The Director of Graduate Studies in the Department of English will act as advisor to all entering M.A. and M.F.A. students. Students are responsible for making appointments with the Director of Graduate Studies for advisement and for being familiar with the requirements for their degree as set forth here. Students are encouraged to select a faculty advisor early in the program.

The Graduate Research Skill Requirement

The Graduate Research Skill Requirement will connect to, and further, a graduate student’s selected field of study and program emphases. Graduate Research Skill may be defined as the acquiring and practice of specialized skills, methods, and linguistic or language studies that include world languages (spoken fluency, written competency, reading knowledge, or translating from English into a world language, or translating from a world language into English), translation studies, or a specialized language system, such as digital humanities and/or emerging communication technologies. Note: The Graduate Research Skill is not a requirement of the M.F.A. program.

The Graduate Research Skill Requirement may be fulfilled with or by:

1. A sequence of undergraduate courses in a world language (French, German, Italian, Spanish, etc.) culminating in a grade of B or better in an intermediate course (numbered 2002 or higher) completed within five years of admission to the graduate program;
2. A grade of B or better in a world language course numbered 2002 or higher taken while in the graduate program;
3. Passing a CLEP examination in a world language;
4. Passing a translation examination administered by the Department of World Languages and Cultures;
5. Passing any other course (with a grade of B or better) or examination representing the acquisition and practice of a research skill that may be proposed by the student and approved by the Graduate Admissions and Review Committee.
6. A sequence of two courses in Research Methods classes for students in the Rhetoric and Composition concentration.

The Graduate Research Skill Requirement may be fulfilled at the level of the M.A. or Ph.D. Students who fulfill the requirement during their M.A. program will have no further research skill requirement to fulfill at the doctoral level. Doctoral students who did not satisfy the requirement during their M.A. program must do so before taking any doctoral exams.

Time Limit

All requirements for a master’s degree must be completed within seven years.

Programs

• English, B.A.-M.A.

• English, Ph.D.
• English, Ph.D., Creative Writing Concentration
• English, Ph.D., Literary Studies Concentration
• English, Ph.D., Rhetoric and Composition Concentration

• English, M.A.
• English, M.A., Literary Studies Concentration
• English, M.A., Rhetoric and Composition Concentration

• Creative Writing, M.F.A.
• Creative Writing, M.F.A., Fiction Concentration
• Creative Writing, M.F.A., Poetry Concentration

Courses

• ENGL 6100 - Study of a Single Author Before 1800
• ENGL 6101 - Study of a Single Author After 1800
• ENGL 6202 - Special Topics in Literature After 1800
• ENGL 6510 - Grant and Proposal Writing
• ENGL 6521 - Archival Research Methods
• ENGL 8000 - Bibliography and Research Methods
• ENGL 8001 - Proseminar: Researching and Writing Your MA Thesis
• ENGL 8002 - PhD Professional Seminar (Literary Studies)
• ENGL 8005 - Practical Grammar
• ENGL 8020 - Poetry Writing
• ENGL 8030 - Fiction Writing
• ENGL 8050 - Modern Drama
• ENGL 8060 - Literary Criticism
• ENGL 8065 - Foundations of Modern Critical Theory
• ENGL 8070 - Contemporary Literary Theory
• ENGL 8071 - Trauma Literature, Culture, and Theory
• ENGL 8075 - Feminist Literary Theory
• ENGL 8090 - History of the English Language
• ENGL 8100 - Directed Individual Research
• ENGL 8115 - Technical Writing
• ENGL 8120 - Proseminar: Writing for Academic Publication
• ENGL 8121 - Rhetoric of Digital Media
• ENGL 8122 - User Experience Research and Writing
• ENGL 8123 - Digital Media Production
• ENGL 8124 - Web Programming for Writers
• ENGL 8125 - Writing and Research Methodology
• ENGL 8160 - Form and Theory of Literary Craft
• ENGL 8170 - History and Theory of Rhetoric and Composition I
• ENGL 8171 - History and Theory of Rhetoric and Composition II
• ENGL 8174 - Twentieth and Twenty-first Century Rhetoric
• ENGL 8175 - Topics in Rhetoric and Composition
• ENGL 8180 - Contemporary Issues in Writing Studies
• ENGL 8195 - Composition Pedagogy
• ENGL 8201 - Contemporary Poetry
• ENGL 8202 - Contemporary Fiction Craft
• ENGL 8203 - Twentieth-Century American and British Poetry Craft I
• ENGL 8210 - Old English
• ENGL 8220 - Beowulf
• ENGL 8250 - Middle English
• ENGL 8270 - Chaucer
• ENGL 8290 - Topics in Medieval Literature
• ENGL 8300 - Sixteenth-Century English Literature
• ENGL 8310 - Early and Middle Seventeenth-Century English Literature
• ENGL 8320 - English Renaissance Drama
• ENGL 8360 - Shakespeare, Earlier Works
• ENGL 8370 - Shakespeare, Later Works
• ENGL 8380 - Topics in Renaissance Literature
• ENGL 8390 - Milton
• ENGL 8420 - Restoration and Earlier Eighteenth-Century Literature
• ENGL 8440 - Restoration and Eighteenth-Century Drama
• ENGL 8450 - Studies in Eighteenth-Century Fiction
• ENGL 8460 - Topics in Restoration and Eighteenth-Century Literature
• ENGL 8500 - Early British Romantic Literature
• ENGL 8510 - Late British Romantic Literature
• ENGL 8620 - English Victorian Poetry
• ENGL 8630 - Nineteenth-Century English Non-Fiction Prose
• ENGL 8640 - Topics in Nineteenth-Century British Literature and Culture
• ENGL 8650 - Nineteenth-Century British Fiction
• ENGL 8670 - Literature of Transition, 1880-1920
• ENGL 8700 - Twentieth-Century English Poetry
• ENGL 8750 - Twentieth-Century English Prose
• ENGL 8755 - Twentieth-Century Irish Literature
• ENGL 8756 - Topics in Twentieth-Century English Literature
• ENGL 8810 - American Poetry of the Twentieth Century
• ENGL 8830 - American Renaissance, 1820-1865
• ENGL 8831 - Nineteenth-Century African-American Literature
• ENGL 8840 - American Realism and Naturalism, 1865-1914
• ENGL 8850 - Southern Literature
• ENGL 8855 - Early American Literature and Culture
• ENGL 8860 - Modern American Fiction, 1900-1945
• ENGL 8870 - Contemporary American Fiction, 1946 to the Present
• ENGL 8880 - Twentieth-Century African-American Literature
• ENGL 8891 - Major American Writers, 1600-1916
• ENGL 8892 - Major Twentieth-Century American Writers
• ENGL 8893 - Topics in American Literature and Culture, 1500- 1916
• ENGL 8894 - Topics in Twentieth-Century American Literature and Culture
• ENGL 8895 - Topics in Africana Literatures
• ENGL 8896 - Caribbean Literatures
• ENGL 8897 - Indigenous Literatures
• ENGL 8898 - Topics in Postcolonial, Transnational, and Borderlands Literatures
• ENGL 8900 - Topics in English
• ENGL 8910 - American Drama
• ENGL 8920 - Graduate Internship
• ENGL 8950 - Independent Study Capstone
• ENGL 8999 - Thesis Research
• ENGL 9030 - Non-Thesis Individual Research
• ENGL 9050 - Topics in Contemporary Literary Theory and Criticism
• ENGL 9051 - Topics in Settler Colonial and Postcolonial Theory
• FOLK 6020 - America’s Folk Crafts
• FOLK 6050 - Global Ceramic Traditions
• FOLK 6100 - British Folk Culture
• FOLK 6110 - Irish Folk Culture
• FOLK 8200 - Folklore