Emory’s small, selective doctoral program in English offers training in a wide range of fields within literary studies, including traditional historical fields (from Medieval to contemporary), as well as theoretical and interdisciplinary approaches that cross national and chronological boundaries. Our students benefit from faculty strengths in a variety of areas, including African American literature, modern poetry, nineteenth-century fiction, and early modern studies. In addition, the graduate program has been successful in cultivating a close relationship with several related departments and programs at Emory, including Comparative Literature, Women’s Studies, Psychoanalytic Studies, and the ILA. Our students are able to take classes -- and sometimes pursue certificates -- in these other programs, and graduate courses in English frequently enroll students from those other departments. The small size of the graduate programs across Emory makes this kind of cross-disciplinary traffic possible, and it is one of our greatest intellectual advantages.
The doctoral program has been designed to balance a number of competing needs: the need for students to develop a breadth of knowledge as well as to specialize in their chosen fields; the need for students to develop their skills as researchers while also becoming professional teachers; the need for students to be versed in traditional periods of literary history while also learning about interdisciplinary and theoretical approaches to literature. During your time as a doctoral student in the department, you will be challenged to balance these demands; in doing so, you will be preparing for a professional life beyond the doctorate.
All students admitted to the graduate program now receive five-year funding packages. However, your funding is contingent upon your making satisfactory progress toward your degree. A graduate career can be roughly divided into three phases: During the first phase, students immerse themselves in coursework, define their interests, and serve in a teaching assistantships; in the second phase, students teach their own courses, take their exams, and prepare for to write a dissertation; in the final phase, students write their dissertations and teach.
The following timelines provide an overview of the doctoral program. One timeline is provided for students entering with a bachelor’s degree (“full standing”); another is for students entering with a master’s degree (“advanced standing”). Each of the components of the degree is described in this Handbook at greater length in the pages that follow.
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