Top of page
Skip to main content
Main content
${_EscapeTool.xml($img.getChildText('title'))}

Graduate Certificate in English


The Graduate Certificate in English is designed for Ph.D. students from other departments who wish to integrate English, American, and/or other Anglophone literatures into their graduate studies. In order to qualify for this certificate, students must declare their interest before their Ph.D. exams by registering with the English Graduate Coordinator, Shakia Guest-Holloway.

The requirements for the Certificate are as follows:

First

Eighteen credit hours (six courses) in English. This can include cross-listed courses with other departments. (However, you should take care to keep careful records of English courses you take that might appear on your transcript under the headings of different departments.)

Second

The inclusion of at least one faculty member with an appointment (including a joint appointment) in English in the examination and dissertation committees.

Third

An examination in English literary studies in one of the following two ways:

For most students, English, American, and/or other Anglophone literatures should be integrated into the student's Ph.D. exams, with roughly one-third of the reading lists being in literatures of English.

For instance, a student in Comparative Literature might have one of her three reading lists focusing on nineteenth-century American literature, or a student in Women's Studies might focus on gender in the twentieth-century novel for her Qualifying Exam.

This option is the preferred one and should be exercised whenever the student's home department permits it.

For those students whose home department has an examination structure that cannot accommodate the inclusion of literary studies in English, the student's adviser in English should devise a stand-alone examination that tests the student's knowledge within the discipline.

The examination will involve a reading list of no fewer than twenty-five works; in most cases, it will require a written paper (approximately 15 pages) and an oral examination treating the works on the list.


Photo: Yellowbacks, Stuart A. Rose Manuscript, Archives, & Rare Book Library.