Department of English

Interim Director of Graduate Studies (Fall 2009): Professor Sarah McNamer

Director of Graduate Studies: Professor Ricardo Ortiz

Academic Coordinator: Jenny Napolitano

Welcome to the Master of Arts Program in English and American Literature at Georgetown University.

Georgetown's M.A. program in English offers students a breadth of choice and a variety of opportunities for scholarly and professional specialization and development; we welcome applications equally from students contemplating pursuing a Ph.D. elsewhere after completing the M.A. at Georgetown, as we do from present or prospective teachers of English in secondary schools, as well as from people hoping to pursue or to advance further in careers in writing and editing and many other fields requiring advanced skills in written communication, critical analysis and research. Our Master's degree students do not compete for attention or funding with Ph.D. students, and the Department offers a supportive environment for the transition from baccalaureate to graduate level work; many of our courses include segments on theory and methodology in order to aid in this transition. The twenty seminars offered each year reflect the faculty's broad interests but also allow students to design for themselves programs of study in several areas of concentration, including Medieval Studies, the Early Modern period, British and Trans-Atlantic 18th Century studies, Romanticism, British and American 19th Century studies, Critical Theory, and Irish and other Anglophone World literatures, as well as in a variety of emerging interdisciplinary fields, including: cultural studies, ethnic, race and post-colonial studies, gender and sexuality studies, and performance, film and media studies. In addition, the program boasts a strong commitment to training students in the teaching of writing through a combination of coursework, direct individual and group mentoring from Writing and other faculty, and hands-on, practical experience in apprentice-teaching and peer-tutoring settings. All graduate classes are seminars with an enrollment maximum of 18. Close student-faculty contact is a hallmark of the program.

Our program prides itself on helping interested students prepare themselves for a Ph.D. elsewhere. We have an excellent placement record: recent graduates have gone on to Ph.D. programs at Brown University, UC Berkeley, UCLA, the University of Chicago, Columbia University, Cornell University, Duke University, Emory University, the University of Maryland, the University of Michigan, New York University, the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, Northwestern University, Oxford University, the University of Pennsylvania, Princeton University, the University of Virginia, Yale University and many others.

We have a strong placement record with local community colleges and private schools. Currently our graduates are in tenure track positions at Montgomery Community College and Prince George’s Community College as well as many others. Local private and public magnet schools have hired many of our graduates. We therefore offer a strong local alumni network that supports current graduates in their job searches.

The program is enhanced by the library and other archival facilities in the District of Columbia, including the Folger Shakespeare Library, where our students take advanced courses with nationally recognized scholars in the early modern period and in the long eighteenth century, as well as various entities within the Smithsonian Institution, and the Library of Congress and the National Archives. M.A. candidates also have access to a network of libraries through the Washington Consortium of Universities and have the opportunity to enroll in graduate level courses at these institutions, which include the University of Maryland, the George Washington University, American University, and George Mason University.

Every year the program makes offers of funding packages, usually including both full tuition and a stipend, to a limited but significant number of entering students, and guarantees to those students full tuition support in the second year as well. Many of those funding packages, including the Writing Center and Community Scholars Associates Programs, feature specialized training in the teaching of writing across a wide variety of student populations, from traditional first-year university students, to adult learners returning to university study through Georgetown’s School of Continuing Studies, to local high school and first-year college students from traditionally underserved and working-class communities. All second-year students are also invited to apply for a limited number of paid professional development positions designed to offer additional training in the teaching of writing as well as in areas of academic programming, administration and development. The program is committed to helping all of its students support themselves while they study with us, and quite regularly distributes information about additional paid employment opportunities both on campus and in the DC area.

The department offers two plans for the M.A. degree: Plan A, consisting of eight courses (24 credits), an oral examination on a topic developed by the student, and a thesis; or Plan B, consisting of ten courses (30 credits) and an oral examination on a topic developed by the student. Under Plan A, most students complete the program in 2 years by taking 2 courses per semester for 4 semesters.

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