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Graduate Studies
Rice's Ph.D. program in English offers the opportunity to study with both nationally prominent and younger faculty who are doing cutting-edge work in literary and cultural studies. Recently ranked by Lingua Franca as among the top ten graduate programs in nineteenth-century British literature, the program also offers very strong preparation in medieval, Renaissance, eighteenth century, United States, modern, contemporary, and postcolonial literary and cultural studies. In addition, the faculty has special methodological strengths in historicist criticism, feminist and gender studies, literary and social theory, print culture, race and ethnicity studies, and global and postcolonial studies.
The program emphasizes professional participation throughout a student's graduate career, and this emphasis has led to a high rate of distinguished publication in such journals as American Literature, ELH, Novel, Genders, and Arizona Quarterly. We specialize in intense preparation for the job market and are involved in placement preparation. In the past eight years, 66% of our students have been placed in tenure-track positions nationwide. The program also offers unusual support for students' professional activities. Funds are available both for travel to conferences and for summer research. This year, for example, students have traveled to collections in Washington D.C., New York City, Los Angeles, London, and Italy (among others). Because the graduate program is small and selective, students work closely with faculty in seminars that range, on average, from four to ten students. And this unusual level of faculty support continues throughout their graduate career. At the same time, graduate students in English join a vibrant, intellectual community at Rice that spans the humanities and social sciences. Students both have the opportunity to take courses in other departments and to participate in the interdisciplinary research groups and workshops that are sponsored by the Humanities Research Center. Graduate students also organize their own annual Colloquium with a distinguished keynote speaker of their choosing (recent speakers include Rachel Adams, Susan Staves, Laurence Buell, Frederick Aldama, Kaja Silverman, Leo Bersani, and Elaine Scarry). |
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In recent years all students entering the Rice Graduate Program in English have received fellowships and tuition waivers awarded on the basis of merit. Fellowships for the 2007-2008 academic year ranged from $15,450 - $22,450. Pending good performance in the program, awards are continued for four years with the strong possibility of fifth-year funding. In recent years we have been able to support most of our students with fellowships in their fifth year.