The Department of English offers
two closely related graduate programs: an MA/PhD
program for students who have completed the BA and a PhD
program for those who come to UCSB with an MA. Both programs
include extensive coursework in English, American, and Anglophone
literature, two
language examinations, two
qualifying examinations, and a doctoral dissertation.
The MA/PhD is designed as a five-year program. The PhD for
students who enter with an MA should take no more than four
years. Fellowship
support is available for particularly strong candidates
in their first and/or last years of graduate study. Additional
support comes from teaching
assistantships. Most students become teaching assistants,
whether as section leaders in advanced literature courses
or as instructors in the Writing
Program, by their second year in the program, if not earlier.
Students entering either the
MA/PhD or the PhD program should be aware that they are undertaking
not only to deepen their enjoyment and understanding of literary
texts, modes, and movements but also to explore their potential
as interpreters, scholars, and, in most cases, teachers of
literature and language. They are embarking on a systematic
course of study designed to ensure an understanding of literary
history in both its canonical and non-canonical aspects and
to make them fully participating members of a community of
scholars and critics.
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