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Graduate Program

Welcome! The English Department at Baylor University, Waco, Texas, has stimulating and challenging M.A. and Ph.D. programs. With an established Graduate Faculty--all of whom are engaged in researching, publishing, teaching, and mentoring--the graduate program at Baylor has a rich array of interests. Our Graduate Faculty represent expertise in all traditional areas of graduate study, but because of the Armstrong Browning Library we are particularly strong in nineteenth-century British literature. Our course descriptions reflect a variety of academic fields. We offer the traditional Ph.D. in English Language and Literature, an interdisciplinary Ph.D. in Religion and Literature, and the M.A. The M.A. thesis usually is the traditional research one, but a student who has demonstrated exceptional ability in creative writing may produce a creative thesis in lieu of a research thesis. A concentration in creative writing on the M.A. is possible by taking at least two courses in creative writing and writing a creative thesis. Our faculty are also sensitive to the rapid changes in higher education and to the diverse needs of today's graduate students as we expand our program to inquire into other areas of scholarly inquiry such as post-colonial studies, rhetoric and composition, linguistics, and comparative literature. In all of these areas of study, we provide the best education we possibly can with literary works that also can be seen in the context of the social (race, class, gender), historical, and rhetorical processes that inform these works.

The scholarly interests of the Graduate Faculty coincide with the ongoing commitment of Baylor to provide the very finest classroom instruction. It may be a truism but one worth repeating: effective scholarship complements effective teaching. Our faculty, employing various theoretical approaches, have published on a variety of major figures: Chaucer, Malory, Shakespeare, Donne, Herbert, Marvell, Milton, Swift, Byron, Shelley, Tennyson, George Eliot, the Brownings, Pater, Hopkins, Pound, Wilde, Joyce, R. S. Thomas, Thoreau, Twain, Whitman, Frost, Faulkner, Robert Bly, Hurston, Morrison, Welty, and O'Connor--to name a few.

In recent years the Graduate Admissions Committee has attempted to admit into the program M.A./Ph.D. students who have demonstrated excellence in recognized ways: GRE scores, undergraduate and graduate GPA, letters of recommendation, and writing sample. We traditionally admit 10 - 15 students each year, and we try to provide financial assistance (stipends, tuition remission, and scholarships) to most of our students who are admitted to the graduate program. Our enrollment ranges between 60-70 graduate students. In the last several years, graduating Ph.D. students have taken positions at the University of Texas at El Paso, the University of Central Oklahoma, Illinois State University, Mississippi College, Nyack College, and Mankato State University.

Graduate support depends on a variety of factors: success in completing graduate requirements, university needs, and budgetary allocations. Students may receive stipends (Teaching Assistant, Research Assistant, and Graduate Assistant) and tuition remission. When awarded a TA, RA, or GA, for example, a student usually receives tuition remission for all or almost all of his/her courses. Not every student is guaranteed financial support, but we attempt to support as many students as we can. The program at Baylor offers graduate students the rare opportunity to combine coursework with teaching (after 18 graduate hours in English). Doctoral students who have the M.A. or the equivalent and teach at least 6 semester hours during the academic year receive paid health insurance coverage.

If you have questions about the graduate program,

contact Dr. Jay Losey at (254) 710-4896, 109 Carroll Science, or at

Jay_Losey@baylor.edu