Why get a master’s degree in English studies?
Our M.A. in English studies degree program offers you the opportunity to develop expertise in all forms of the English language — spoken, written and digital. You’ll work in a supportive community to hone skills in research, critical thinking and persuasive writing — skills that will serve you well in your professional life, including further study for a Ph.D. if that is your goal. You’ll explore the diverse world of texts in their historical, national and global contexts, and develop your understanding of literature’s formal dynamics, and readers’ responses. Individual courses offer opportunities to address the construction of race in texts, achieve facility in literary theory, and explore the history of the printed book and its digital successors.
Why choose UNH for your English studies degree?
At UNH, you’ll be supported by productive, internationally recognized faculty and have access to prominent professionals in the field. Our faculty specialize in British, American, post-colonial and African American literatures, film, linguistics, and composition and rhetoric, and explore schools of theory such as feminism, New Historicism, post-colonial theory, ecocriticism, Marxism, queer theory and cultural studies. Our department offers a variety of seminars and series, bringing in acclaimed writers, professors and journalists. In addition, we host a biannual composition conference, as well as others periodically, including a literary conference, a British post-modern poetry conference and a journalism conference.
Potential career areas
- Academia
- Cinema
- Curriculum development
- Journalism
- Literary agencies
- Marketing
- Publishing
- Theater
- Tutoring
- Writing program management
Curriculum & Requirements
Our M.A. program offers you the opportunity to explore the formal, historical, cultural, and theoretical dimensions of diverse forms of the written word.
Degree Requirements
M.A. candidates must complete 36 credit hours at the 800 or 900 level, including two seminar courses and a third seminar in literature or ENGL 998 Master's Paper .
At least six courses must be literature courses offered by the English department (as distinct from courses in critical theory, linguistics, writing, or teaching methods). If a student chooses the Master's Paper option, the six-course requirement is reduced to five literature courses.
M.A. candidates must pass a reading examination in a foreign language or demonstrate that they have passed a fourth-semester college-level language course with a grade of B or better. Students whose native language is not English may be exempt from this requirement.
| Code | Title | Credits |
|---|---|---|
| Required Courses | ||
| ENGL 925 | Graduate Study of Literature | 4 |
| Seminars | ||
| Select two courses from the following: | 8 | |
ENGL 938 | Seminar: Studies in 20th Century American Literature | |
ENGL 974 | Seminar: Studies in 20th Century British Literature | |
ENGL 981 | Seminar: Studies in Post-Colonial Literatures in English | |
| Electives | ||
| Select five courses from the following: | 20 | |
ENGL 810 | Teaching Writing: Seminar in English Teaching | |
ENGL 829 | Spec Top/Composition Studies | |
ENGL 852 | History of the English Language | |
ENGL 889 | Special Topics in English Teaching | |
ENGL 912 | Historical and Theoretical Studies in Rhetoric | |
ENGL 913 | Theory and Practice of Composition | |
ENGL 914 | Special Topics in Composition and Rhetoric | |
ENGL 916 | History of Composition | |
ENGL 918 | Research Methods in Composition | |
ENGL 910 | Practicum in Teaching College Composition 1 | |
| Concluding Experience | ||
| ENGL 998 | Master's Paper 2 | 4 |
| Total Credits | 36 | |
- 1
ENGL 910 Practicum in Teaching College Composition is reserved for graduate teaching assistants.
- 2
The alternative to this requirement is a 4 credit 900 level literature seminar in which students, with the consultation of the course instructor and/or the program advisor, produce a substantial (30 page) paper
This graduate program is approved to be taken on an accelerated basis in articulation with certain undergraduate degree programs.
General Accelerated Master's policy, note that some programs have additional requirements (e.g. higher grade expectations) compared to the policy.
Please see the Graduate School website and contact the department directly for more information.
Program Learning Outcomes
- Demonstrate expertise in a variety of theoretical approaches, such as gender theory, deconstruction, psychoanalysis, postcolonial theory, intersectionality, and so on.
- Engage in the close reading of complex texts across a range of national traditions.
- Perform literary critical writing and speaking that adheres to the conventions of the field.
- Undertake original research using primary and secondary sources, and responding to existing knowledge in the field.
Deadlines
Applications must be completed by the following deadlines in order to be reviewed for admission:
- Fall: Jan. 15 (for funding); July 1 (final)
- Spring: Oct. 15 (for funding); Dec. 1 (final)
- Summer: April 1 (Admission only)
- Special: N/A
Application fee: $65
Campus: Durham
New England Regional: No
Accelerated Masters: Yes (for more details see the accelerated masters information page)
New Hampshire Residents
Students claiming in-state residency must also submit a Proof of Residence Form. This form is not required to complete your application, but you will need to submit it after you are offered admission, or you will not be able to register for classes.
Transcripts
If you attended UNH or Granite State College (GSC) after September 1, 1991, and have indicated so on your online application, we will retrieve your transcript internally; this includes UNH-Durham, UNH-Manchester, UNH Non-Degree work and GSC.
If you did not attend UNH, or attended prior to September 1, 1991, then you must upload a copy (PDF) of your transcript in the application form. International transcripts must be translated into English.
If admitted, you must then request an official transcript be sent directly to our office from the Registrar's Office of each college/university attended. We accept transcripts both electronically and in hard copy:
- Electronic Transcripts: Please have your institution send the transcript directly to grad.school@unh.edu. Please note that we can only accept copies sent directly from the institution.
- Paper Transcripts: Please send hard copies of transcripts to: UNH Graduate School, Thompson Hall- 105 Main Street, Durham, NH 03824. You may request transcripts be sent to us directly from the institution or you may send them yourself as long as they remain sealed in the original university envelope.
Transcripts from all previous post-secondary institutions must be submitted and applicants must disclose any previous academic or disciplinary sanctions that resulted in their temporary or permanent separation from a previous post-secondary institution. If it is found that previous academic or disciplinary separations were not disclosed, applicants may face denial and admitted students may face dismissal from their academic program.
Letters of recommendation: 3 required
Recommendation letters submitted by relatives or friends, as well as letters older than one year, will not be accepted.
Personal Statement/Essay Questions
Prepare a brief but careful statement regarding:
- Reasons you wish to do graduate work in this field, including your immediate and long-range objectives.
- Your specific research or professional interest and experiences in this field.
Additional Department Requirements
A writing sample is required for this program. The sample could emphasize an area you would like to study, i.e. a paper previously submitted for a literature course. Your paper should reflect your ability to read literature closely, to place it in a historical or theoretical context, and to use research materials responsibly. 10-20 pages is considered acceptable.
Important Notes
All applicants are encouraged to contact programs directly to discuss program-specific application questions.
International Applicants
Prospective international students are required to submit TOEFL, IELTS, or equivalent examination scores. English Language Exams may be waived if English is your first language. If you wish to request a waiver, then please visit our Test Scores webpage for more information.
Explore Program Details
As a student in our program, you will develop a deeper understanding of canonical and innovative approaches to literature in English, including both such nationally-defined traditions as British and American literatures, and traditions organized around other principles, such as Postcolonial or African American literatures. Organized to reflect the changing profession of literary study--its history, its methodologies, and its production of new knowledge--the program includes the study of literature in cultural and historical contexts, the study of representations of identity, comparative approaches to literature, theoretical perspectives, gender studies, and cultural studies. The program offers you both broad-based and specialized courses on a variety of literary topics, and students may supplement their course of literary study with graduate offerings in related subjects and departments, including courses in composition, creative writing, languages and linguistics, history, and sociology, among others.
At UNH, you will have an intensive intellectual experience in a friendly, supportive community of scholars and writers. Our classes are typically quite small (6-12 students) and are often taught as seminars. Because the ratio of faculty to students is quite high (roughly 1 faculty to every 4 graduate students), you can expect close contact with and guidance from scholars actively involved in research in their fields. The UNH English Department also provides opportunities for you to hear nationally-known scholars talk about their research: recent speakers have included Nancy Armstrong, Jonathan Culler, Dana Nelson, and Srinivas Aravamudan. We offer financial support for those graduate students who deliver papers at conferences. Recent MA students have presented papers at such conferences as "Self and Identity in Translation" (at the U. of East Anglia), Arizona State University's Southwest Graduate English Symposium, "Out of Time: Theorizations of Culture and the Political" (U. of Minnesota), "Britain's Long 18th Century" (U. of Chicago), McGill University's 11th Annual Graduate Symposium: "Violence and Recovery," the COPIA Graduate Renaissance Studies Conference (Yale U.), the annual Conference on College Composition and Communication, and the Massachusetts Center for Renaissance Studies Annual Conference (U. of Massachisetts). And some go on to publish their research; one student has an essay forthcoming in a volume on philosophy and film (Cambridge Scholars Press), while two MA students published a collection entitled What to Expect When You are Expected to Teach (Heinemann, 2002).
Graduate students who come to study in our Department will find that we “cover” a great range of subjects in British and American literature, film, theory, linguistics, and composition and rhetoric. We don’t do everything, and we are stronger in some areas than in others, but we offer enough variety in our courses, and we are flexible and adventurous enough in accommodating thesis and dissertation topics, that our students almost always find the guidance they need in pursuing their intellectual interests.
To help students see the shape of our Department, we have grouped professors below by their primary and some of their secondary fields. All of them are versatile to one degree or another, and many of them are affiliated with interdisciplinary programs.
British Literature by Period
Early Modern or Renaissance
Cristy Beemer, Douglas Lanier, Rachel Trubowitz
Shakespeare
Cristy Beemer, Douglas Lanier, Rachel Trubowitz
Milton
Rachel Trubowitz
Nineteenth Century
James Krasner, Sandhya Shetty
Twentieth and Twenty-First Centuries
Robin Hackett, Martin McKinsey
American Literature by Period
Nineteenth Century
Brigitte Bailey, Siobhan Senier
Twentieth and Twenty-First Centuries
Delia Konzett, Lisa MacFarlane, Petar Ramadanovic, Siobhan Senier
American Studies
All the Americanist professors take part in the American Studies undergraduate minor and reflect their interdisiplinary interests in their graduate courses.
Other Literary Fields
Irish Literature
Martin McKinsey
Post-Colonial Literature
Martin McKinsey, Sandhya Shetty
Asian-American Literature
Delia Konzett
Native-American Literature
Siobhan Senier
Atlantic Studies
Brigitte Bailey
Classics and World Literature
Martin McKinsey
Women’s and Gender Studies
Cristy Beemer, Robin Hackett, Siobhan Senier
Queer Literature (Gay and Lesbian Literature)
Robin Hackett
Poetry
Martin McKinsey
Fiction and Narrative
Robin Hackett, James Krasner, Sandhya Shetty
Drama and Performance Studies
Douglas Lanier
Literary and Cultural Theory
Petar Ramadanovic
Note: Professor Ramadanovic is our specialist in theory, but many of the other professors have a strong interest in theory, or in certain theories, and regularly assign theoretical readings in their graduate courses. Among the schools of theory actively explored by our professors are feminism of various kinds, New Historicism, post-colonial theory, ecocriticism, Marxism, queer theory, and cultural studies.
History of the Book
Sean Moore
Fields of Literary Interest
Graduate students in literature are encouraged to consider these areas for their “elective” courses.
Film
Delia Konzett, Douglas Lanier
Visual Culture
Brigitte Bailey, Douglas Lanier
Language and Linguistics
Rachel Burdin
Note: We offer a Master’s degree in Language and Linguistics.
Composition and Rhetoric
Cristy Beemer, Christina Ortmeier-Hooper, Florianne Jimenez
Note: We offer a doctorate in Composition and Rhetoric. Students should consult the relevant webpage to see the courses offered: they include such various topics as the history of rhetoric, research methods in composition, managing a writing center, and Montaigne and the essay.
The English Department offers some modest support for graduate students who are giving a paper or chairing a session at a professional conference in their field. Because these awards are made on a first-come, first-serve basis, you should make application as soon as you can in the academic year. To apply, write the Graduate Coordinator a letter requesting support; include the title of your paper (or session, if you are chairing a session), the conference and location at which it will be given, the dates of the conference, and an estimate of your anticipated expenses. The Graduate Coordinator will notify you in writing about the availability of support.
The Graduate School also offers modest support for graduate students who are giving a paper or chairing a session at a professional conference. These awards can be combined with support from the English Department. Last year, awards were $200 per conference and were awarded on a first-come, first-serve basis.
To apply, include the title of your paper, the conference and location at which it will be given, the dates of the conference, and an estimate of your anticipated expenses. Include an acknowledgment that you have received support from the English Department (if you have). The Graduate School will notify you in writing about the availability of support. It is a courtesy to the Graduate School to thank them after the conference for supporting your work.
At present, the English Department and Graduate School do not offer financial support for attending professional conferences without giving a paper.
