Department of English
Doctor of Philosophy
PhD: Program Course Work
Students who enter with an MA in English are required to earn a minimum of 36 hours of credit, exclusive of the dissertation. No more than three courses at the 500-level may be submitted for the degree. All other work must be at the 600-level and above.
There are eleven course requirements that may be met through your MA course work or as part of your 36 hours for your Plan of Study. Meeting with the Director of Graduate Study early in your program is crucial for knowing which requirements you need to fulfill and for setting up your Plan of Study accurately.
Bibliography and Methods (3 hours)
Course: ENG 701 - Content, Methods, and Bibliography (3) or its equivalent as approved by the Director of Graduate Study. Normally to be taken in the first semester.
Rhetoric, Critical Theory, and Language (12 hours)
FOUR courses from at least two different areas below or from special topic courses as approved by the Director of Graduate Study:
Rhetoric
ENG 522 Teaching Composition: Theories and Applications (3)
ENG 590 Literacy, Learning, and Fieldwork (3)
ENG 661 Second Language Writing (3)
ENG 688 Women's Rhetoric and Feminist Pedagogy (3)
ENG 689 Institutional History of Composition Studies (3)
ENG 690 History of Rhetoric: Classical through Renaissance (3)
ENG 691 History of Rhetoric: Enlightenment through Contemporary (3)
ENG 693 Classical Rhetoric (3)
ENG 697 Composing Theories in Reading and Writing (3)
ENG 742 Studies in Rhetorical Theory and Practice (3)
ENG 744 Seminar in Composition Studies (3)
ENG 746 Studies in Contemporary Rhetorical Theory (3)
ENG 747 Theories and Practices in the Teaching of College English. Required & Restricted for PhDs & TAs.
Critical Theory
ENG 531 Feminist Theory and Women Writers (3)
ENG 549 Literary Criticism: The Major Texts (3)
ENG 650 Modern Literary and Cultural Theory (3)
ENG 663 Postcolonial Literary and Cultural Theory (3)
ENG 704 Studies in Contemporary Literary & Cultural Theory (3)
ENG 705 Cultural Studies (3)
Language
ENG 510 Old English (3)
ENG 513 History of the Language (3)
ENG 660 Modern English (3)
Literary Studies (18 hours)
ONE course in each area below, or special topics courses approved by the Director of Graduate Study. (Genre courses in the novel or poetry, for example, may satisfy these requirements depending upon the texts taught.)
Old & Middle English Literature
ENG 510 Old English (3)
ENG 537 Middle English Literature (3)
ENG 608 Chaucer (3)
ENG 708 Studies in Middle English Literature (3)
Renaissance Literature
ENG 540 Shakespeare: Eight Plays (3)
ENG 541 Milton (3)
ENG 641 Elizabethan & Jacobean Drama (3)
ENG 710 Studies in English & Renaissance Literature (3)
ENG 712 Studies in 16th-Century British Literature (3)
ENG 713 Studies in 17th-Century British Literature (3)
ENG 714 Studies in Shakespeare (3)
Restoration & Eighteenth-Century Literature
ENG 561 Eighteenth-Century British Writers (3)
ENG 616 Restoration & the Eighteenth Century Drama (3)
ENG 617 The Eighteenth-Century British Novel (3)
ENG 717 Studies in Eighteenth-Century Literature (3)
Nineteenth-Century British Literature
ENG 545 Nineteenth Century British Writers (3)
ENG 644 Studies in Romanticism (3)
ENG 646 The Nineteenth-Century British Novel (3)
ENG 719 Studies in British Romanticism (3)
ENG 721 Studies in Victorian Literature and Culture (3)
American Literature Before the Twentieth-Century
ENG 563 American Poetry before 1900 (3)
ENG 564 American Prose before 1900 (3)
ENG 630 Early American Literature (3)
ENG 638 Southern American Writers (3)
ENG 730 Studies in American Literature (3)
ENG 731 Studies in American Literature before 1900 (3)
ENG 734 Studies in American Women Writers (3)
ENG 735 Studies in African American Literature (3)
Post-1900 British Anglophone or American Literature
ENG 550 Modern British Writers (3)
ENG 558 American Poetry after 1900 (3)
ENG 559 Twentieth-Century British Poetry (3)
ENG 565 American Prose after 1900 (3)
ENG 582 Modern Drama (3)
ENG 638 Southern American Writers (3)
ENG 639 American Literary and Cultural Criticism (3)
ENG 653 Modern Irish Literature (3)
ENG 654 Contemporary American & British Poetry (3)
ENG 657 James Joyce (3)
ENG 658 D. H. Lawrence & Virginia Woolf (3)
ENG 724 Twentieth-Century British Literature (3)
ENG 725 Studies in Modernism (3)
ENG 729 Postcolonial Literature (3)
ENG 730 Studies in American Literature (3)
ENG 733 Studies in American Literature after 1900 (3)
ENG 734 Studies in American Women Writers (3)
ENG 735 Studies in African American Literature (3)
ENG 737 Studies in Multi-Ethnic American Literature (3)
ENG 740 Studies in Contemporary & Postmodern American Literature (3)
ELECTIVES: You should choose from the graduate offerings in English or the supporting fields. These courses, selected in consultation with your advisory committee, should form a coherent plan to prepare you in the areas of specialization.
Minor In A Supporting Field
With the approval of your' advisory/dissertation committee and the Director of Graduate Study, you may use your electives and additional courses toward achieving a minor in certain supporting fields outside of English. A minor consists of at least 12 hours of advanced work in a single cognate subject. All course work applied toward the minor must be approved by the Director of Graduate Study.
Foreign Language Requirement
You must complete the foreign language requirement before taking the preliminary examination. A level of proficiency in one foreign language equivalent to completion of the second semester of the intermediate course (usually 204) must be demonstrated either by course work while enrolled in the PhD program, or by appropriate course work completed during the last five years, or by an appropriate score on a written examination. (The Department of Romance Languages requires a score of 390 on its computerized examination to place out of French 204, and a score of 440 to place out of Spanish 204. Written examination in other foreign languages offered at UNCG will have to be arranged through faculty in those departments, and you may be required to pay a fee.) Native speakers of other languages can demonstrate foreign language proficiency through their graduate course work in English.
Dissertation (15 hours)
A dissertation demonstrates ability to do original research and to present this investigation in an orderly, exact, and complete manner. Course: ENG 799 - Dissertation (15). See PhD Dissertation & Prospectus for more information.
PhD Comprehensive Examination
Purpose of the Exams: It is important that you understand the nature and purpose of the PhD exams. Such knowledge will aid in preparation and will enable you to make the examination a significant part of study for your degree.
The purpose of the written exam is multi-fold. When drawing up the reading lists, you and your advising faculty them should bear in mind the possibilities of the current job market, the focus of your anticipated dissertation topic, the logical integration of the various parts of the exam, your interests, and the faculty's expertise. Successful completion of the exams augments the faculty advisor's interests and the faculty's expertise. Successful completion of the exams strengthens the faculty advisor's ability to certify to potential employers your teaching and research competence in the areas of examination. In grading the exams, faculty members will ask themselves, "Does this student seem to know the material and understand the concepts that all competent professors teaching in this area should be expected to know and understand?" The examiners will assess your ability to respond appropriately to the questions by integrating and synthesizing large amounts of information and expressing it in coherent and persuasive prose.
See PhD Exams and Reading Lists for more details.
For more information, contact:
Ms. Alyson Frazier
3137 MHRA
(336) 334-5311