Prospective Graduate Students
Why Choose USF
The English department at USF prepares graduate students to become scholar-teachers who will be able to translate their analytical, creative, and communicative skills in a variety of positions both inside and outside the academy. A warm and collaborative department where students receive individual attention, USF English prepares students in broad, foundational traditions while encouraging concentrations in areas of personal interest.
USF English offers multiple degrees and graduate certificates.
We have three unique programs of study: English (MA, PhD) with concentrations in literature and rhetoric and composition, and Creative Writing (MFA). We also sponsor graduate certificate programs, including Comparative Literary Studies, Creative Writing, and Professional and Technical Communication.
Our students and faculty collaborate across these disciplinary boundaries as well as across the university as they complete their degrees. English graduate students can also enroll in interdisciplinary graduate certificate programs, including Digital Humanities, Film, and Women and Gender Studies.
USF English is community oriented.
Graduate school is exciting, exhausting, and life-changing. At USF you will join a community of scholars, faculty, and friends. Our graduate seminars are small and intimate, with fewer than 15 students in each class. USF English graduate students receive individualized mentoring from dedicated faculty who work with students closely both inside and outside the classroom to prepare them for their careers. We value direct collaboration between students and faculty, as evidenced by the co-authored books, articles, chapters, conference presentations, grants, and co-teaching.
Numerous organizations within the department and university connect graduate students with each other and experts in their fields. Students will find ample opportunities to participate in the life of the department and university. For example, the English Graduate Student Association (EGSA) offers events, graduate conferences, and leadership opportunities. Lectures and creative reading series give our graduate students access to leaders in their fields. Along with their graduate colleagues from other departments and colleges across the university, English graduate students may join Graduate Assistant United (GAU).
USF English offers a broad range of teaching, administrative, and research opportunities.
The Department of English's teaching assistants choose from a wealth of teaching and administrative assignments that directly contribute to their professionalization and our outstanding placement record. Students teach in a nationally-recognized, innovative first-year composition program. Experienced TAs can earn their teaching stipends by continuing to teach first-year composition, professional and technical communication, creative writing, literary studies, and/or by serving as program administrators, curriculum developers, and teaching mentors. They may also choose to work as tutors in the Writing Studio, USF's writing center, overseen by advanced English graduate students.
Experienced GTAs have recently taught:
- Introductory and advanced professional and technical communication courses, including Technical Communication for the Health Sciences, Grant Writing, New Media for Technical Communication Majors, Communication for Engineers, Visual Rhetoric, and Communicating the Value of Sustainability
- Introductory and advanced creative writing courses, including Narration and Description, Form and Technique of Fiction, Fiction I, Form and Technique of Poetry, and Poetry I
- Introductory classes in literary studies, including Introduction to Literature, Film and Culture, and the Bible as Literature
In addition to these numerous teaching opportunities, graduate students can become research assistants, working closely with graduate faculty as they write their books, articles, stories, and creating their digital humanities projects. Multiple offices across campus provide graduate students with a variety of administrative opportunities, including working in the Provost's Office, the Humanities Institute, and the Morsani College of Medicine. Academics in the 21st century must be adaptable, innovative, and nimble; we offer opportunities that will broaden your skill set.
USF English has award-winning faculty.
Our faculty engage in global, interdisciplinary, and collaborate research. Collectively we edit six journal publications, and we have developed an innovative program of research in writing analytics, workplace skills, and digital humanities. The faculty members are truly teacher-scholars and have won numerous teaching awards and recognitions. In 2016-17 faculty received national recognition for their creative writing and research. Jay Hopler was a finalist for the National Book Award in Poetry; Steve Jones is the Principal Investigator on a NEH Digital Humanities Advancement Grant; Joe Moxley, whose work on MyReviewers has been supported by a three-year NSF grant, won his second NSF grant, a Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR). Literature faculty have also earned prestigious awards: Marty Gould recently served in the UK as part of the European Union's Marie Curie International Incoming Fellowship; Hunt Hawkins was in Krakow, Poland on a Core Fulbright fellowship; Ylce Irizarry's recent book "Chicana/o and Latina/o Fiction: The New Memory of the Latinidad" earned the MLA prize in Latina/o and Chicana/o Studies.