phd in english with stipend

Fully Funded PhD Programs in English

Last updated May 10, 2022

As part of my series on  How to Fully Fund Your PhD , I provide a list of universities that offer full funding for a PhD in English. “Full funding” is a financial aid package for full-time students that includes full tuition remission and an annual stipend or salary for the three to the six-year duration of the student’s doctoral studies. Funding is typically offered in exchange for graduate teaching and research work that is complementary to your studies. Not all universities provide full funding to their doctoral students, which is why I recommend researching the financial aid offerings of all the potential PhD programs in your academic field, including small and lesser-known schools both in the U.S. and abroad.

You can also find several external fellowships in the ProFellow database for graduate and doctoral study, as well as dissertation research, fieldwork, language study, and summer work experience.

Would you like to receive the full list of more than 1000+ fully funded programs in 60 disciplines? Download the FREE Directory of Fully Funded Graduate Programs and Full Funding Awards !

Boston College, Department of English  (Newton, MA): Offers a tuition remission fellowship plus a stipend for all students for five years as well as university-funded dissertation fellowships to support their research.

Columbia University, Department of English and Comparative Literature (New York, NY): All admitted students are fully funded for 6 years with tuition, fees, and a living stipend, $30,770 in total (including a grant to support research over the summer break).

Fordham University (New York, NY): All Ph.D. students receive a tuition scholarship as well as a stipend of at least $25,164. Students in later years of the program are eligible to apply for Distinguished Fellowships that carry stipends of up to $33,124.

Syracuse University, Department of English (Syracuse, NY): All students are fully funded. Each student admitted receives a full-tuition scholarship in addition to an annual stipend of $17,500. Some of these scholarships are configured to include teaching duties.

University of Chicago, Department of English Language and Literature (Chicago, IL): Doctoral students are awarded a five-year fellowship that includes a stipend, full tuition, and health insurance coverage. Students may also apply for research and travel funds.

University of Michigan, Department of English Language and Literature (Ann Arbor, MI): Offers a guaranteed six-year funding package to all students admitted to the program. Funding covers complete in-state and out-of-state tuition costs, health care benefits, and living expenses in the form of direct stipend and teaching. Summer funding is available in years one through five.

University of Notre Dame, Department of English (Notre Dame, IN): All students admitted to the PhD program can expect full funding for five years which includes tuition and stipends, plus opportunities for the sixth year.

University of Virginia, Department of English (Charlottesville, VA): Financial support, including health insurance and tuition remission, is awarded to all PhD students from the first through the fifth year of study, with a significant number of students receiving support in the sixth year of study.

Need some tips for the application process? See my article  How To Get Into a Fully Funded PhD Program: Contacting Potential PhD Advisors .

Also, sign up to discover and bookmark more than 1300 professional and academic fellowships in the ProFellow database .

© Victoria Johnson 2020, all rights reserved.

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Ph.D. Program

The Stanford English department has a long tradition of training the next generation of scholars to become leaders in academia and related fields. Our Ph.D. program encourages the production of ambitious, groundbreaking dissertation work across the diverse field interests of our prestigious faculty.

Fusing deep attention to literary history with newer approaches to media, technology, and performance, our department carefully mentors students in both scholarship and pedagogy through close interaction with faculty. Our location on the edge of the Pacific and at the heart of Silicon Valley encourages expansive, entrepreneurial thinking about the interpenetration of arts and sciences.

Program Overview

The English Department seeks to teach and promote an understanding of both the significance and the history of British and American literature (broadly defined) and to foster an appreciation of the richness and variety of texts in the language. It offers rigorous training in interpretive thinking and precise expression. Our English graduate program features the study of what imaginative language, rhetoric, and narrative art has done, can do, and will do in life, and it focuses on the roles creative writing and representations play in almost every aspect of modern experience. Completing the Ph.D. program prepares a student for full participation as a scholar and literary critic in the profession.

Financial Support

We offer an identical five-year funding package to all admitted students with competitive funding available for a sixth year. Funding covers applicable tuition costs, Stanford Cardinal Care health insurance, and living expenses in the form of direct stipend, teaching assistantships or pre-doctoral research assistantships. The department, in conjunction with the School of Humanities and Sciences, is also committed to supporting students' involvement in professional activities and funds many of the expenses for research travel, summer language study, and participation in academic conferences. Student housing is not included in the funding package.

In addition to our standard doctoral funding package, the Office of the Vice Provost for Graduate Education (VPGE) provides competitive funding to support individual doctoral students, student groups, and department-based projects. VPGE funding opportunities promote innovation, diversity, and excellence in graduate education. Explore their doctoral  fellowship  and other student  funding  opportunities.

The  Knight-Hennessy Scholars  program cultivates and supports a highly-engaged, multidisciplinary and multicultural community of graduate students from across Stanford University, and delivers a diverse collection of educational experiences, preparing graduates to address complex challenges facing the world. Knight-Hennessy Scholars participate in an experiential leadership development program known as the King Global Leadership Program and receive funding for up to three years of graduate study at Stanford. Two applications must be submitted separately; one to Knight-Hennessy and one to the Stanford English graduate degree program by its deadline. Please refer to the Knight-Hennessy Scholars program page to learn more and apply.

Teaching Requirements

One pedagogical seminar and four quarters of supervised teaching. Typically a student will teach three times as a teaching assistant in a literature course. For the fourth course, students will have the option of applying to design and teach a Writing Intensive Seminar in English (WISE) for undergraduate English majors or teaching a fourth quarter as a T.A..

• 1st year: One quarter as T.A. (leading 1-2 discussion sections of undergraduate literature)
• 2nd year: One quarter as T.A. (leading 1-2 discussion sections of undergraduate literature)
• 3rd/4th/5th years: Two quarters of teaching, including the possibility of TA'ing or teaching a WISE course.

Language requirements

All candidates for the Ph.D. degree must demonstrate a reading knowledge of two foreign languages. One language requirement must be completed during the first year of study. The second language must be completed before the oral examination in the third year.

Candidates in the earlier periods must offer Latin and one of the following languages: French, German, Greek, Italian or Spanish. Candidates in the later period (that is, after the Renaissance) must demonstrate a reading knowledge of two languages for which  Stanford’s Language Center  regularly offers a reading course, administers a competency exam, or facilitates the administration of an American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages Reading Proficiency Test (ACTFL RPT). In all cases, the choice of languages offered must be relevant to the student’s field of study and must have the approval of the candidate's adviser. Any substitution of a language other than one for which Stanford offers a competency exam must also be approved by the Director of Graduate Studies.

Other requirements

All candidates for the Ph.D. must satisfactorily complete the following:

• 135 units, at least 70 of which (normally 14 courses) must be graded course work
• Qualifying examination, based on a reading guide of approximately 70-90 works, to be taken orally at the end of the summer after the first year of graduate work.
• University oral examination covering the field of concentration taken no later than the winter quarter of the third year of study.
• Submission of the dissertation prospectus
• First chapter review with the dissertation advisor and the members of the dissertation reading committee.
• Dissertation, which should be an original work of literary criticism demonstrating the student's ability to participate fully as a scholar and literary critic in the profession.
• Closing colloquium designed to look forward toward the next steps; identify the major accomplishments of the dissertation and the major questions/issues/problems that remain; consider possibilities for revision, book or article publication, etc.

Department of English

Graduate Program Overview

Ph.D. Program in English at Princeton

The aim of the Princeton graduate program in English is to produce well-trained and field-transforming scholars, insightful and imaginative critics, and effective and creative teachers. The Ph.D. program is both rigorous and supportive. With two years of coursework and three years of research and teaching, all fully funded, it is possible to complete the degree in five years. We offer multiple funding opportunities for research fellowships in year six, should students need additional time for dissertation completion and for the academic job market, or for pursuing other career opportunities.

Princeton is a research institution with strengths across the disciplines, but it maintains a feeling of intimacy. In keeping with the goals of the University at large, the Department of English seeks to cultivate and sustain a  diverse , cosmopolitan, and lively intellectual community. Because this is a residential university, whose traditions emphasize teaching as well as research, the faculty is easily accessible to students and committed to their progress.

The  faculty  of the Department of English is notable for its world-renowned scholarly reputation, and commitment to teaching and close collaboration with colleagues and students. The faculty showcases wide-ranging interdisciplinary interests as well as a diverse range of critical approaches within the discipline. In addition to offering seminars in every major historical field of concentration, from medieval to contemporary literatures, we offer a wide range of theoretical specializations in fields such as feminist theory, gender and sexuality studies, psychoanalysis, Marxism, postcolonialism, environmental studies, political and social theory, and cultural studies. Students may also take courses in cognate departments such as comparative literature, classics, philosophy, linguistics, history, and art history.

Course of Study

The graduate program in English is a five-year program (with multiple opportunities for funding in year six) leading to the Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.). Students may not enroll for a Master of Arts degree. During the first two years, students prepare for the General Examination through work in seminars, and directed or independent reading. The third, fourth, and fifth years are devoted the writing of a dissertation, and to teaching in undergraduate courses. Through numerous funding opportunities, we are able to offer sixth-year students generous research support.

Although programs are flexible, during the first two years graduate students normally take an average of three courses per semester, to complete the required 12 courses by the end of the second year. The comprehensive General Examination is then taken at the beginning of the third year of study.

Students must also demonstrate a reading knowledge of two foreign languages before the completion of the General Examination.

Course Requirements

Graduate students are required to take a minimum of twelve courses over their first two years in the program, usually enrolling in three courses per semester.

Our distribution requirements are designed to acquaint each student with a diverse range of historical periods and thematic and methodological concerns. The Department values both historical expertise and theoretical inquiry, and assumes that our discipline includes the study of film, visual culture, and media studies.

Graduate Students in English must take courses in each of the following six areas:

• Medieval and Renaissance
• 18th Century and 19th Century
• Modern and Contemporary
• Race, Ethnicity, and Postcoloniality
• Gender and Sexuality

All distribution requirements must be taken for a letter grade. The six-course distribution requirement comprises 50% of the courses required for the degree, leaving sufficient room for intensive coursework in areas of specialization. 

While some graduate seminars may cover more than one field, students may not use one course to fulfill two or more distribution requirements at the same time. For example, a medieval course with a substantial commitment to theory may fulfill either the medieval and Renaissance or the theory requirements.

Each entering student is assigned a faculty advisor who works with the Director of Graduate Studies (DGS) in planning course selection in the first and second years. After successfully submitting and presenting the dissertation proposal during the spring of the third year, students choose three faculty members to serve as their dissertation advisers.

Graduate Action Committee (GAC)

The Graduate Action Committee (GAC) is a representative group of graduate students in the Department that advocates for graduate student with faculty and administration. Among its primary goals are representing the concerns of the entire graduate student body, promoting intellectual and social interaction between faculty and graduate students, organizing an annual speaker series of distinguished academics, and improving the quality of graduate student life at Princeton. Every graduate student in the Department is welcome and encouraged to participate in GAC.

Working Group on Graduate Issues (WGGI)

The Working Group on Graduate Issues (WGGI) is a four- or five-person elected group of students who meet at several points during the academic year with the chair, director of graduate studies, and one additional faculty member to represent graduate student concerns.

In addition to participating in a variety of seminars and colloquia organized by the Department and other units at the University, graduate students are welcome to organize colloquia of their own. These may involve the discussion of an article or problem, the presentation of a paper, or a forum for debate.

Graduate students who have passed the General Examination are required to teach in undergraduate courses. While the minimum Department requirement is four hours, most students teach more than this. Students may conduct sections of large lecture courses, or direct precepts in upper-division courses. This teaching is supervised by experienced members of the faculty. The Department and University also offer, on an annual basis, a teacher training seminar and workshop. Advanced graduate students may co-design and co-teach courses with faculty through the  Collaborative Teaching Initiative . 

Library Collections

In addition to the general collections of Princeton’s libraries, Firestone Library has a number of special collections that are particularly rich in materials for study: one of the most important collections of medieval and renaissance manuscripts in the United States; works of the Restoration Period, with emphasis on drama; the theater collection, which contains materials for the study of theatrical history; extensive collections concerning the history and literature of the middle Atlantic and southern states; little poetry magazines; concrete and visual poetry; the Sinclair Hamilton Collection of American Illustrated books, 1670–1870; the Morris L. Parrish Collection of Victorian Novelists; the J. Harlin O’Connell Collection of the 1890's and the Gallatin Collection of Aubrey Beardsley; and the archives of major American publishing houses. The extensive Miriam Y. Holden Collection of Books on the History of Women is located adjacent to the Department’s literature collection in the Scribner Room.

Job Placement

We offer strong support and deep resources for students pursuing careers inside and outside academia. Our Job Placement and Career Resources page provides details, as well as information and statistics about recent academic appointments.

Admission  and Financial Aid

Competition for admission to the program is keen. About ten new students from a wide range of backgrounds are enrolled each year. The Department looks for candidates of outstanding ability and intellectual promise who have the potential to be lively, effective, and sympathetic scholars and teachers. Its judgments are based on letters of recommendation, transcripts, a personal statement, and a sample of the candidate’s academic writing. GRE scores are not required. Facility in foreign languages is also taken into account. To access the online application, please visit the  Graduate Admission Office .

All admitted students are fully funded. Fellowships are awarded by the Graduate School on the Department’s recommendation. Students are also eligible to apply for competitive external and internal fellowships, such as those offered by the Graduate School, the Center for Human Values, and the Center for the Study of Religion.

English Department

The Department offices, lecture halls, and seminar rooms are located in McCosh Hall. There are two libraries in McCosh Hall: the Thorp Library, home to the Bain-Swiggett Library of Contemporary Poetry, and the Hinds Library, the Department’s reading room and lounge. There is also a separate English Graduate Reading Room in Firestone Library, where reserve books for graduate seminars are kept on the shelves. It is adjacent to the Scribner Room, the Department's large non-circulating collection of books and journals.

The Graduate School provides University housing for about 65 percent of the graduate student body. New students have first priority. Although housing in the Princeton area is expensive, many graduate students find convenient and attractive private housing, sharing accommodations or investigating neighboring towns. There are also opportunities for graduate students to apply for resident positions in the undergraduate colleges.

Visiting Princeton

Applicants for admission are welcome to visit the campus at any time, and  tours  of the campus are available. Once the formal admissions period is over by the end of February, admitted students will be invited to campus and will have the opportunity to visit seminars, and meet with faculty and current graduate students.

Ph.D. in English

Get a ph.d. in english.

The Ph.D. in English at the University of Houston engages international dialogues on poetics, narrative, history, and culture. Our innovative doctoral program centers transnational and multilingual approaches to study, and our award-winning research faculty foster dynamic intersections among multiple disciplines and media. The Ph.D. student experience at the University of Houston is enlivened by the English Department’s connections to the intellectual and cultural life of Houston, a global city with thriving literary and arts communities.

UH English Ph.D. students receive dedicated advising and mentorship from department faculty and professional development support at all stages of the degree. We can typically provide five years of funding, including tuition remission and a stipend. (See our Financial Aid page for more information.)

All first-year Ph.D. students receive preparation for expert teaching in the university classroom. Second- through fifth-year students have the opportunity to teach a range of courses, with continued pedagogical training and working groups. Students in their fourth and fifth years are eligible for department- and college-level awards to support dissertation research. 

Overview of Admissions Requirements

Minimum requirements for admission.

• M.A. in English or a related field
• 3.5 GPA in graduate studies

Application Deadline

The application deadline for our Ph.D. in English is February 1.

For more admissions information, visit the How to Apply web page for our Ph.D. in English.

Graduate Curricular Specializations

Program Breakdown & Degree Requirements

Financial Aid

How to Apply

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Boston College’s Ph.D. in English offers the opportunity to study with nationally recognized faculty in many periods, authors, and critical and theoretical streams. Candidates design their course of study from a wide range of courses, proceeding through a series of exams that culminate in a prospectus exam and the writing of the dissertation.

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Program Guidelines

Digital Humanities Certificate

The small size of our doctoral program allows for an unusual level of access to faculty and flexibility in designing programs. Only four doctoral seminars, a course in Composition Theory, and an Advanced Research Colloquium are required; the rest of the Ph.D. candidate's work is built around graduate courses, tutorials, and directed research. Each candidate shapes his or her own program to prepare for three sequential oral examinations and a doctoral dissertation.

Learning Outcomes

The Ph.D. in English offers candidates the opportunity to study with nationally recognized faculty specializing in various periods, authors, and critical and theoretical traditions. Candidates choose from a wide range of courses and proceed through a streamlined series of exams, culminating in a dissertation prospectus exam and the writing of the dissertation. We prepare our students to teach, do research, and engage in service in a college or university setting. Given the challenging nature of the academic job market, we now also give our students opportunities to learn about and prepare for other kinds of careers, such as publishing, public humanities, and arts administration.

Upon completing the degree, students should be able to:

• Write academic articles and reviews at the scholarly level in informed, intelligible prose.
• Research, design and be examined on two long readings lists in major and minor fields of literary study of their choosing.
• Demonstrate mastery of an individual chronological and/or national literary field of their choosing.
• Choose or define a question in their chosen field of literary study, and write an effective dissertation on it.
• Teach courses in English effectively, at introductory and advanced levels, in the community college, 4-year college or university setting.
• Publish their research in peer-reviewed journals and present papers at conferences.
• Secure an academic or teaching position.

Graduate Courses

Program Highlights

Full funding.

All Ph.D. candidates are guaranteed to receive full-tuition scholarships and competitive stipends for five years. The stipend for 2023-24 is $30,000.

Individual Attention

We intentionally keep each entering class to four to five candidates to encourage extensive faculty/student interaction and mentoring.

Personalized Study

Candidates design their own field exams in consultation with their faculty advisors, and choose from a full range of graduate electives each year.

Our Faculty

Christina Klein

Ph.d. program director.

[email protected]

Dedicated to Teaching, Mentoring, and Research

The scholars who make up our graduate faculty have published prize-winning novels, short stories, creative nonfiction, and poetry; contributed articles to leading journals such as  PMLA ,  American Literature ,  Studies in English Literature ,  Victorian Studies , Composition Studies ,  ELH , and  GLQ ; and been anthologized in  Best American Essays  and  Best American Short Stories. They have won national awards from the NEH, the Guggenheim Foundation, and the National Humanities Center; edited anthologies, collections, editions, and series in feminist theory, religion and literature, post-colonial studies, and psychoanalysis; and served as officers for professional organizations such as the MLA and the American Studies Association. 

The faculty provide close mentoring at all stages including advising candidates on selecting courses, helping them publish their work, collaboratively designing exams, serving as teaching mentors, and acting as dissertation supervisors and readers.

Advanced Research Colloquium

Every two years we offer an Advanced Research Colloquium, which trains candidates in conference submissions, article publication, job market preparation, and dissertation writing.

Faculty Directory

Program Details

Language requirements.

• Examinations & Dissertation

Academic Standing and Evaluation of Progress

While the students' programs are planned to meet their own needs and interests, the following descriptions suggest what students' programs have looked liked in recent years. In the first and second years of the program every student takes a Ph.D. seminar each semester ("World Literature" in the Age of Globalization, Queer Theory and the Novel, Issues and Methods in American Studies, and Victorian Inequality to name some recent examples). In addition, students take other graduate electives, or enroll in a tutorial "readings and research" course directed by a faculty member while preparing for an examination. Students may also take graduate courses at Boston University, Tufts University, and Brandeis University. As the dissertation prospectus exam goes forward many students begin their dissertation work during their fifth year.

Candidates must demonstrate an ability to read two foreign languages or a working knowledge and application of one foreign language and its literature. They may demonstrate reading ability through successful performance on two translation examinations in which a short text must be translated adequately (with use of a dictionary) in two hours. They may show more extensive knowledge of one language and its literature by writing a graduate-level critical paper using original texts, or by producing a formal translation of a literary text or essay previously unavailable in English. Language tests from earlier graduate work are commonly accepted for one language.

In the second year candidates serve as teaching assistants in a course in British or American literature. In the third year, students usually teach First-Year Writing Seminar and Literature Core. In the fourth year candidates teach one English Core course and one elective in their own chosen field that they design.

Examinations and the Dissertation

Candidates proceed through a sequence of three examinations: a minor field examination completed before the end of the second year; a major field examination completed before the end of the third year; a dissertation prospectus examination. In collaboration with faculty members, candidates design examinations that will prepare them to work in a variety of periods, genres and literary approaches. Examinations can take a variety of forms: they may focus on teaching, literary theory, a single author or group of authors, a literary genre, or a literary period. Recent exam topics include Medieval Women Writers, Ecocritical Theory, The American Renaissance, Romanticism and Colonialism in the Caribbean Atlantic, The Gothic, a theory exam on the body, and a teaching exam on English Romanticism. The dissertation prospectus exam serves as the official approval process for the dissertation prospectus.

An informal and celebratory defense follows submission and acceptance of the dissertation.

Doctoral candidates are subject to annual review of academic progress toward their degrees. Each candidate is assigned an academic advisor with whom they will meet regularly and at the end of each academic year, the candidate is reviewed by both the advisor and the Ph.D. Director to assess and evaluate their performance in coursework, oral exams, and dissertation, as appropriate. All candidates are required to take their minor field exam by the spring of their second year, and will normally take their major field exam by the spring of their third year.

All graduate students are also governed by the  Graduate School of the Morrissey College of Arts and Sciences Policies and Procedures .

Resources in the Boston Area

Ph.D. candidates have access to the rich offerings for graduate students in the Boston area. Aside from the wealth of local archival resources, candidates participate in seminars at The Humanities Center at Harvard University and in BC’s own Lowell Humanities Series, which brings internationally renowned writers and thinkers to campus. They can also take part in a wealth of courses, lectures, workshops, conferences, and symposia offered at area colleges and universities.

Consortiums

Boston College is also part of a Boston-area consortium that allows students to take graduate courses at Boston University, Brandeis University, and Tufts University. Our students can also take courses at the Graduate Consortium in Women’s Studies at MIT, an interdisciplinary effort to advance research in women's studies. Faculty and students of GCWS are drawn from nine Boston-area colleges and universities.

Graduate Consortium in Women's Studies

BC Irish Studies

The BC English department is (with History) the most active contributor to our thriving Irish Studies Program which publishes the Irish Literary Supplement and offers institutional support to the refereed journal‚ Éire-Ireland .

Irish Studies

Religion and the Arts

Many members of the English department contribute to the BC-based journal  Religion and the Arts , edited by our own colleague, Professor James Najarian.

How to Apply

The application deadline for the Ph.D. program is January 2. The GRE is not required. Application forms should be accompanied by a personal statement, a critical writing sample of not more than 20 pages, transcripts, and three letters of recommendation, ideally from teachers who have recently evaluated the applicant's current work in the proposed field or area of focus.

English Department Stokes Hall South, 4th floor

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University of Notre Dame

Department of English

College of Arts and Letters

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Ph.D. in English

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The Ph.D. in English is a highly selective doctoral program at a top-ranked private research university that trains students for the academic profession of literary studies while building knowledge and skills relevant to a wide range of careers. As a student in our program, you will enjoy access to outstanding scholars working in a variety of fields and practicing diverse theoretical and methodological approaches.

Through our classes, individual student mentoring, and professionalization practicums, you will gain advanced training in the many facets of scholarship and professional life, including research methods, pedagogy, writing for publication, applying for funding, and the job search. Our faculty are committed to helping you develop your interests, voice, and skills as a researcher, writer, and teacher.

“I chose Notre Dame for my English Ph.D. because I wanted to land in a program with as much community support as possible. The stresses of graduate school are real, and it's important to be surrounded by supportive people who respect your needs, interests, and personal career goals. Notre Dame’s English Department is filled with faculty and administrators who truly care about setting their students up for success, whether that's on the academic job market or beyond. Throughout my dissertation process, I've been grateful to have a network of faculty and graduate students who are interested in supporting both my area of research and my personal goals.” — Logan Quigley, Ph.D. May 2022

Academic Partnerships

Notre Dame is home to renowned centers and institutes that enrich doctoral study and help build interdisciplinary connections. As a student here you will have the opportunity to participate in projects and colloquia—and apply for additional research and conference support—from institutes including:

• Initiative on Race and Resilience
• Institute for Latino Studies
• Keough-Naughton Institute for Irish Studies
• Medieval Institute
• Nanovic Institute for European Studies
• Reilly Center for Science, Technology, and Values
• Notre Dame Institute for Advanced Study

“As an applicant many years ago, Notre Dame struck me as a place where graduate students were encouraged to find multiple intellectual homes outside their own departments, through centers and institutes that recognize not only the promise of graduate student's intellectual contributions but the precarity of those contributions if left unsupported. I'm happy to say the University delivered, rewarding me time and time again with some of the richest, most rigorous academic conversations and, to boot, the means to pursue the research questions that those conversations generated.” — Arnaud Zimmern, Ph.D. May 2021. Now a Postdoctoral Fellow in the History of Philosophy and Science at Notre Dame

Graduate Minors

As a Ph.D. student in English you might also decide to pursue one of five graduate minors:

• Gender Studies
• Peace Studies
• Irish Studies
• Screen Cultures
• History and Philosophy of Science

International Opportunities

Our Ph.D. program provides exciting opportunities to participate in an array of international opportunities, events, and partnerships. You might, for instance:

• work with scholars in the UK or Germany as part of the “Global Dome” Ph.D. Summer Workshop in History and Literature;
• live and teach at Notre Dame London while conducting your own research;
• participate in the Irish Seminar, joining scholars and students from other institutions for workshops in locations such as Dublin, Paris, or Buenos Aires;
• participate in the International Network for Comparative Humanities (INCH), a series of workshops that bring Notre Dame students together with faculty and students at Princeton and other major universities worldwide.

And, of course, you will have access to support from the department  and a range of other university sources  for research and conference travel.

“As an Irish grad minor, I participated in the Irish Seminar and traveled to Dublin and Kylemore Abbey where I had the wonderful opportunity of learning about Irish literature and culture from renowned international scholars. My participation in the Irish seminar was complemented with my engagement with INCH. For the INCH annual retreats, I traveled to Athens and Rome and got the opportunity to work with scholars and graduate students from various universities in the US and Europe. The international exposure generously provided by the program has significantly enriched my scholarship." — Shinjini Chattopadhyay, Ph.D. January 2022. Now Assistant Professor of Global Anglophone Literatures at Berry College

Have questions about the Ph.D. in English? Contact: