Mar 28, 2024  
2016-2017 Catalog 
    
2016-2017 Catalog [ARCHIVED CATALOG]

English, Thesis, MA


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Department of English, College of Humanities and Social Sciences

Graduate Faculty

Askari, Kaveh, PhD, film history and theory, cross-media visual culture, global cinema.
Beasley, Bruce, PhD, creative writing (poetry), American literature.
Brown, Nicole, PhD, rhetoric and composition, technical writing, visual rhetoric, service learning and cybercultural studies.
Cushman, Jeremy, PhD, rhetoric and composition, workplace writing, public rhetorics, digital humanities and postmodern research methodologies.
Denham, Kristin, PhD, linguistics, syntax and grammar, dialect, Native American languages and literatures.
Dietrich, Dawn, PhD, cinema studies, literature and technology, cyberculture, critical theory.
Geisler, Marc, PhD, Renaissance literature and culture, literary theory, politics and literature.
Giffen, Allison, PhD, American literature, women’s literature.
Goebel, Bruce, PhD, American literature, postmodern literature, English education.
Guess, Carol, MFA, creative writing (creative nonfiction, fiction, poetry), gay/lesbian/bisexual/transgender literature and theory.
Johnson, Nancy J., PhD, children’s literature, English/language arts education.
Kahakauwila, Kristiana, MFA, creative writing (fiction and non-fiction), editing and publishing, Pacific literature.
Laffrado, Laura, PhD, American literature, gender studies.
Loar, Christopher, PhD, British literature, early American literature, eighteenth-century culture, critical theory, literature and science.
Lobeck, Anne, PhD, linguistics, literary theory, gender studies.
Lucchesi, Andrew, PhD, rhetoric and composition, professional and technical writing, disability studies.
Lundeen, Kathleen, PhD, British literature, critical theory, intermedial art, literature and science, prophetic literature.
Lyne, William, PhD, American literature, African-American literature, cultural studies.
Magee, Kelly, MFA, creative writing (fiction, nonfiction, multi-genre).
Mahoney, Kristin, PhD, Victorian literature and culture, economics and literature.
Metzger, Mary Janell, PhD, early modern literature, critical theory, English education, women’s literature.
Miller, Brenda, PhD, creative writing (fiction and nonfiction), autobiography.
Paola, Suzanne, MFA, creative writing (nonfiction and poetry), women’s studies.
Qualley, Donna, PhD, composition theory and pedagogy, literacy, rhetoric and social class.
Rivera, Lysa, PhD, American literatures and culture, Chicana/o and African-American literature, cultural studies, critical theory.
Trueblood, Kathryn, MFA, creative writing (fiction), publishing and editing.
VanderStaay, Steven, PhD, English education, creative writing (nonfiction), and linguistics.
Vulic, Kathryn, PhD, medieval British and Continental literatures and culture, devotional literature.
Warburton, Theresa, PhD, feminist theory, women’s literature, Native literature, transnational and multiethnic literature, and memoir.
Wise, Christopher, PhD, comparative literature and critical theory.
Youmans, Greg, PhD, film and media studies, LGBTQ history and historiography, queer and feminist theory.
Yu, Ning, PhD, American literatures, science and literature.

 Contact Information

Director of Graduate Studies & Program Advisor
Kristin Mahoney
Humanities 381
360-650-3276
Kristin.Mahoney@wwu.edu

Graduate Program Coordinator
Erica Dean-Crawford
Humanities 325
360-650-3232
Erica.Dean-Crawford@wwu.edu

Goals

The MA program in English is designed for those who desire to prepare for:

  • PhD and MFA programs, as well as other advanced degrees
  • Teaching at two-year colleges
  • Public or private teaching (elementary, middle, secondary)
  • Careers in technical writing and communication
  • Careers in editing and publishing
  • Careers in nonprofit and other business organizations

Depending on the chosen area of concentration, students will attain the following skills:

  • Preparation in national and global literatures and cultures, creative writing, critical and cultural theory, film and media, pedagogy, composition and rhetoric, technical writing, professional writing, editing and publishing, and linguistics
  • Teaching experience (if awarded a teaching assistantship or internship)
  • Professional editing with scholarly and creative writing journals, such as the Bellingham Review
  • Professional communication, oral and written
  • Competency in the use of classroom and communications technologies
  • Awareness of diversity, educational equity, and social justice issues
  • Awareness of ethical and reflective pedagogical practices

Prerequisites

Undergraduate major in English or departmental permission. Candidates with an insufficient background in English are normally requested to acquire 30 upper-division credits in literature and criticism with a grade of B or better in each course. The department reserves the right to approve a course of study.

Admission

Enrollment is limited to program capacity.

Application Information

Deadlines: Applications for the following academic year must be complete — all materials on file — by January 15 for priority consideration. Applications completed after that date may be considered on a space-available basis. Applications completed after June 1 will not be considered. Admission into the program is for fall quarter.

Teacher Assistantship Deadlines: Same as above.

Supporting Materials:

❑ Normally the department expects a strong analytic score and a verbal score of at least 153 on the GRE (“Revised” General) exam. Candidates must also provide a 750-word personal statement of background and intention and a writing sample: for admission to creative writing, 10 to 15 pages of prose or 10 to 15 pages of poetry; for admission to English, 7 to 12 pages of written work in literary study.

English, Thesis (55 credits)


  • Core Requirements:

  •   Credits: 5
  • ❑  25 credits in literature, criticism, rhetoric or

  •       Credits: 5 (for Teaching Assistants)
  •      Only five of these 25 credits may be taken in ENG 500 Directed Independent Study.

  • Electives:

  • ❑ 20 credits in literature, criticism, creative writing, rhetoric, pedagogy, or English language.  Occasionally electives in other departments may be chosen in consultation and with permission of the English Department graduate program advisor.

  • Credits:

    With the permission of the graduate advisor, a student may take up to 10 credits of some combination of 400-level courses, ENG 500, ENG 509, and ENG 594. No more than 5 credits of ENG 500 may be applied toward the degree.

  • Thesis:

  •   Credits: 2-10 (5 credits)
  • Students must be nominated by a faculty member, and the thesis must be approved by the Director of Graduate Studies.

Additional Information


Other Requirements

Students must demonstrate reading competence in a second language acceptable to the department’s Graduate Studies Committee or take an additional 5-credit 400- or 500-level course focused on the study of language. Normally competence in a second language is demonstrated by successfully completing the final course in a second-year language sequence or by passing a reading competency exam in the language.

Students must also pass a written Graduate Exam in their concentration.

Additional information about these requirements, the thesis option and program procedures, is available from the English graduate program office.

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