[ATTW-L] Graduate Study at Auburn

[Derek Ross]

Dear Colleagues:

If you have students looking for graduate programs, please feel free to direct them our way.

Come join the Auburn University Department of English in beautiful Auburn, Alabama!

We are accepting applications for our PhD in Literature or Rhetoric and Composition; our Master of Arts in English; and our Master of Technical and Professional Communication programs. Please apply (or encourage your students to apply) by January 15, 2023. All of our programs offer guaranteed funding and the opportunity for teaching experience. GRE scores are not required for the 2023 application cycle.

PhD
Our PhD program admits several new students per year with a departmental assistantship for five years, including a tuition waiver and a stipend with a work commitment. The base fellowship for PhD students is approximately $16,000 per year, with additional awards and stipends available to competitive students at many points in the program. A typical program includes two years of course work, written and oral comprehensive exams, and two to three years of work on the dissertation.

Graduate assistants typically teach three classes in first-year composition per year, and there are many opportunities for editorial and writing program assistantships. PhD students have recently defended dissertations in twentieth-century American literature, nineteenth-century British literature, media theory and postmodernism, and feminist biography. Recent articles authored or co-authored by PhD students have been published in Eighteenth-Century Studies, South Atlantic Review, Studies in Higher Education, and Written Communication.

MA
The Master of Arts degree in English at Auburn is designed to develop and professionalize you within a sub-discipline in English Studies, and to bring your writing and research skills to an advanced level while providing you with experience as university-level writing teachers. Our students are well prepared for careers in writing, editing, business, secondary and community college teaching, and other professions seeking broadly educated individuals with excellent analytic and communication skills. Many of our Master’s graduates pursue teaching and research careers and go on to attend doctoral programs in English, while other English graduate students use their training to develop their craft as creative writers.

We offer tracks in Creative Writing, Literature, and Rhetoric and Composition.

As a student pursuing the Creative Writing Graduate track, you’ll receive an in-depth education in the writing and revising of poetry, fiction, and prose. You’ll be guided in developing an original voice, knowledge of the craft of writing, and the ability to read classic and contemporary models of published work from a writer's perspective. Our courses are small, interactive writing workshops that combine attentive discussion of your original work with an emphasis on reading critically to observe and understand the elements of literature.

The Literature concentration offers a range of critical perspectives on literary and cultural studies with an emphasis on British and American literature and theory. Students who complete the literature concentration will develop writing and research skills through in depth study of particular literary and cultural fields. Course offerings and programs of research reflect a broad range of faculty interests including film and visual culture, women's studies, transatlantic literature and culture, and green studies. Some of the specific genres our faculty specialize in include the novel, the short story, lyric poetry, the epic, travel writing, and contemporary drama. Specific regional, national, and international literatures include African, African Caribbean, Irish, Native American, and U.S. Southern.

The Rhetoric and Composition concentration is a track of the MA degree that offers in-depth study of key theoretical and methodological approaches to rhetoric and composition studies, with an emphasis on writing pedagogy and rhetorical analysis. Students who complete the composition and rhetoric concentration will develop teaching, writing, and research skills reflecting the developments in the field of the last few decades.

MTPC
In Auburn’s Master of Technical and Professional Communication program, you will learn the theory and practice of technical communication and prepare yourself for a job as a writer, editor, designer, information analyst, web developer, or proposal specialist, as well as other interesting and often well-paid positions. According to the Occupational Outlook Handbook, technical writers will continue to be in demand, and our graduates can do far more than write. Moreover, the MTPC program, taught by five full-time MTPC faculty with both academic and workplace experience, will provide you with opportunities to practice document design, writing, editing, web development, and production techniques for online and print media.

MA and MTPC Opportunities
All MA and MTPC students are offered tuition waivers and a GTA stipend. The stipend is approximately $13,200 in the first year and $15,000 in the second, with additional first-year awards available for the most competitive applicants. Conference travel funding is available from the department as well as the Graduate School.

MA and MTPC students serve as a TA for a large-format literature class in their first year, with training provided by a highly skilled teacher of record as well as a two-semester teaching practicum. In their second year, they teach three sections of first-year composition over two semesters, complete their coursework, and prepare an e-portfolio that synthesizes their work as scholars and teachers.

We have a great track record of placing our MA and MTPC students in competitive PhD programs (Notre Dame, Vanderbilt, UNC, University of Minnesota, North Carolina State, and more). Some recent MA students have been awarded prestigious fellowships for the PhD work (Northeastern, University of Delaware). Because of our versatile English Studies model, which allows students to include work in from other areas of their specified tracks other fields, our graduate students will be well positioned for a number of humanities jobs or PhD programs. We regularly have literature students sharing classroom space with technical communication students, rhetoric and composition students with creative writers, and any other combination.­

All Graduate Students
Graduate students in our programs—at every level—have many opportunities for professional development outside the classroom, including organizing conferences, working with the writing program administrator, working in our Lab for Usability, Communication, Interaction, and Accessibility (LUCIA), working with Auburn University Libraries Special Collections, and more. Auburn’s Department of English houses journals from across English studies, including Southern Humanities Review, Written Communication, and the Scriblerian, and graduate students may have the opportunity to work with these in editorial or research capacities.

Auburn is a small, friendly, and affordable university town located on the plains of eastern Alabama, about 50 miles east of Montgomery, Alabama's capital, and 100 miles southwest of Atlanta, Georgia. Other nearby cities are Birmingham (110 miles northwest) and Columbus, Georgia (35 miles east). The Gulf Coast of Florida is about four hours away by car. Auburn enjoys a warm and sunny climate with mild winters. It has excellent health and recreational facilities. The growing cultural arts district includes the Jule Collins Smith Museum of Fine Art and the Jay and Susie Gogue Performing Arts Center.

Our application deadline is January 15, 2023. Please get in touch with the Director of Graduate Studies, Dr. Derek G. Ross, if you have any questions. You can reach him by email at dgr0003 at auburn.edu<mailto:dgr0003 at auburn.edu> and by phone at 334-844-9073.


Dr. Derek G. Ross
Professor & Director of Graduate Studies, Department of English
Co-Editor SUNY’S Studies in Technical Communication series<https://sunypress.edu/Series/S/SUNY-series-Studies-in-Technical-Communication>
Co-Director, Laboratory for Usability, Communication, Interaction, and Accessibility<http://cla.auburn.edu/lucia/>
9030 Haley Center, Auburn University |http://www.derekross.com
Pronouns: he/him/his



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