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Graduate Studies in English > Programs

Graduate Programs in English

Scroll through this page for degree program summaries and links to each individual program site, or select one of the following links to jump directly to a program summary:

Please note that the graduate handbook contains detailed summaries, requirements, and related forms for all degree programs.

Children's Literature
The Children’s Literature program at EMU is the only one in the United States that offers a complete MA in children’s literature from within an English department. We offer courses in folklore, mythology, picture books, young adult literature, children’s cinema and film, and cultural studies. Our courses usually are offered in the evening, with daytime courses offered during spring and summer. Our graduate students often teach introductory children’s literature classes and are well-prepared for doctoral study. The concentration is valuable for teachers of elementary and middle or junior high schools, librarians, recreation supervisors, reading specialists, editors and publishers, book store managers, writers of children's books, and prospective Ph.D. candidates in English.

>>Click here to visit the Children's Literature site.

Creative Writing
The Creative Writing program is an innovative program reflecting significant new trends in the arts. It provides opportunities for creative writers in digital technologies, multimedia, hypermedia, collaborative projects, community arts, and hybrid and mixed genres, as well as poetry and fiction. The program has a cognate component, requiring course work outside the English Department.

Graduate students edit and publish the online journal of hybrid arts, BathHouse, whose name and Web site draw on Ypsilanti history. For their final MA writing projects, students develop a cognate project/exhibit and also design and publish a chapbook, or spoken word or hypermedia CD of their writing. Students completing the degree understand the new possibilities for creative writing in contemporary arts and are prepared to publish and perform their creative work in a variety of venues. They are also prepared to work in community arts programs or projects, and to teach creative writing courses or workshops.

The MA in Creative Writing hosts a reading series that brings in at least four writers a year to read/perform their work and meet with students. Recent visiting writers have included Tracie Morris, Arthur Flowers, Charles Bernstein, Michael Davidson, Mikhail Iossel, and Josip Novakovich.

>>Click here to visit the Creative Writing site.

Linguistics
Linguistics is the study of the structure and use of human language. Findings of linguistics research are important to social and cognitive psychology, native and foreign language teaching, artificial intelligence, computer science, communications, literary analysis, sociology, anthropology, and other fields. Linguists find work in university teaching and research, language education, the communications and computer industries, and cross-cultural agencies of both business and government.

EMU’s Linguistics program is unique in its blend of the core areas of linguistic theory and the emerging areas of language technology and documentary linguistics. The program is home of The LINGUIST List, co-sponsored by Wayne State University. The LINGUIST List is an international forum for the discussion of linguistics issues and the exchange of linguistics information. The EMU Linguistics program is also the site of six ongoing and five completed National Science Foundation projects in language technology, and it is the primary development site of a major international archive of endangered languages data. Students have a unique opportunity to interact in formal and informal ways with a large group of faculty and fellow students. For example, faculty at EMU and the University of Michigan offer co-taught seminars and have active, co-authored research projects.

>>Click here to visit the Linguistics site.

Literature
The MA program in Literature combines a traditional, period-focused approach to literature with an emphasis on literary and cultural theory and graduate-level research and writing skills. One of the great strengths of the program is the diversity of backgrounds its students bring to the classroom: High school teachers working on required graduate credits mix with students who prepare for PhD programs as well as those who go on to teach at the community college level. This range of perspectives and career goals creates dynamic classrooms, where lively debates are enhanced by the active scholarly agendas of our award-winning faculty. In addition to offering various teaching assistantships in literature, the program also makes available two editorial assistantships for the Journal of Narrative Theory, a nationally renowned literary journal produced by literature faculty.

>>Click here to visit the Literature site.

Written Communication
Our concentrations in professional writing and the teaching of writing prepare students for successful professional careers. Students study the relationships between rhetorical theory and writing, various elements affecting the writing process, the nature of language, and both practical and theoretical perspectives on writing and language. Studies of research methods in writing and writing theory aid students in analyzing writing and its processes and prepare students for the required thesis or master's writing project.

Although each concentration offers excellent specialized education, they share two important features: flexibility and community. Flexibility comes through our special topic and elective courses, allowing students to add their own area of special interest - such as freelance writing or teaching basic writing - to a solid foundation of principles and skills. Flexibility also means that students in one concentration often take courses in the other concentration in order to expand their future prospects.

Community refers to the frequent personal contact between students and faculty. In addition to classes and advising, we meet for informal conversation over pizza and share in celebrations. In both strands of the Written Communication program, nationally prominent, award-winning faculty mentor and work closely with students. Written Communication students are also eligible to apply for graduate assistantships teaching first-year writing in EMU’s nationally recognized first-year writing program and tutoring writing in EMU’s Writing Center.

>>Click here to visit the Written Communications site.



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Department of English Language and Literature
612 Pray-Harrold | Ypsilanti, MI 48197
Phone: (734) 487-4220 | Fax: (734) 483-9744