Doctor of Philosophy in English with a Literature Emphasis

Please send all inquiries to english-graduate@wmich.edu.

A 90-credit hour degree, the doctoral program in literature and language allows students to pursue in-depth study in literary history, authors and authorship, linguistics and language, critical theory, children’s literature, and comics studies.

Students coming to this degree are granted up to 30 hours credit from their master’s program, and are then required to take ENGL 6150: Literary Criticism and a course in their major area of study (e.g., medieval literature, comics studies). Having fulfilled these requirements, students take an additional 24 elective credits, six hours of teaching pedagogy, and round out their doctoral experience with reading and dissertation hours. The program is designed for maximum flexibility to meet the student’s educational aims. 

Doctoral students from our language and literature program have gone on to tenure-track jobs at a variety of institutions, including California State University—Northridge, Middle Tennessee State University, Pacific Lutheran University, Ryerson University, Kendall College, the University of Texas at Dallas, The University of St. Mary, Eastern Connecticut State University, Texas Christian University, Morningside College, Winthrop University, and Wichita State University.

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