English (PhD), Program Information

Program Faculty

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Department Chair (Interim)

Adele Newson-Horst, Ph.d., Professor

Department Associate Chair (Interim)

L. Adam Meckler, Ph.D., Associate Professor

 

Program Coordinator

Julie Cary Conger, Ph.D., Associate Professor

 

Program Faculty

Abdul Ali, MFA, Lecturer

M.K. Asante, Jr., MFA, Associate Professor

Leiza Brown, Ph.D., Lecturer

Brett Butler, Ph.D., Lecturer

Julie Cary Conger, Ph.D., Associate Professor

Inte’A DeShields, Ph.D., Assistant Professor

Karl Henzy, Ph.D., Assistant Professor

Denise Jarrett, Ph.D., Associate Professor

Milford Jeremiah, Ph.D., Professor, University Grand Marshall

Jonathan Luftig, Ph.D., Lecturer

Melanie Marotta, Ph.D., Lecturer

Keith Mehlinger, MFA, Associate Professor

L. Adam Mekler, Ph.D., Associate Professor

Paul Mukundi, Ph.D., Lecturer

Joy Myree-Mainor, Ph.D., Associate Professor

Adele Newson-Horst, Ph.D., Professor

Anita Pandey, Ph.D., Professor

A.J. Verdelle, MFA, Associate Professor, Coordinator of Creative Writing

David W. Warfield, MFA, Associate Professor

Julian White, Ph.D., Associate Professor

Program Description

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Committed to exploring new methods of inquiry, cultivating creative scholarship, and producing usable knowledge, Morgan State University provides a vibrant home for students and scholars interested in better understanding how people learn, what they learn, and what that learning ultimately means for themselves and their communities. Our selective doctoral program in English offers training in traditional fields of literary study, as well as in creative writing, film, screenwriting, visual and digital storytelling, rhetoric and composition, technical writing, African diasporic studies, and gender and  sexuality studies, and other theoretical and interdisciplinary approaches that cross national and chronological boundaries.

Our faculty members have strengths in a variety of areas including American and British literature and literary theory, African American literature, African diasporic and Caribbean literature, post-colonial literatures, feminist literature and poetics, gender and sexuality studies, popular culture, rhetoric and composition, technical writing, linguistics, creative writing, screenwriting and visual/digital storytelling, and American cinema and film theory. The majority of our courses weave in our program’s emphasis on the Black Diaspora.

As one of only two doctoral programs in English at HBCUs, we are deeply grounded in recognizing how the rich, distinguished, and exciting culture of the Black experience continues to influence our present realities. Indeed, the Black presence is so ubiquitous that studying this presence in its forms and consequences is an ethically-responsible educational necessity to counter long-time hegemonic narratives that have decentered the Black experience. The English doctoral program at Morgan State thus emphasizes an interdisciplinary, cross-cultural, and comparative curriculum of the histories, literatures, visual cultures, and politics of people of African descent around the world, especially the Americas, the Caribbean, Africa, and Europe. A key component of our mission is to interrogate the meanings and dimensions of slavery and colonialism, and their continuing political, social, and cultural implications and to emphasize Black diasporic literature and culture.

Admission

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To be eligible for admission to the Doctor of Philosophy program in English, an applicant must:

• Have earned a Master’s degree in English or in a closely related discipline from a regionally accredited college or university (Advanced Track) or a Bachelor’s degree in English or a closely related field from a regionally accredited college or university (Standard Track).
• Have earned a cumulative grade point average (GPA) of 3.0 or better in their Master’s program. Applicants with only a Bachelor’s degree who are applying for the Standard Track must have earned a cumulative GPA of 3.5 in their undergraduate coursework. Postbachelor’s undergraduate credits cannot be used to enhance GPA for admission to graduate study.
• Submit an application for admission (online) to the School of Graduate Studies.   
• Submit a Statement of Purpose regarding the applicant’s academic and professional plans and the reasons for selecting Morgan State University.
• Submit a recent resumé or curriculum vita.
• Submit copies of transcripts from all undergraduate and graduate coursework. Official copies of these documents must be submitted directly to the School of Graduate Studies by the previous university or college before an applicant can be officially admitted.
• Use the online application system to arrange for three letters of recommendation to be placed with the application. These letters should be from individuals who can speak to the applicant’s ability for graduate study.
• Submit an academic writing sample of 15-20 pages that showcases the applicant’s analytical and writing abilities and readiness to begin doctoral level work.
• Submit, if applying for the Creative Writing focus, a creative sample of 10-15 pages.
• Submit, if applying for the Film and Visual Storytelling focus, an overview of the applicant’s experience and accomplishments in the field.
• All required documents must be submitted as directed by the School of Graduate Studies prior to program review and admission decision. Students should upload all application documents electronically, even in cases where hard copies are also submitted to the School of Graduate Studies.
• The Department of English only grants admission into the doctoral program for Fall semesters.

Meeting the minimum eligibility requirements and submitting all the required documents does not guarantee that an offer of admission will be made to the applicant. The decision of the Department Admissions Committee involves a review and analysis of all the elements of the application as well as the availability of positions in the program. The committee then recommends to the Dean of the School of Graduate Studies that an offer of admission should be made based on that review.

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Candidacy

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Students may apply for Candidacy only after successfully completing all course requirements, satisfying the foreign language requirement, and passing the written comprehensive and oral exams (a defense of the dissertation prospectus). Prior to achieving Candidacy, the student must enroll in ENGL 993: Pre-Doctoral Candidacy.

Once a student achieves candidacy, enrollment in any course other than ENGL 997 is strongly discouraged, except under rare circumstance. Students seeking additional skills, knowledge, or a certificate must seek approval through the program and the School of Graduate Studies. 

Foreign Language Requirement

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To fulfill their program requirements, all doctoral students (Advanced and Standard Track) must demonstrate a working knowledge of a foreign language that is not their native language. Students must fulfill the foreign language requirement prior to taking the doctoral written comprehensive examinations.  Students, in consultation with their doctoral committee Director and with approval of both their dissertation Director and the Director of Graduate Studies, will determine the language that they will use to satisfy this requirement. The language should be appropriate for their research, pedagogical interest, or major field. She the Department of English Graduate Student Handbook for information on options on fulfilling the foreign language requirement.

Doctoral Committee

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Students must select a doctoral committee, composed of a committee Director and a second and third member. Students and committee members must sign a Doctoral Committee Contract to be kept on file by the department’s Director of Graduate Studies. This contract must be submitted no later than the student’s final semester of coursework. 

Reading Lists and Doctoral Written Comprehensive Examinations

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After satisfying all course requirements (but no later than two semesters following the completion of coursework), students must sit for the written comprehensive examinations

Reading Lists: Students, in conjunction with their doctoral committee, will create two reading lists, of 75-100 texts per list. The first reading list will include texts that represent the broad area of interest (focused on teaching and/or scholarship) for the student. The second list will reflect the student’s tailored research area and will serve as a springboard for dissertation research and writing. The lists should be complementary but not duplicative. Students must craft reading lists that are appropriate to the major field (and focus area) in which they have completed their coursework and program requirements. Students must submit a Reading List Contract signed by the doctoral committee Director and the department’s Director of Graduate Studies no less than four (4) months before the exam dates.

Written Comprehensive Exam: The doctoral written comprehensive examination is created, administered, and assessed by the student’s doctoral committee. Students must register for the exam with the department’s Director of Graduate Studies no less than four (4) weeks before the exam date. The exams are taken on two consecutive days, with six testing hours on each day. Students can retake failed portions of the written comprehensive exams once. Passed sections do not need to be retaken. Students who do not pass all sections of the exam within two attempts will be dismissed from the program.

Dissertation Prospectus and Oral Exam

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No later than eighteen (18) months after the successful completion of the doctoral written comprehensive exams, the student must defend the dissertation prospectus. The dissertation prospectus should be roughly 45-70 pages in length, and after any required revisions, often serves as the introduction to the dissertation. Students must complete a dissertation appropriate to the major field (and focus area, when applicable) in which they have completed their coursework and program requirements.

The prospectus comprises the following sections:

1. Statement of the Argument
2. Need and Timeliness/Contribution to Field
3. Delimitation
4. Methodology
5. Review of Literature
6. Descriptions of Chapters/Project
7. Bibliography

After the student’s doctoral committee approves the prospectus in written form, the student must then pass a one-hour oral defense of the prospectus (the oral examination), administered and assessed by the student’s committee.

Creative Dissertation

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While most PhD candidates in the Department of English write dissertations of a traditional, research-oriented nature, a student who has chosen the Creative Writing or Film and Visual Storytelling Major Field focus area may choose to write a creative dissertation, which may take the form of a novel, a novella, a book-length collection of short fiction or collection of poetry, creative non-fiction, or a hybrid/experimental form (including but not limited to digital/new media, performance/performativity/screen play, the lyric essay). In addition to the “creative” part of the dissertation, such a dissertation must also contain a substantial scholarly introduction that frames the creative text and/or locates the work in its literary and historical contexts. This introduction will demonstrate the correspondence between the candidate’s academic studies and the creative project. The precise nature of the scholarly research component should be determined by the candidate in consultation with the student’s doctoral committee and the Director of Graduate Studies. Students wishing to undertake such a dissertation must have officially declared the Creative Writing or Film and Visual Storytelling Major Field focus area and must complete all departmental requirements demanded for the research-oriented doctoral degree.

Completion of Dissertation

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Timeline for Completion: To make satisfactory progress toward the degree, the student, under the guidance of the doctoral committee, must complete and defend the dissertation within five (5) years of passing the oral examination

Focus of Dissertation: The dissertation must be appropriate to the Major Field (and focus area, if relevant) in which the student has completed coursework and program requirements. Only students who have completed their Major Field coursework and program requirements in Creative Writing or Film and Visual Storytelling focus areas are eligible to complete a creative dissertation.

Process: The student should provide the doctoral committee with the defense copy (a complete, polished draft) of the dissertation no less than three weeks prior to the date of the defense. After the student’s doctoral committee expresses readiness to proceed, the student must then pass an oral defense of the dissertation. The defense is a one-hour long public event, administered and assessed by the student’s doctoral committee. The Defense must take place at least two weeks prior to the School of Graduate Studies dissertation manuscript deposit deadline.

If the student fails to meet the above noted deadlines, the Committee is under no obligation to proceed with the defense within a condensed time frame, regardless of how a postponement aligns with the School of Graduate Studies deadlines or affects the student’s potential graduation in a given semester. It is the student’s responsibility to be aware of, and to meet, all Department and School of Graduate Studies deadlines regarding dissertation submission and graduation.

After successfully passing the dissertation defense, the student has satisfied the departmental requirements for the doctoral degree but must still adhere to all School of Graduate Studies deadlines and requirements regarding the final submission of the manuscript. Students who do not pass their dissertation defense will be dismissed from the program.

Satisfactory Progress

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If at any time the majority of the student’s doctoral committee determines that the student is not progressing satisfactorily, the Director of the committee shall notify the student of that determination. The student and committee shall follow the process for remediation outlined in the department’s Policy on Satisfactory Progress & Academic Dismissal, as posted in the department’s Graduate Student Handbook.

Statement on Readmission to the Doctoral Degree Program

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Students who have left the doctoral program for three semesters or more must re-apply for admission to continue their program. Students applying for re-admission must submit an application, a statement of purpose, a current CV, all previous college or university transcripts, three letters of recommendation, and an academic writing sample. Their application materials will be assessed by the department Admissions Committee and a decision will be entered following the same process as for a new applicant. 

As a general guideline, if a student is re-admitted into the doctoral program, previous graduate program work will be accepted for meeting program requirements as follows:

1. relevant graduate coursework completed within the previous seven (7) years;
2. fulfillment of foreign language requirement (without time limit);
3. written comprehensive examinations completed within the previous five years; and
4. prospectus and oral examination completed within the previous five years.

Program requirements completed beyond the stated time limits will need to be completed again to fulfill program requirements after re-admission. Readmitted students must meet all of the current program degree requirements. In rare circumstances and with significant justification, deviations from the current program requirements or exceptions to the above policy may be granted to a returning student by the department’s Graduate Committee; however, those deviations or exceptions cannot conflict with current graduation requirements set by the School of Graduate Studies.  

Academic Dishonesty

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Academic dishonesty is not tolerated by the Department of English.  Any graduate student found to have engaged in academic dishonesty of any kind shall be subject to the full range of penalties at the disposal of the Department of English and the School of Graduate Studies, including failing an assignment or course, being suspended from the program, being expelled from the university, and/or having a degree revoked. The Department’s complete Policy on Academic Dishonesty, including charging and appeals procedures, is available in the Department of English’s Graduate Student Handbook.

Program Course Requirements

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Students in the English doctoral program must complete thirty-six (36) academic credit hours (Advanced Track) or forty-eight (48) academic credit hours (Standard track). All doctoral students must earn a total of 60 credit hours of graduate study beyond their Bachelor of Arts degree.   

Plan of Study

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The typical plan of study requires enrollment in a minimum of nine (9) credit hours per term to remain full-time. Not every course is offered every term, and the following plan of study is an illustration. At the student’s initial conference with the Director of Graduate Studies, a preliminary plan of study (a program audit) will be established, and this will be reported to the School of Graduate Studies (using the Plan of Study Audit) for placement in the student’s official file.  At this time, any anticipated exceptions or anticipated transfer credits will be noted.  An estimated time for completion of the dissertation must be included.  Changes to the plan of study will be reported to the School of Graduate Studies. 

Suggested Curriculum Sequence

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• English (PhD), Curriculum Sequence