English (MA), Program Information

Program Faculty

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Department Chair (Interim)

Adele Newsom-Horst, Ph.D., Professor

 

Department Associate Chair (Interim)

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

 

Program Coordinator

Julie Cary Conger, Ph.D., Associate Professor

 

Program Faculty

Abdul Ali, MFA, Lecuter

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

Leiza Brown, Ph.D., Lectureer

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, Coordinator of Film & Visual Storytelling

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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Morgan State University’s Master’s 30-credit program In English offers training in all traditional fields of literary study, as well as in composition, expository and technical writing, creative writing, screenwriting, visual and digital storytelling, film, and multicultural and gender studies. The program is designed for students who want to pursue graduate work beyond the bachelor’s degree to prepare for advanced careers in secondary school teaching, community college teaching, creative writing, screenwriting and digital story production, and various writing fields, including technical writing. The program also serves students who are seeking a foundation for later Ph.D. degree work. 

At MSU, students benefit from small graduate classes and significant opportunities for interaction with supportive faculty. Furthermore, Morgan’s program is unique among English Master’s programs in that it integrates into its coursework MSU’s mission to explore African diasporic experiences. Thus, a Master’s degree in English from Morgan State University offers students not only a range of applied skills, but also an expanded awareness of the complexities of the contemporary socio-political environments at both the local and global levels. 

Program Objectives

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The Master’s program in English prepares graduates for careers in teaching, creative writing, and various forms of professional writing and textual production. Specifically, the Master’s program has been designed to balance a number of goals: 

 

• to enhance students’ abilities to analyze various types of texts;

• to provide students a broad knowledge base in traditional literary periods and theories; 

• to bolster students’ specific applied skills in teaching, creative writing, screenwriting, or expository, business, or technical writing;  

• to develop students’ abilities to research effectively in their fields;  

• to increase students’ knowledge of Black Diasporic experiences throughout history and into the contemporary moment. 

 

General Requirements

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Candidates for the Master’s in English degree must complete a minimum of thirty (30) academic credit hours, fulfill course requirements according to their selected concentration, pass a written comprehensive exam, and submit an acceptably-written thesis. There is no formal second language requirement for the MA degree; however, reading knowledge of a second language will be required of students for whom such knowledge is considered a necessary tool. 

The student must maintain a minimum GPA of 3.0 for all graduate courses attempted at MSU. Students whose GPA falls below the minimum 3.0 for two consecutive semesters will be dismissed from the program. A course assigned a grade of C or lower cannot be used to fulfill degree requirements and must be retaken. 

Full-time is nine (9) credit hours per semester; however, students must remain enrolled for a minimum of three (3) credit hours in Fall and Spring semesters until the completion of their program and the awarding of the degree, unless a leave of absence has been granted by the School of Graduate Studies. Failure to maintain continuous enrollment may result in dismissal from the program.  Students must finish the Master’s program within five years. 

Admission

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To be eligible for admission to the Master’s Program in English, an applicant must:

 

• Have earned a bachelor’s degree in English or in a closely related discipline from a regionally accredited college or university. For applicants who hold degrees in fields other than English, substantial coursework in English fields above the first-year (freshman) level is required.  

• Have earned a cumulative grade point average (GPA) of 3.0 or better in their bachelor’s degree program. Applicants with an undergraduate GPA of 2.5 to < 3.0 and whose application file is otherwise considered exceptional by the department Admissions Committee may be considered for conditional admission (see the Graduate Catalog, Regulations and Procedures for information on conditional admission).

• Submit an application for admission (online) to the School of Graduate Studies.    

• Submit a typed exposition – 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 10-15 pages that showcases the applicant’s ability and readiness to begin graduate level work. 

• Submit, if applying for the Creative Writing concentration, a creative sample of 10-15 pages. A minimum of nine (9) credit hours of undergraduate coursework in creative writing is strongly preferred for students applying for the creative writing concentration. 

• Submit, if applying for the Film and Visual Storytelling concentration, an overview of the applicant’s previous coursework or experience in the field. A minimum of nine (9) credit hours of relevant undergraduate coursework is strongly preferred for students applying for the Film and Visual Storytelling concentration. 

• 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 usually grants admission into the Master’s program for Fall semesters. However, admission for Spring semesters is only occasionally granted. 

 

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.

Candidacy

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Students achieve candidacy by successfully passing their written comprehensive examination, submitting an acceptable prospectus, and submitting an acceptable thesis. Prior to achieving Candidacy, the student must enroll in ENGL 793:  Master’s Pre-Candidacy. 

Once a student achieves candidacy, enrollment in any course other than ENGL 797 is generally prohibited.  Students seeking additional skills, knowledge, or a certificate must seek approval through the program up to the School of Graduate Studies.  The request must be accompanied with a revised Plan of Study.

 

Thesis Committee

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

Reading Lists and Written Comprehensive Examinations

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The reading list for the MA in English comprises four sections: World Literature, British Literature, American Literature, and the Concentration Areas. Each literature area has 35 entries. The track area lists each have 30 entries. Students will test in their track area and in two of the three literature areas. Students will select the two literature areas in which they test. So, the student will have a total reading list of 100 entries (70 in literature and 30 in the track area). The reading list will be provided to students during their first semester of graduate coursework. 

After satisfying all course requirements (but no later than two semesters following the completion of regular coursework), students must sit for the written comprehensive examinations. Students can retake failed portions of the written comprehensive exams twice. They need to retake only failed portions. Students who do not pass all sections of the exam within three attempts will be dismissed from the program.

Thesis Prospectus

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Students must complete a thesis appropriate to the track in which they have completed their coursework and program requirements. No later than six (6) months after the successful completion of the written comprehensive exams, students must submit a thesis prospectus to their thesis committee. A description of the prospectus can be found in the Department of English’s Graduate Student Handbook. After the student’s thesis committee approves the prospectus in written form, the student can proceed with drafting the thesis.

Creative Thesis

While most Master’s students in the Department of English write a thesis of a traditional, research-oriented nature, a student with an officially declared Creative Writing or Film and Visual Storytelling Concentration Area may choose to write a creative thesis, which may take the form of a novella, a collection of short fiction or collection of poetry, creative nonfiction, or a hybrid/experimental form (including but not limited to performance/performativity/screen play, digital/new media, the lyric essay). In addition to the “creative” part of the thesis, such a thesis 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 thesis committee and the Coordinator of Graduate Studies. Students wishing to submit a creative thesis must officially be completing the Creative Writing or Film and Visual Storytelling concentration and must complete all departmental requirements demanded for the research-oriented Master’s degree.

 

Completion of the Thesis

Timeline for Completion: To make satisfactory progress toward the degree, the student, under the guidance of the thesis committee, must complete the thesis within three years after passing the written examination. 

 

Focus and Length of Thesis: The thesis must be appropriate to the concentration in which the student has completed coursework and program requirements. The length of the dissertation varies based on the focus of the project. 

 

Process: The student must provide the thesis committee with a complete, polished version of the thesis no less than two weeks prior to the School of Graduate Studies deadline for submission. If the student fails to meet this deadline, the thesis committee is under no obligation to proceed with final signatures within a condensed time frame, regardless of how a postponement aligns with the School of Graduate Studies deadlines or affects 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 thesis submission and graduation. After obtaining the necessary committee signatures, the student has satisfied the departmental requirements for the Master’s degree but must still adhere to all School of Graduate Studies deadlines and requirements regarding the final submission of the manuscript.

 

Satisfactory Progress:If at any time the majority of the student’s thesis committee determines that the student is not progressing satisfactorily, the director of the thesis committee may recommend to the Director of Graduate Studies that the student be dismissed from the Master’s program. The Director of Graduate Studies will then review the student’s progress toward the degree and make their recommendation. The final decision to dismiss a student from the program is made by the Dean of the School of Graduate Studies. The Department’s complete “Policy on Satisfactory Progress & Academic Dismissal from the Program” is available in the Department of English’s Graduate Student Handbook.

 

Statement on Readmission to Continue a Master’s Degree Program: Students who have left the Master’s 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 Master’s program, previous graduate program work will be accepted for meeting program requirements as follows:

1. relevant graduate coursework completed in the previous five (5) years; and 

2. written comprehensive examinations completed within the previous four (4) 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 Graduate Committee; however, those deviations or exceptions cannot conflict with current graduation requirements set by the School of Graduate Studies.   

 

Academic Dishonesty: Academic dishonesty will not be 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 procedures and appeals, is available from the Coordinator of Graduate Studies and in the Department of English’s Graduate Student Handbook. 

Program Course Requirements

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Students in the MA in English program are required to complete thirty (30) academic credit hours.  Master’s level courses are those listed below; however, students enrolled in the Master’s degree program may also elect to enroll in 600-, 700-, and 800-level English courses to fulfill their course requirements. Those courses are listed in the English doctoral program catalog. Students should verify with the Coordinator of Graduate Studies whether a specific higher-level course can be used to satisfy a concentration area requirement before enrolling in the course.

Note

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Upon achieving Master’s Candidacy, the student will continuously register in Fall and Spring terms for ENGL 797 (Thesis Guidance) until the Master’s Thesis is completed and submitted to the School of Graduate Studies for review.  The course is used only when the curriculum is near completion, and the student is completing the research and writing of the thesis. The course registration maintains the student status as a matriculated, full-time student (student is registered for 3 credit hours and the system reports a full-time 9 credit hour load).  After the Intent to Defend the Master’s Thesis form has been accepted by the School of Graduate Studies, this course registration will be changed to ENGL 799 (Thesis Defense) for the given semester and count for 3 credit hours of curricular coursework (ENGL 799 will also count for 9 credit hours of load).  Other courses cannot be substituted for ENGL 797 (Thesis Guidance). The only eligible grade for ENGL 797 (Thesis Guidance) is the grade of “S” and the only acceptable grade for ENGL 799 (Thesis Defense) is “P/F” (Pass/Fail).

 

Suggested Curriculum Sequence

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• English (MA), Curriculum Sequence