PhD in Literary Studies: Bridge Programs
Afro-American Studies Bridge Program
Graduate students who have applied to and have been accepted by both the English Department's Graduate Program in Literary Studies and the Department of Afro-American Studies may take advantage of the Afro-American Studies Bridge Program. This program offers the opportunity to achieve extraordinary depth in the literary and cultural purviews shared by these departments.
A participant in the Afro-American Studies Bridge Program receives an MA degree in Afro-American Studies, concentrating in literature, and then joins the Department of English for a PhD in English (Literary Studies), with admission directly to the second stage of the Graduate Program.
By the time of joining the English Department, Afro-American Studies Bridge Program students must have taken at least two English graduate-only courses that satisfy the English Department's first-stage course requirements. Appropriate courses in Afro-American literature taken during the MA year can be used to satisfy the post-1800 breadth course requirements of the English program. Appropriate courses not in literature that are taken during the MA in Afro-American Studies can be used toward the satisfaction of the minor.
Afro-American Studies Bridge Program students entering the English Department must achieve certification in one of their foreign languages before the beginning of the third semester in English.
Composition and Rhetoric Bridge Program
Graduate students who have applied to and have been accepted into both the English Department's Graduate Program in Literary Studies and the Doctoral Program in Composition and Rhetoric may take advantage of the Composition and Rhetoric Bridge Program.
A participant in the Composition and Rhetoric Bridge Program receives an MA degree in either Literary Studies or Afro-American Studies, and then joins the Department of English for a PhD in English (Composition and Rhetoric). Students applying for entry into the Literary Studies Program must indicate their interest at the time of application. Students in Afro-American Studies should indicate their interest no later than the end of their first year of Master's work.
Bridge students should complete Introduction to Composition Studies (English 700) and Critical Methods in British and American Literature (English 723) as part of their first-stage level coursework. Certification in a foreign language is also strongly advised.
(rev. 8/2005)
