English

Faculty

Patrick Barron, PhD, University of Nevada

Literature and Ecology
Translation
Poetry
Creative Writing

Matthew Brown, PhD, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Twentieth-Century British, Irish, and Anglophone Literature
Modernism and Postmodernism
Postcolonial Theory

Neal Bruss, PhD, University of Michigan

Linguistics
Composition Theory

Elizabeth Fay, PhD, State University of New York at Stony Brook

British Romanticism
Critical Theory
Feminist Criticism
Nineteenth-Century Poetry

John Fulton, MFA, University of Michigan

Creative Writing
Fiction
Contemporary Fiction

Judith Goleman, PhD, University of Pittsburgh

Theory and Practice of Composition
Critical Theory
Composition Pedagogy

Elizabeth Klimasmith, PhD, University of Washington

Nineteenth- and Early Twentieth-Century American Literature
Environmental and Urban Literature
Women Writers

Scott Maisano, PhD, Indiana University

Shakespeare
Renaissance Literature
Milton

Askold Melnyzcuk, MA, Boston University

Creative Writing
Fiction
Contemporary Fiction

Alexander Mueller, PhD, University of Minnesota

Pedagogy
English Language
Medieval Literature

Cheryl Nixon, PhD, Harvard University

Eighteenth Century
Rise of the Novel
Archival Studies
Teaching of Literature

Nadia Nurhussein, PhD, University of California, Berkeley

Modern and Contemporary Poetry
African-American Literature
Creative Writing
Poetry

Shaun O’Connell, PhD, University of Massachusetts Amherst

Modern American Fiction
Irish Literature
Literature of Boston

Thomas O’Grady, PhD, Notre Dame University

Irish Literature
Poetry

Louise Penner, PhD, Rice University

Victorian Literature
Women’s Literature
Literature and Medicine

Joyce Peseroff, MFA, University of California, Irvine

Creative Writing
Modern and Contemporary Poetry

Emilio Sauri, PhD, University of Illinois Chicago

Twentieth-Century American Literature
Latin American Literature
Hemispheric Studies

Lloyd Schwartz, PhD, Harvard University

Poetry
Creative Writing

Eve Sorum, PhD, University of Michigan

Twentieth-Century British Literature
Modernism
Cartography and Literature
Modern Literature and War

Rajini Srikanth, PhD, State University of New York at Buffalo

Teaching of Literature
Multi-Ethnic Literature
American Literature
Postcolonial Literature

John Tobin, PhD, University of Toronto

Renaissance Literature
Shakespeare

Susan Tomlinson, PhD, Brown University

African American Literature
Modern Fiction
Gender Studies

Leonard von Morzé, PhD, University of California, Berkeley

Eighteenth- and Nineteenth-Century American Literature
Literature of the Atlantic
Literature and Society

Vivian Zamel, PhD, Columbia University

Composition Pedagogy
ESL

The Program

Since its beginning in 1972, the program leading to the Master of Arts degree in English has continued to grow in enrollment, diversity, and reputation. Some students in the program are preparing to teach, while others already are teachers in middle schools, secondary schools, and two-year colleges; some are writers; some are preparing for doctoral study; some are older people with careers and families who love writing and the study of literature. Matriculated students enroll for the degree; non-degree-seeking students may be admitted to specific courses on a space-available basis. The degree can be completed in four semesters of full-time study, but a number of current students attend part-time. Twenty-four different graduate seminars and four advanced creative writing workshops are offered each academic year (fall and spring semesters); an average of four seminars is offered in the summer session. Matriculated students can take seminars offered by the English Department’s MFA in Creative Writing Program. By special arrangement with the Boston Public Library, one seminar each year is offered in the Library’s Rare Books and Manuscripts Room. The University is also a member of the Graduate Consortium in Women’s Studies, which offers interdisciplinary, team-taught seminars in the Boston area. All seminars are limited to 15 students. Most are scheduled for late-day hours, once or twice a week, to accommodate students’ work commitments. Matriculating students are assigned faculty advisors who meet with them regularly to help guide their programs of study.

Students may choose among three concentrations: literature, composition, and creative writing. The concentrations are designed to overlap, so that students may take some courses in each. ENGL 608 Introduction to Critical and Research Methods is highly recommended for students in the literature or composition concentrations as an introductory core course. Each semester course offerings include at least five seminars with an emphasis on literature, one or two with an emphasis on composition, three in creative writing, one or two in pedagogy, and one crossover course focusing on the study of language and/or critical theory. Special topics seminars (ENGL 697 ) provide flexibility in the curriculum. Recent and planned special topics seminars have included: Literature of the Medieval World; Literature of the Middle East; African American Literature Before 1900; Revolutionary Romantics; Linguistic Perspectives on Writing, Reading, and Teaching.

Course Information

Graduate courses in English are open to regularly matriculated (degree-seeking) MA candidates in English, and on a space-available basis to others (graduate students in other programs, non-degree-seeking students, and qualified seniors) with approval of the graduate program director in English after review of the applicant’s academic transcripts and a critical writing sample.

Individual detailed course descriptions are available shortly before pre-registration each semester. For the Graduate Student Handbook /English MA Program and course description booklets, write to: English MA Program, Department of English, University of Massachusetts Boston, 100 Morrissey Boulevard, Boston, MA 02125-3393; email englishMA.program@umb.edu; or call the MA Program office at 617.287.6702.

Programs

English, MA