Graduate Study in English at SMU
M.A. and Ph.D.

Our programs offer students the chance to study and work with a distinguished faculty in a collegial environment.  The faculty provide coursework and research supervision in all areas of British and American literature, cultural studies, and literary theory.  In our commitment to preparing highly qualified teachers, we offer pedagogical training through course work and classroom experience.

We admit students to the Ph.D. program who have the B.A. degree as well as a number of students who have received the M.A. degree.  All students admitted to the Ph.D. program in English will receive fellowship support. Our aim for the Ph.D. is to graduate comprehensively trained scholar-teachers prepared to assume college and university positions.  We are committed to ensuring our graduates’ professional success through a program featuring:

• One-to-one student/faculty ratio, ensuring small seminars and ample options for tutorial studies.
• Fellowships for all doctoral candidates for six full years at extraordinarily generous rates, followed by the opportunity for a seventh year as a Visiting Assistant Professor.  
• Medical benefits, tuition waivers, summer seminars in Taos, NM, and professional travel support for all doctoral Fellows.
• Opportunities for doctoral Fellows to teach writing and literature classes, beginning in year two. 
• Dissertation-year support for all doctoral Fellows.
• Close mentoring from matriculation to and beyond graduation. 

We also maintain a terminal M.A. program.  Applicants to the M.A. will be admitted under a different set of standards, but students will study with the same faculty as the Ph.D. students. The M.A. is for those who wish to study English at an advanced level for a variety of reasons, such as: to enhance their teaching in K-12 schools or to teach in Community Colleges; to improve their research and writing skills; to supplement undergraduate education in order to apply to Ph.D. programs; to enhance their appreciation of English literature.   This program will not supply financial support for students.

SMU is a private, non-sectarian university located in a residential neighborhood near downtown Dallas, a beautiful mid-sized campus in one of the United States’ most dynamic metropolitan areas.  The Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex features a lively arts culture with five renowned art museums, nationally recognized symphony orchestra and opera company, and many other venues and organizations sponsoring the literary, dramatic, and popular arts.  This affordable, cosmopolitan center of international culture and commerce complements the intellectual life of the University.