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Graduate Studies

The University of Maryland’s Graduate Studies in English offers an extraordinary depth and range of expertise with highly individualized professional and pedagogical mentorship.

The Department of English at the University of Maryland offers Ph.D. programs in English language and literature and comparative literature, an M.A. program with concentrations in literature as well as rhetoric and writing studies, and an M.F.A. program with concentrations in poetry and fiction. In addition, graduate students are able to earn graduate certifications in fields such as critical theory, digital humanities, and women's, gender, and sexuality studies.

With a large and distinguished graduate faculty of over 60 members, the department is able to provide its graduate students with an extraordinary depth and range of expertise as well as with highly individualized professional and pedagogical mentorship. Each area group, in collaboration with the Center for Literary and Comparative Studies and the Graduate English Organization (GEO), contributes to the department’s vibrant, diverse and inclusive intellectual life. Particular strengths of the department include:

  • Early British literature, especially Medieval and Renaissance
  • American literature 
  • Literature of the African diaspora
  • Postcolonial and transnational literary studies
  • Digital humanities
  • Feminist theory and gender studies
  • Composition and rhetoric

Most students enrolled in graduate programs in English language and literature seek employment in higher education, but many also seek non-academic employment in publishing, business and technical writing, administration and personnel management. In order to maintain its excellent record in professionalization and job placement, the department has a placement director and offers publication and dissertation writing workshops every academic year, in addition to a rich choice of graduate courses.

For questions about our MA or Ph.D. programs please email englishgrad@umd.edu.

UMD English Research Expertise

African American/African Diaspora
American
Caribbean
Comparative Literature
Creative Writing
Early Modern Studies
Film Studies and Cultural Studies
Language, Writing and Rhetoric
Latinx Studies
LGBTQ Studies
Literary Theory
Literature and Science
Media Studies
Medieval
Modernist
Musicology & Ethnomusicology
Mythology and Folklore
Poetics
Post-1900 British and Irish
Postcolonialism
Postmodern and Contemporary
Restoration and 18th Century
Romantic
Textual and Digital Studies
Transatlantic Studies
Victorian
Women's Literature and Feminist Theory

Contact Us

Sharada Balachandran Orihuela

Associate Professor of English and Comparative Literature, English
Director of the English and Comparative Literature Program, English
Affiliate Faculty, Latin American and Caribbean Studies Center

2116D Tawes Hall
College Park MD, 20742

(301) 405-3839

Lindsay Bernal

Academic Coordinator, MFA Program in Creative Writing, English
MFA Program in Creative Writing, English

2116E Tawes Hall
College Park MD, 20742

(301) 405-3820

Lillian-Yvonne Bertram

Associate Professor, English
Director, MFA Program in Creative Writing, English

Robert Burgard

Coordinator of Graduate Studies, English

2116 Tawes Hall
College Park MD, 20742

(301) 405-3798

Jason Rudy

Professor, English
Director of Graduate Studies, English

2116B Tawes Hall
College Park MD, 20742