Program Overview
The MA in English at UCA is a small program that equips students with broad knowledge of American and British literary history. With committed faculty, two tracks (thesis and non-thesis), evening and summer classes, and unique opportunities beyond the classroom (graduate assistantships and internships), students find a supportive environment in which they can tailor their course of study to match their educational and professional goals. Secondary teachers will find that they can complete the program by taking classes in the evening and during the summer.
Objectives
The Master of Arts (MA) program in English does the following:
- teaches and has students retain knowledge about the periods, authors, genres, and critical theory germane to the study of English, Anglophone, and American literatures, and about the English language on a level befitting graduate-level study.
- teaches students to conduct and present graduate-level research, including the discovery, evaluation, integration, and documentation of primary and secondary sources.
- teaches students to read closely and to think critically about literary works and the human cultures they inform, in order to form a thorough understanding of their complexities.
- teaches students to compose graduate-quality writing that presents arguments in clear, mechanically sound prose and supports those arguments with evidence drawn from primary and secondary sources.
- supports students holistically and intentionally to ensure that they grow as professionals equipped for success in myriad careers.
Why an English MA UCA?
Because our program emphasizes broad coverage in American and British literary history, students complete our program with the knowledge and skills they need to pursue doctoral education. In recent years, we’ve placed students in a number of doctoral programs in English, including Yale, University of Tulsa, University of Washington, University of Arkansas, Southern Illinois, and Baylor. Over the course of the MA program, many of our students realize their interest in teaching at the secondary level. Some of our recent graduates teach at charter schools and public schools in the state. We are just as excited, however, to help our graduate students prepare for careers other than research and teaching, and we believe that completing an MA in English is excellent preparation for a number of professions that value skills in analysis, written communication, oral communication, and collaboration. Several of our recent graduates have found careers in business, editing and publishing, and university administration.
A small graduate program like ours confers several advantages: first, with 13 graduate faculty and 12-20 graduate students enrolled in coursework at any given time, our students do not get lost in the system. Instead, they join an active intellectual community wherein they receive individualized feedback on a regular basis. Second, our faculty take mentoring seriously. We are eager to help students design unique courses of study and plan their post-degree pathways to success. Third, our students have a strong sense of community as they prepare seminar papers together, carpool to conferences, and participate in our college’s research symposia. In short, UCA is a wonderful place to pursue a graduate degree in English.
Our Renowned Faculty:
With doctoral degrees from excellent programs across the country, our faculty are committed to graduate education in all its forms: research, teaching, and mentorship. Three of our faculty have received UCA’s Teaching Excellence Award; several have received the Outstanding Faculty Member Award for the College of Liberal Arts; and another has received the Excellence in Research award for the university. We have published in some of the highest-ranking journals in our fields, including American Literature; Modern Philology; Literature/Film Quarterly; Twentieth Century Literature; War, Literature, and the Arts; Critique; Callaloo; SEL: Studies in English Literature, 1500-1900; Studies in Renaissance Culture; Chaucer Review; and Children’s Literature. We are the recipients of competitive grants and fellowships from external sources including T & T Productions, NEH/Arkansas Humanities Council, and the Library Company of Philadelphia. Many of us have authored, edited, and co-edited books. As producers of knowledge, we bring our research into the graduate classroom and regularly involve graduate students in our research.
Our Flexible Course Offerings with Evening and Summer Classes:
Each fall and spring, we typically offer 2-3 classes that meet in the evening. (A standard time-slot is 6-8:30 p.m., with the class meeting once per week.) In the summer, 1-2 evening classes are offered.
Program Outline
The MA in English is a 30-credit-hour program, at least 15 hours of which students must earn at the 6000 level. Beyond that requirement, the program imposes minimal restrictions on students’ abilities to shape the coursework they pursue as their interests evolve.
The program requires two courses, both of which acculturate students into graduate study by helping them develop skillsets necessary to thrive. These courses culminate in student-directed research projects that demonstrate students’ evolution from strong undergraduates into independent scholars. The program’s required courses are:
- ENGL 6393 Research Methods in English (taken during the student’s first fall semester in the program)
- ENGL 5366 Literary Theory and Criticism (taken during the student’s first spring semester in the program)
Students who completed ENGL 4366 with a grade of B or better at UCA need not retake that course at the 5000 level. Instead, students will need to substitute any 5000- or 6000-level course for literary theory.
English MA students have the option of writing a thesis during the final two to three semesters they spend in the program. Students who pursue the thesis track sign up for ENGL 6V93 for a total of six hours of credit (thereby reducing the rest of their required coursework to 24 total credit hours). After enrollment in the first thesis hours, students must sign up for at least one credit hour of ENGL 6V93 credit each semester thereafter (fall, spring, and summer).
An English MA thesis is an original contribution to research on a topic of interest to active scholars of literature and culture. Students who write an MA thesis must secure a faculty director to oversee the project. The director must be a full-time member of the UCA English Department faculty who holds UCA graduate-faculty status. In addition, the student must secure a faculty reader who meets those same requirements, as well as either a second reader meeting those requirements or an “external” reader. The external reader must be affiliated with an institution of higher education other than UCA or a UCA department other than English. He or she must be an active scholar whose inclusion on a thesis project has prior authorization by the MA Program Coordinator. Together, the director and two readers comprise a thesis-writer’s MA Thesis Committee.
To begin the thesis process, the interested student assembles his or her MA Thesis Committee in consultation with the Graduate Program Coordinator. The student’s very first step after talking with the coordinator should be to secure a faculty director. Once the MA Thesis Committee is in place, the student conducts significant preliminary research into a topic and writes a thesis prospectus. This document, generally 6–10 double-spaced pages in length, is a proposal for a thesis approach that must gain unanimous MA Thesis Committee approval before the student begins writing the thesis proper.
Once the student has secured prospectus approval, he or she creates a work of original scholarship of no fewer than 50 double-spaced pages. The student should meet at least monthly with his or her director throughout the duration of the project. The student should meet regularly with his or her readers as well. The director and readers must approve and accord a student’s thesis a grade of B or better for the student’s thesis to pass. The student also must offer a successful public defense of the thesis to pass.