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Wow, I haven't had any POIs ask me for any materials, though I have had some pleasant responses. Hmm... not gonna worry about it I guess. I do have a small question though. I'm trying to find out some information about Fordham's M.A. in Medieval Studies because their website is hopelessly vague. I wanted to ask the Director of program about whether they want an SOP or WS at all, since the GSAS requirements make no mention of these things and neither does the Center for Medieval Studies' website. My problem is kind of embarrassing - I don't know how to address the director because he's a friggin' priest! Do I address him as "Father Cullen" or "Professor/Dr. Cullen"? Has anyone else had to do this? He's not really a POI, but I felt it was too silly a question to start a whole new thread... It's the only MA program I'm applying to, so I haven't contacted anyone there and wasn't really planning on it except to ask about this.

rofl, Derrida, as old white french dudes go, was sexy as hell. A certain charm about his writing style that melts my heart. In a very homoerotic and slightly masochistic way. Like he's beating Western tradition, and your brain, into a bloody pulp and then stopping for a second every once in a while to wink at you with his pretty domineering eyes. He's a weird looking bastard but I'd let him deconstruct my drawers any day. Also, I can't believe it hasn't been said already, but I think this thread should take a new direction. Mount Rushmore being the white-male-supremecist act of colonialist ideological terror and phallic worship that it is, I invite us to unpack this notion of a "Theorist Mt. Rushmore."

It sounds like a fun class, though I could see how that could bring about difficulties! . Thank you for your good wishes and input!

For the record I'm applying to Notre Dame and I'm not at all religious. I'm not, have never been, and do not plan on ever being Catholic and I'm applying to several very Catholic schools -- many Jesuit schools, understandably, have lots of money and medievalists (which is my area). I can't think of a single accredited and well regarded program that would/could reject someone based on their not being religious. That being said, you may or may not mesh with the culture of the campus because of something like that. Though there is less faculty in my field at Chicago, for example, I do see myself being able to fit in with the academic culture there better. But don't let religious affiliation necessarily throw you off, at least for major universities like ND!

Sounds good, thanks everyone! I actually did read very close to all of the CT in undergrad -- my adviser likes teaching ME by throwing us straight into it. I think your undergrads could handle it! The course wasn't a broad survey course though, which may be what you're teaching. That woman is hardcore though, she had us read most of Malory's "Morte d'Arthur" and a good chunk of Chretien's Arthurian romances in an introdution to British literature. She's also an uncompromising feminist and one of my favorite people in the world, but I'm not sure how popular it's made her. I'm in a pretty quick paced OE reading group now that she'd like to continue doing in the spring even though I won't be working for/studying at the school anymore by then -- I think we're going to tackle Beowulf in the original (so excited). Anyway, that same prof is going to read through my WS this week though, so I'll definitely brainstorm the issue of how to format translations with her and bring up all the wonderful points you all have made. I'm not that worried about English issue, but I was looking at it and thinking, "huh. I guess none of this is really 'English Literature.'" Then again that's something I can easily explain -- I'm interested in multilingual poetics, and this Latin poem of French origin is playing with OE poetics that I think worth exploring further in a future project, yadda yadda yadda... unræd (switched to a tablet so I can bust out my Icelandic keyboard to finally spell your username right, ohhh yeahh), I'd be interested in trading writing samples at some point if you are... Mine's in last minute demolition and restructuring mode right now, but it will be back to normal by the end of the week(end), I think/hope. You may be passed that point though. ugh, two jobs, two language classes, a teaching assistantship, and a dark cloud of app deadlines and unemployment looming over the month of December hasn't lent me as much time for this as I would have liked.

Oh and also, on PDFs -- you don't need to use an outside client or program to save Word Documents as PDFs (not sure what CutePDF is). If you're using Word, you can totally select PDF as a file type when you do a "Save As..." just sayin...

As someone who's done tech support in an academic library for several years, this definitely should have occured to me. One probably shouldn't expect grad school application portals to be any less sketchy than Google Documents. Emailing the DGS about small quips like that is also probably prudent. Good call! I am doing close work with the original language, but for more general and less closely analyzed passages something like this might be a good idea. I'll play around with unraed's comment of putting a translation in bracketts and combining it with this and see how it looks/reads. I've definitely seen both methods used in books and journal articles... so, thank you! By the way, does anyone think anything is wrong with using a WS that focuses on non-English language poetry for English programs? Specifically Latin? Obviously something in OE or ME would be fine, but the medieval paper I'm submitting will be primarily be focused on a Latin text. I have another couple Writing Samples that I could use for English programs, but they aren't nearly as relevant to my primary field of interest. I would think it would be okay, since a lot of English programs encourage applicants to be coming in with some competence in at least one foreign language...

Huh, I guess making a PDF would make sense -- it's a little more "permanent" feeling. I'm not sure how real that feeling actually is though or if I'm just someone who always imagines everything going wrong with computers. I'm hoping not to have to bust out any cheats on this; my undergrad adviser, who I was very close with, was always pretty hardcore about the idea that there's always something that can be cut and would dock whole grades off papers if there was one word over the limit. So I'm kind of used to cutting some fat off the page . However, when you're applying to several programs that all have different WS length requirements, it's a pain. I've got two programs that want no more than 15 pages, a few that want 15-20, one that's 15-25, one that wants 12-20, one that wants "no more than 30 pages" and two that want "around 20" pages. Which isn't as bad as some people's apps I guess. My writing sample is going to end up looking like a Lego construction, taking two excerpts of projects and connecting them together thematically with a note about context. I'll remove the second half for some apps and keep it for others. I think it's UPenn though that says "no more than 30," which always throws me off -- am I screwing up if I submit something that's like 20 pages?

No problem quena! You should probably just browse the interests of some of the professors at the schools you're already applying to. Translation studies is something that you could go down a couple of roads for -- there are programs for more "professional" translation (like for businesses, law firms, what have you), and then certificates for more scholarly and literary focuses. There are definitely programs I'm applying to where there are POIs for me that have interests in translation theory, and who teach it, even if there isn't a formal certification in translation -- I'm applying to three different sorts of programs, and I can tell you with some confidence that there are people interested in translation in all three of those. Since what I'm trying to do will involve working with previously untranslated texts in an academic context, doing some translation will be part of the routine. In short, if a program looks to be to your liking and you're already applying there, especially for comp lit, there's a good chance you can find someone interested in translation, since for a lot of people who have Ph.D.s in Comp Lit, translations of texts is a big part of their publishing work. If you're shooting for academic work, a formal certificate may not be all that necessary. But for jobs outside of academia, I'd imagine a certificate in translation could be quite helpful. That certificate in Applied Literary Translation would be more literary (obviously), but this might be one worth checking out (also through U of Illinois) for other interests: http://www.translation.illinois.edu/programs/certificate1.html Hope this helps!

Brilliant. Somebody learned something from undergrad! And thanks! I hope it's fascinating. I've been obsessing over this poem--I told myself I was too busy to write a new paper for a writing sample this semester, but somehow that's what I ended up doing. Partly because I love the poem, partly because I was so sick of all my other papers I could have worked on for a WS.

Ah, what a wonderful response. To be honest, I hadn't thought through all those factors. I had originally been putting the English translations in de-versified brackets after the block quotes, but changed to footnotes for reasons of preserving space. I'm also not dealing with Occitan in this sample (I ditched that writing sample a little while ago - but my, are you perceptive!), and I guess I've been sort of, probably mistakenly, been treating Latin as a lingua franca. Ah, the woes of the medievalist! I will probably switch to this method and as a result have to do some more page count chopping. The paper is by turns theoretical and philological--discussing the Latin itself is pretty important to certain arguments I make: the use of alliteration in certain parts of the poem that can't necessarily be translated, the recurring use of certain Latin words denoting, by turns, pagan and Christian conceptions of holiness and homeliness, and a discussion of a couple corrupted lines. In the end of the day, yes, I think I am actually applying to more English programs than MS programs, simply because MS programs are very, very outnumbered by just about every other type of program in this country. Your points are perceptive and useful, and I'll definitely start adjusting it to be more accessible to non-Latinists.

Okay, that's what I thought. Thanks!

Hey all, is anyone else dealing with untranslated texts in their writing samples? I have a tiny and extremely nitpicky question about that... I'm working with a lot of passages written in Latin which I translate myself and what I've been doing is putting the longer passages in block quotes (in Latin) and putting a footnote after each block quote with my translation of that passage. First, does this seem like a legitimate enough way of doing that to you? Second, and here's the super nitpicky part of my question, would you put the footnote number after the text itself or after the parenthetical line citation (it's poetry) at the end of the block quote? I know it's such a small question, but I have a ton of quotes in Latin and French and this keeps irking me as I'm doing my final revisions for my WS... Example: blockquoteblockquote blockquoteblockquote. (109-10)9 9: "translationtranslation." I'm doing this in MLA, by the way but I've misplaced my MLA book and can't remember off the top of my head...

Several Comp Lit programs offer certificates literary translation. Two that come to mind are Indiana University at Bloomington (http://www.indiana.edu/~complit/special/translation.shtml) and Washington University in St. Louis (http://complit.artsci.wustl.edu/graduate/translation_studies). This may be less useful to you, but another program that comes to mind is the certificate in "Applied Literary Translation" offered by the Dalkey Archive Press/University of Illinois (http://www.dalkeyarchive.com/applied-literary-translation/). Maybe if you end up going to a school that doesn't offer its own certificate you could do that program over a summer or something, maybe even get some money from your program to do it? It's pretty cool -- the class is conducted online and you have to have a suitable project in mind, but at the end of the program you have to potential opportunity for the text you've translated to get published by Dalkey (which is a very cool press by the way).

Ach! How could I forget that Carolyn Dinshaw is also at NYU?? It looks like they've got a few medievalists... (Momma looks great, don't know her work though actually) That'd be great, thanks! I'll PM you. There's likely some overlap - there are a bunch of early modernists at virtually all of the programs I'm applying to.

*cough* I would love to see said spreadsheet, or at least know which ones you know are good on that. It can be a pain finding info on that. Unfortunately, I wasn't in McNair but I know the Trio coordinator at my college and maybe he could give me some help on that... I've actually been increasingly interested in Penn over the last few weeks and might actually apply. I'd rather live in Philly than in god-knows-where-Pennsylvania too, but trying not to let that be too much of a motivator... I will investigate NYU too, thank you both! OE isn't quite as essential for me as it is for you, unraed (sorry my windows laptop can't handle the ash), but I definitely value its presence in a program -- I'm learning OE now and it's a lot of fun and I do need it for a project I'd like to do some time in the near future involving Latin/OE philology and some comparative poetics. Several programs appear have only one or the other (UMD has a few ME people but no signs of OE; Boston College appears to only have Anglo-Saxonists for medieval lit - unraed, you might have a look at the latter if you haven't already, actually). Yeah, I never quite know what to think when a program says it's "recommended but not required." Makes me feel like I've gotta compensate for it in my app. Thanks everyone! Y'all are brilliant. These things have been nibbling at my scalp for a while now.

Word, yeah I don't mean to deny that. Just trying to see if there's other people are forgoing the subject test, to see if any resources or advice could be shared - I'm applying to a variety of programs and I can't justify the cost or time it costs right now - though who knows, if I don't get in anywhere, I'll probably end up taking it and applying again next year. I feel the same way. It's like the lottery or something. But I have this pathological urge to apply to the English program just to be associated with it - it's kind of gross actually, lol. To be honest, I'd almost rather be at Toronto's program, but I'm probably not applying there unless I get an M.A. and transfer for the doctorate - can't swing an unfunded program right now.

It is appreciated, comrade. I know you're applying to Notre Dame's Medieval Studies program; are you applying to their English program too?

Okay, so ETS is a horrible monolith sent to this earth by Reptillians to enslave us to an increasingly corporatized, money-driven, hierarchical, exclusionary, and underpaid academic industrial complex that encourages its initiates to put their livelihoods on the line for underpaid, hard-to-get jobs because we love reading books and don't want to write ad copy or instruction manuals. Also fuck paying ANOTHER $170 after already coughing up 190 for the general test... am I right? Who has the time and attention span to cough up that kind of money (which is serious money for us wage slaves) so they can memorize key digests from the friggin' Norton Anthology? How is that any indication of preparation for advanced work in literature? I have a Bachelor's degree in "literature in English," a great GPA, honors, and a great CV/resume. Being expected to take another silly and expensive test is kind of insulting. Who else didn't take / isn't taking the GRE subject test in Literature in English? And to which English programs are you applying that don't require/want it? As someone who is working for a pitiful minimum wage, living off food stamps and ALSO basically serving a post-B.A. term of scholarly indentured servitude to my undergraduate institution, I decided that it wasn't worth the money. To be fair, I'm not exclusively applying to English programs, so I'm not trying to necessarily recruit others to my same path. I assume that most of us have probably already finished up GREs anyway at this point. My list: University of Maryland, Duke, University of Chicago, Penn State, and probably Notre Dame. University of Chicago is the only one I've found that doesn't even accept GRE subject test scores. Good lookin' Chicago. Other schools that don't require it include UNC Chapel Hill, Columbia, George Washington, Boston College, and UW Madison. I'm also about to send out some emails about application fee waivers, so if anyone has any experience, insight, or advice for that I'm also looking for some discussion and insight into that process.

Greetings everyone, and welcome nahis! I'm applying to a couple Comp Lit programs (U Indiana at Bloomington, Penn State, Princeton if I get the guts and have scrape up enough cash for another application fee for a school I have low hopes of being accepted to), but mostly programs in English and Medieval Studies. I grew up in California though, and know that the UC system has taken a lot of finiancial hits over the last few years. I ended up doing my undergrad out of state at a small private liberal arts college simply because I was able to get much better funding than at the UC I got accepted to. You should really do your research on each school you're interested in -- my guess is that UCB and UCLA are probably the sturdiest financially, though I've heard that it takes much longer to finish you're Ph.D. at UCs in general (like up to 10 years, :-/). I'm no expert though. I knocked UCs off my list a couple months ago and I also haven't lived in California for over four years now, so maybe some other people know better than I. My impression is that funding is more competitive and that programs take longer. Funding is absolutely imperative for me and I don't want to spend a decade on my Ph.D. though, so I decided against it. Your other schools look good for where you're applying though. Penn State and Indiana both seem pretty solid to me, and I'm also applying to U of Chicago (for English). Penn State is in the middle of NOWHERE, which is a concern for me because both myself and my significant other are applying to scattered places for very different things, but Bloomington is supposedly a very nice town. UChicago's probably my favorite location, but I'm biased toward the city of Chicago (not to mention the beautiful campus and the fact that Chicago has some of the best bookstores and public transportation I've found in this country, the Newberry Library). Might apply to WUSTL for comp lit, though still not 100% sure. You might want to take a look at U Penn, Princeton, and UNC Chapel Hill and/or Duke though. When it comes down to it, I think you're multilingualism and solid GRE scores will be great assets for getting into programs (including for getting funding). Best of luck with your applications! I'd be curious to see how things turn out for you, since it seems like we're applying to some of the same places.

I'm having some similar trouble with this "fit" issue as well...particularly at Duke. I do a lot of theory-intensive and transhistorical work (structuralism/post-structuralism, 20th century avant-gardes), as well as working in a couple languages, which at first made me figure Literature would work better... but I'm also interested in medieval studies and if I went to Duke would most definitely apply to be part of the Center for Medieval and Renaissance studies. As far as I'm aware, none of the Literature faculty are medievalists. Definitely going to email the DGSs, but maybe someone here would have an inclination? I'm leaning toward English right now since I work with English lit quite a bit, but still a little bit unsure...

lol, yeah I'm about to do that myself. Not gonna drive myself crazy over it though. I just remember when I was writing my undergrad honors thesis, I had an introduction that used "we" a few times describing the sorts of crazy shit I was about to explore (maybe I just grew up watching too many old sci-fi flicks - "there is nothing wrong with your television set... We will control the horizontal. We wil control the vertical") and my adviser went through it and changed all of them to "I." She was right. I think "I" is fine sometimes. If getting rid of "I believe" and replacing it with something just as simple isn't working, I would keep it. A "One would believe" can sound even more silly than a simple "I believe."

Haha, I'm a little surprised to see such an extensive discussion on this too. It's kind of cute. BUT, to throw in my two cents, I think it can definitely be a stylistic choice that be used effectively or not. No hard set rules here, but I think it can be easy for students to abuse it and sound a little pretentious (hence Wyatt's Torch comment that it has to be "earned"). As someone who's into both critical theory and medieval studies, I've seen the use of "I" on many occassions. I'm thinking of issues of more traditional journals like Speculum where the articles switch off between essays and critical responses to those essays - "While I agree with so-and-so's point I wonder if..." or sometimes even "We as medievalists must..." But of course, to agree with proflorax, it's normal to see it in more theoretical writings too. I was recently reading an essay by Cary Howie -- who writes on critical poetics, medieval literature, and queer theory -- where he very beautifully (and effectively!) says things like "If my words do not belong to me, must they necessarily belong, instead, to you?" Of course, this use of "I" is a more impersonal one (almost reminding me of when Blanchot writes in The Space of Literature that the writer is not able to say "I," but of course in a more critical mode). Anyway, for our purposes, I would say it depends on the WS and the program. I agree that "we" is more risky than "I," but again, it depends on too many factors to say without having actually looking at the paper. If it's a relatively "traditional" paper, I'd say it's safe to keep the "I"s to a minimum (using them when only absolutely necessary -- I agree with unraed that there are times where it would end up looking like a bunch of silly verbal gymnastics trying to avoid the use of a personal pronoun) and try not to use "we" at all -- it's rare that it's really necessary in a standard college research paper. You're not submitting a manifesto.

no problem!

https://etd.ohiolink.edu/ap/10?0::NO:10:P10_ACCESSION_NUM:osu1342978643 I don't know how much this helps (I'm also not a drama or early modern person really), but Vadnais teaches at my (undergrad) college. The only thing I know of that he's published is a book of short stories, but I saw him present his dissertation when the school was considering hiring him for the English department here and it was pretty impressive. It was all about how Shakespeare wrote and revised his plays so as to be more easily memorized for his actors. Lots of manuscript/book history as well as performance theory.