CulturalCriminal

For the TAMU folks, it is a good program that many of my friends are hoping on getting into. Likewise, I’d say placement is good afterwards (quite a few folks working as profs in the Aus/San Antonio and DFW area have phds from there). 
I say it’s odd because of two reasons: location and undergrad population.
It’s at least two hours away from the more forward thinking TX metropolitan areas (DFW, Aus/SA, Houston), which means the immediate area outside of the typical University neighborhoods can be a bit conservative (in the evangelical way). That said the actual campus and sorroundings are safe and mostly hospitable to the kinds of ideas that tend to come with having spent 6+ years in a discipline driven by empathy.
As for the undergrad population (who you’ll be teaching), there are certainly liberal- and moderate-thinking people. That said, the immediate image most Texans conjure of the student body is white, conservative frat boys who come from family’s that are (at least in their area) considered wealthy. Though I think that is a tad unfair, I will note that it is one of the few public universities in this state that isn’t recognized as a Hispanic serving institution. Likewise, while it certainly isn’t as conservative as Baylor of Stephen F Austin, it certainly isn’t as liberal as UT or Texas State.
all of that said, it’s a good program with cool profs and grad students. 

@ everybody in this thread, imposter syndrome is normal. They've accepted you, they spent a great deal of time figuring out if you are ready. You're ready. Your cohorts might seem more impressive, but I guarantee that they're going through same thing (if they aren't, there's a good chance that they're in for a rude awakening).
 

Ramzi Fawaz ("The New Mutants") teaches at U Wisconsin-Madison English, and hails from GWU American Studies. He's also currently working on the new Keywords book for Comics Studies, co-editing with Shelley Streeby at UCSD (used to be Literature, nowadays Ethnic Studies). I know at UW (the other one, U Washington) there are several people doing comics work in their PhD - in English, and also in History.
Honestly, though, I'd take a look at the leadership and conference line-ups for ICAF and the Comics Studies Association, then trace who's teaching where, and perhaps email some folks. I say email because while it's easy enough to find who's doing the scholarship where, I think it's harder to figure out which institutions are best for funding international students, in those particular departments, so you may have to outright ask, or at least look at their admission statistics. Sorry to not have a more direct answer to your question.
Good luck!!

You might also want to consider schools with experimental/non-traditional Rhetoric programs. My former supervisor, an Eisner-winning scholar in visual rhetoric and comic studies, did her PhD in Composition & Rhetoric at University of Massachusetts Amherst. Her dissertation focused on Lynda Barry, and she is now not only the Director of Rhet/Comp but also Director of the new Comic Studies Program (an undergraduate program) at Portland State University.  

Thanks! It is! I emailed back my acceptance today, so I guess I’m going to be a Red Raider. Looking forward to working with folks like Kendall Gerdes!

Thanks! It is! I emailed back my acceptance today, so I guess I’m going to be a Red Raider. Looking forward to working with folks like Kendall Gerdes!

Update: I'm in at Texas Tech! 99% sure I'm going to say yes!

Got into Texas Tech's Technical Communication & Rhetoric PhD!
Pretty stoked and will likely say yes!

Got into Texas Tech's Technical Communication & Rhetoric PhD!
Pretty stoked and will likely say yes!

Got into Texas Tech's Technical Communication & Rhetoric PhD!
Pretty stoked and will likely say yes!

Got into Texas Tech's Technical Communication & Rhetoric PhD!
Pretty stoked and will likely say yes!

Got into Texas Tech's Technical Communication & Rhetoric PhD!
Pretty stoked and will likely say yes!

Update: I'm in at Texas Tech! 99% sure I'm going to say yes!

Anyone else here love just about anything Louise Erdrich writes?

All the info presented already is solid, but I will add that it is a good idea to look at the CVs of profs you admire/want to work with to see where they present/ed regularly. For example, there are a few conferences that both of my main MA mentors regularly attend.
Also, ask your mentors on their opinions about certain conferences. I didn't always do that and as a result went to some awful conferences. I have since avoided some negative experiences by consulting said mentors about their experiences at conferences. Conferences can be a great experience, but they can also be an awful experience that turns you off of academia if you aren't careful.

Fellow applicant here as well! I’ll graduate in May with a BA double major in English and Religion with a minor in History. I currently have a 4.0. I’m hoping to go into a PhD program if possible. I’m also struggling to study for the GRE (standardized tests are a bit difficult for me, especially given the weight of this one). I’ll begin writing my Senior honors thesis in the Fall. I have interests all over the proverbial map, but I’m particularly interested in 20th Century American Lit. I also have a keen love for the American South (just wrapping up a summer seminar on Walker Percy, actually). Still have yet to work on SOP, though I hope to use either my capstone paper or a part of my honors thesis for my writing sample. I’m looking at both traditional Lit programs and American Studies programs.
Any advice is greatly appreciated! I’m relatively terrified. 

Have you looked into the program in American Studies & Ethnicity at USC?

After applying to a couple local PhD programs and unsurprisingly not getting in, I'm going to be applying again (more broadly) for 2019. I know I'm not the only one who has done/ is doing a round 2 or 3, but I am curious what the work experience was for y'all. If you have an MA/MFA, did you become a lecturer? Did anyone struggle to get a job at least as an adjunct for a class somewhere? Are there folks here who took university staff positions instead? Or left university/college employment entirely?
I ask because, though it looks like I am fortunately fairly close to locking down a full-time lecturer position, some of my friends who also just finished up their MAs/MFAs seem to be coming up short on getting lecturer gigs. Some are considering taking adjunct gigs over 2 hours away just so they can actually get some more teaching experience, as it is hard to compete in an area like Austin. Did anyone here do anything like that?
Likewise, I've also heard from current lecturers and Senior lecturers that it can literally be the day before the class starts that some schools will hire on lecturers. Did any of you have an experience like that? If so, how did you not go crazy while waiting until late August to find out if you had a job?
 

To streamline program info that I'm aware of:
- English PhD: U Dundee, UC Irvine, UC Davis, U Wisconsin, CUNY-GC, Maryland, Ohio State, CU-Boulder, Northeastern, Oregon, Michigan State, UGA, U Florida, Bowling Green, Texas Tech
- There are a lot of options for folks interested in an MA
- Most American Studies programs are open to the idea of Comics Studies
 
I think the biggest thing for anyone interested in Comics Studies is for them to read relevant journals (i.e. ImageText, Inks, Popular Culture, American Literature), read notable books in the field, and consider going to comics specific conferences (Comics Arts Conference in Anaheim is a blast, as it is held at WonderCon). Doing these three things will help establish:
A. if you really want to do Comics scholarship
B. where the field is at right now
C. who you might want to work with
D. if you actually want to work with them after meeting them in person (real talk, y'all)
E. if getting an MA might be worthwhile in the name of working with certain faculty
 

Not a PhD, but I saw this CFP that seemed relevant to your interests:
https://call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/cfp/2018/06/04/queering-the-us-south

I think you might be underselling the prestige of Edinburgh. While it certainly doesn't have the universal recognition of UCL, I'd be surprised if most Lit/English departments wouldn't recognize Edinburgh as a great program. Likewise, I think it is better to go somewhere where you'll have that fit. If you're able to tell that UCL isn't a great fit, chances are future PhDs will as well.

I want to second that if you're getting your MA, conference participation is more important than if you were applying with just a BA. Presenting at conferences is a pretty low-stakes but high-return investment in showing a doctoral program that you are serious about your work and that you have enough intellectual clarity to be able to share it with others. Scholarship is not meant to be written in isolation; you have to present your ideas and have them vetted. Plus, it only makes your work stronger!

Not to try to pull you away from rhet/comp, but most Lit programs aren't really "Capital-L Literature" anymore. I just finished my M.A. in Literature and spent the majority of the time looking at genre fiction, comics, film, and TV. My area exam was on weird speculative film and every paper I've presented at conferences on the University's dime has been looking at film, comics, or TV.  Even with the British renaissance and medieval lit requirement I had to meet, there was the option of taking non-canon focused classes (i.e. my renaissance credit was satisfied by a History of Children's Literature Course where I just had to focus my big term paper on a work from the renaissance). I think what you are worried about encountering in a non-rhet/comp degree (reading the canon) is not really all that common anymore.
There are folks in Lit departments that literally only work with narrative nonfiction.
 
This, again, is not to push you towards a Lit degree. In a Rhet/comp MA with IA/TA duties, you'll likely share an office with Lit folks and might even be assigned during your first year to work in a big Sophomore Literature survey course with a lead professor. Further, the MA is meant to train you to work in English departments teaching rhet/comp as a lecturer OR prepare you to go on to a PhD designed to do the same as a professor (with a research obligation attached). This doesn't mean you have to take any lit classes or physically to teach lit classes in the future, but it does mean that in all likelihood your boss (i.e. the Dean of an English department) will be a lit person (and likely a "Capital-L Literature" person). Even if you decided to focus on the goal of running Writing Centers, most of those centers are part of English departments and their Directors doubling as English profs/lecturers. What I'm getting at is that you might look at getting to know what the Lit folks you'll spend the rest of your life working with are actually interested in; I think you'll be surprised that a lot of us are into the same things you are.

All the info presented already is solid, but I will add that it is a good idea to look at the CVs of profs you admire/want to work with to see where they present/ed regularly. For example, there are a few conferences that both of my main MA mentors regularly attend.
Also, ask your mentors on their opinions about certain conferences. I didn't always do that and as a result went to some awful conferences. I have since avoided some negative experiences by consulting said mentors about their experiences at conferences. Conferences can be a great experience, but they can also be an awful experience that turns you off of academia if you aren't careful.

Was behind on the update. Just finished my MA and am reapplying more broadly for PhD after failing to get into the couple of exciting local programs for fall 2018.