Doc Sportello

Congrats!!! ?☺️ That sounds like a really interesting program-- I hope the funding works out!

Thank you! ☺️ I got the sense it was just for potential rhetoric admits-- the rhetoric & English departments actually seem to be pretty separate even though you apply for the rhetoric department through the English department. I don't think either has historically done interviews, so I think the rhetoric department might have just added it this year. It felt like it was mostly just to gauge department fit. As far as I can tell, the English department is still sticking with the "no interviews" thing. Best of luck to you!!! Hopefully we'll hear good news this week!

I interviewed last Monday with UT Rhetoric, and they said they were hopeful decisions would be released this week-- not sure if this will also be true with UT English, but hopefully they're not too far behind!

Don't have advice, but I'm in the exact same boat, so sending you good vibes! ?

Has anyone heard anything from Northwestern's Rhetoric & Public Culture PhD program? It seems like they notify people pretty late in general based on past years, but obviously impatient and curious anyway ?

Thank you! Excited but nervous. ? It's possible this is just for the rhetoric department (I applied with an interest primarily in legal rhetoric).

Did anyone else just get an... interview request from UT Austin? I had no idea they'd ever done this. Excited, though-- guess it can't be a bad sign?

Hi all-- I've been trying to avoid Grad Cafe because I feel like I will start to go even crazier waiting lol, but just wanted to say hi and wish you all the best of luck @Lighthouse Lana NEU was my undergrad for English so I'm very familiar with the department if you have any questions!

Hi everyone! Bit of a long-time listener, first time caller. Obviously this forum has many more English PhD applicants over rhet./comp. applicants, so I wanted to create a thread for this cycle for people to chat/commiserate about this weird application cycle in our tiny field, and to see where people are thinking and what their broad research interests are! I'm interested largely in the intersection of rhetorical/critical theory, as well as applying a philosophy lens to rhetoric of law (mainly Derrida, Heidegger, Kant). So far, applying to Penn State, UT Austin, UMD, and Berkeley, but still trying to expand that list as I know it's small... I'm kind of pessimistically assuming that I'm going to get shut out this round, and then hoping secretly to be pleasantly surprised. Good advice from one of my professors was "you can't win if you don't play," so I'm trying to keep that mindset that at least it's worth it to throw my name into the hat. Best of luck to you all this cycle ?

I was originally considering some interdisciplinary PhD programs, and honestly might still be, so I can give you the advice I was given by my undergrad professors, since I asked three different professors a bunch of these questions... The gist that I got was that it really depends on the prestige of the school, and how you can spin your dissertation into something that helps you fit into a specific humanities department. But, the name of the degree does carry some weight (ex. having an English PhD looks better to English departments than having an interdisciplinary PhD in which you used skills that you would use in an English PhD). I've also heard from them that sometimes these departments are less cohesive-- if we consider universities as the neoliberal institutions that they are, these sorts of departments are often a money-saving measure. Professors within them might not know each other or communicate with each other as well as professors in a traditional humanities department. I would also argue that many humanities programs tend to be fairly interdisciplinary at this point anyway-- you can usually take courses in other humanities departments, and your dissertation can certainly include elements from multiple fields, so long as, say for example, your English PhD dissertation is at least reasonably focused around literary analysis/theory. I was advised into the recent dissertations coming out of different humanities programs as well as Professor interests to see if there are programs where you feel you could explore your interdisciplinary interests while also having a degree that might look more attractive to departments during the hiring process. For me personally, I have been looking into English programs that have strong faculty in using a continental philosophy lens for literary analysis. But of course don't check specifically interdisciplinary programs off your list if it really is where you think you would fit in best and have the most fruitful experience! Hope some of this was helpful