USC or UIUC queer studies?

[speedracer]

I'm deciding between similar fellowship funding packages at USC and Illinois Urbana-Champaign (well, the USC one is a better package but obviously LA is more expensive). Both schools have strong queer theory and critical race theory faculty members, but I'm having a hard time deciding between them. Location aside (I think there are good and bad things about both LA and a small town like U-C for grad student life), do people have opinions about the reputations of these schools? I'd specifically like to hear from folks who do queer/gender/race stuff, if possible, but would gladly read input from anyone in English depts. Are there faculty members at your institutions who've done graduate degrees at either school?

Of course I've been in contact with students and faculty at both places, but the decision is getting really rough for me so I figured I'd put it out here and see if anyone had opinions on respectability of these programs, etc.

[strokeofmidnight]

I'm deciding between similar fellowship funding packages at USC and Illinois Urbana-Champaign (well, the USC one is a better package but obviously LA is more expensive). Both schools have strong queer theory and critical race theory faculty members, but I'm having a hard time deciding between them. Location aside (I think there are good and bad things about both LA and a small town like U-C for grad student life), do people have opinions about the reputations of these schools? I'd specifically like to hear from folks who do queer/gender/race stuff, if possible, but would gladly read input from anyone in English depts. Are there faculty members at your institutions who've done graduate degrees at either school?

Of course I've been in contact with students and faculty at both places, but the decision is getting really rough for me so I figured I'd put it out here and see if anyone had opinions on respectability of these programs, etc.

I can't speak for USC, but I've lived in Champaign-Urbana and had considered an offer from UIUC. CU is actually a decent place to live (especially if you hunt for housing in Urbana). It's a bit small-townish, but not too claustaphobic...and it has a particular midwestern liberal, hippy feel (a bit like Ann Arbor, if you've ever been there). It's also within driving distance of Chicago, if you have a car (there's an Amtrak line if you don't). Town and Gown relationships are decent (I was part of the "town" half). UIUC seems to be an up-and-coming program for theory overall, though I don't know about queer studies in particular. I don't know if "historical" placement rates are very useful...my sense of both programs is that they're much better now then what they used to be, so while neither has placed particularly well in the past, I think that's been changing recently.

[ecritdansleau]

As above, I don't know much about USC, but UIUC seems to have a number of resources for gender/women/queer studies. As I'm sure you're aware, the department has Siobhan Somerville. Another English professor who is also part of the gender and women's studies faculty is V Mahaffey, who just came to UIUC about a year ago, and she's pretty amazing also. Another advantage at UIUC is the Unit for Criticism and Interpretive Theory, which hosts a number of events that foster theoretical discussion across disciplines, but it's especially affiliated with the English department. http://criticism.english.illinois.edu/

Although they are from a wide range of periods in English literature, a number of more recent English PHDs at Illinois with dissertations drawing on gender studies have obtained decent faculty placements:

Macharia, Keguro

"Queer Natives"

University of Maryland

http://www.english.umd.edu/kmacharia/

Hudson, John

"Silent Readers, Silenced Readers: Lgbt Student Perceptions of Lgbt Representation in Composition Readers"

University of Houston Downtown

http://www.uhd.edu/academic/colleges/humanities/english/bios/hudson_bio.html

Misri, Deepti

"Reading Violence: Gender, Violence and Representation in India and Pakistan (1947-Present)"

University of Colorado Boulder (Women's Studies)

http://www.colorado.edu/womensstudies/Deepti.html

Solberg, Janine

Dissertation: "Pretty Typewriters: Gender, Technology, and Literacy in Career Advice Literature for Women"

University of Massachusetts - Amherst

Gillette, Meg

"Modernism's Scarlet Letter: Plotting Abortion in American Fiction, 1900-1945"

Augustana College

Lamanna, Carrie

DISCIPLINING IDENTITIES: FEMINISM, NEW MEDIA, AND 21ST CENTURY RESEARCH PRACTICES

Colorado State University

Johnson, Sherita Lavon

"Truth is Stranger than Fiction: Black Women in American Literature of the South"

University of Southern Mississippi

Hultquist, Aleksondra

"Equal Ardour: Female Desire, Amatory Fiction, and the Recasting of the Novel, 1680-1760"

University of West Georgia

Eckhardt, Joshua

Dissertation: "The Politics of Anti-Courtly Love Poetry: Gender, Sexuality, and Religion in Early Seventeenth-Century Manuscript Verse Miscellanies"

Now at Virginia Commonwealth University

[janehawley]

You probably know more about the academic side of USC for queer theory than I do, but I'm going into queer theory and digital technology this year (at Temple, hopefully) and I'm from the LA area. LA has an incredible queer scene and history, so you may want to consider the kind of community you'll be around and your options for first hand research or experiences. I don't know about UIUC, but I know that LA has so many opportunities in that area. Also, I've heard that UCLA has a pretty good queer theory program so that also might be a point of consideration. If you don't already know this, USC is sort of in a seedy area so you may need to plan to commute or at least go in with the knowledge that you may not be able to live in the best of areas.