Early American Lit/Researching programs questions

[woolfie]

Having been rejected and being able to spend this year carefully deciding what it is I want to do, I decided that I want to commit to studying early American and colonial literature. Does anyone know what the best programs for this subject are?

I also am wondering how people research things like this, besides just constantly reviewing faculty profiles and looking for buzzwords. There's got to be a better, and more accurate way than that, right? I'm doing a pretty big research interest change, from digital literacies to colonial American, so I basically have to start my research all over again.

(And before anyone assumes too much, I am not changing my specialty just to get in, or because I didn't get in. Previously, my specialty in digital literacies was chosen ONLY because that was the subject of my writing sample, my senior thesis in undergrad. I thought honestly about what I would want to do in an ideal world, and decided that I am truly interested in early American lit. I took a graduate seminar and wrote a new paper to use, and decided beforehand to write it about an early American text.)

[bigdgp]

I'm into Medieval Literature, so I can't offer you insight into which programs to check out. I can tell you, however, that the US News and World Report grad school rankings does a breakdown of the top ten programs in each subsection of literature research, so you might check that out. Go to the humanities and social sciences rankings and then select English specialties. This is only a starting point, though. There really isn't a substitute for finding a professor whose research interests you at a school with a reasonably good reputation and just getting in touch with him or her. It's time consuming and difficult, but it really is the best way.

Edited July 18, 2010 by bigdgp

[foppery]

Honestly, I think doing the legwork (or, well, the fingerwork) and scouring department websites IS the best way. The US News subfield rankings aren't terribly specific: "American Literature Before 1865" isn't the same as colonial American lit, and who goes to grad school for "Medieval/Renaissance"? If you know any savvy professors or current grad students, ask them (as you're doing right now, on the forum!), but I'm not sure there's an easy, streamlined method for this kind of research.<br style="text-shadow: none;">

[greekdaph]

Agreed with foppery about scouring departmental websites--it takes a lot of time, but it can also lead to some unexpected revelations about the kind of work that's out there.

Here's another lead: the Society of Early Americanists website, located here: http://www.mnstate.edu/sea/ They have a directory of members, including their institutional affiliation; another thing to do is scour the call for papers for their 2011 conference (and hey, maybe even submit an abstract!). Seeing which faculty member is proposing which panel is a great way to get a sense of what people's more specific interests are.

[diehtc0ke]

I'm going to +1 the value of going through various English department websites to find matches. Another way of going about this kind of research would be to look through your works cited pages. See what kind of research you've found most compelling in the past and then see who is doing what and where. I became enamored with one program because the leading scholar in my field worked there and when I looked at that department's web page I found two other prominent professors doing work that I was interested in as well. This kind of more targeted search is pretty much how I went about looking for potential schools. Also, don't count your professors/letter writers out. Hopefully those that specialize in early American lit (and, of course, even those who don't) will know of programs that are strong in that field. Good luck in your search.

[bottles]

Another way of going about this kind of research would be to look through your works cited pages. See what kind of research you've found most compelling in the past and then see who is doing what and where.

Yes, yes, and yes. This is easily one of the most helpful ways to narrow down schools. It's a bit tougher when you're doing a lot of interdisciplinary work, but definitely gives you a rough idea about the sort of research that is going on at specific universities. Great advice.

[augustquail]

Having been rejected and being able to spend this year carefully deciding what it is I want to do, I decided that I want to commit to studying early American and colonial literature. Does anyone know what the best programs for this subject are?

I also am wondering how people research things like this, besides just constantly reviewing faculty profiles and looking for buzzwords. There's got to be a better, and more accurate way than that, right? I'm doing a pretty big research interest change, from digital literacies to colonial American, so I basically have to start my research all over again.

(And before anyone assumes too much, I am not changing my specialty just to get in, or because I didn't get in. Previously, my specialty in digital literacies was chosen ONLY because that was the subject of my writing sample, my senior thesis in undergrad. I thought honestly about what I would want to do in an ideal world, and decided that I am truly interested in early American lit. I took a graduate seminar and wrote a new paper to use, and decided beforehand to write it about an early American text.)

How 'early' is the early american lit you want to study? My field is 18th/19th american lit, and from what i've seen on faculty profiles, americanists are often divided into American lit before 1900, and american lit after 1900. The colonialists are obviously in the first category, even though their interests don't span into the 19th century. What are you going to write about for your writing sample?