Interdisciplinary English Programs?

[Two Espressos]

Hello. I'm new here, so I apologize if a post like this has already been made!

I'm wondering if any of you know of English programs (both MA and PhD) that place a strong emphasis on/encourage/foster interdisciplinary work in English. I'm somewhat jaded with the standard canon (medieval, renaissance, modernism, etc) and have found that my eclectic research interests do not really align with standard programs. In fact, I'd say my interests are evenly divided between the fields of English, Philosophy, and Modern Culture/Media Studies. Do you know of any good programs that would allow me to work in all three mediums?

Thanks a lot.

[cultureisordinary]

Hello. I'm new here, so I apologize if a post like this has already been made!

I'm wondering if any of you know of English programs (both MA and PhD) that place a strong emphasis on/encourage/foster interdisciplinary work in English. I'm somewhat jaded with the standard canon (medieval, renaissance, modernism, etc) and have found that my eclectic research interests do not really align with standard programs. In fact, I'd say my interests are evenly divided between the fields of English, Philosophy, and Modern Culture/Media Studies. Do you know of any good programs that would allow me to work in all three mediums?

Thanks a lot.

You may want to look into Cultural Studies programs as well as English programs with a heavy CS focus (University of Pittsburgh for example). Doing a search for Cultural Studies in the results section should give you a good idea of what's out there. There are also some programs that are basically Cultural Studies programs but that go by different names, e.g. Culture and Theory at UC Irvine, Comparative Studies in Discourse and Society at Minnesota, and Modern Culture and Media at Brown.

Hope this helps!

[hopelesslypostmodern]

On 2/9/2011 at 3:11 PM, Two Espressos said:

Hello. I'm new here, so I apologize if a post like this has already been made!

I'm wondering if any of you know of English programs (both MA and PhD) that place a strong emphasis on/encourage/foster interdisciplinary work in English. I'm somewhat jaded with the standard canon (medieval, renaissance, modernism, etc) and have found that my eclectic research interests do not really align with standard programs. In fact, I'd say my interests are evenly divided between the fields of English, Philosophy, and Modern Culture/Media Studies. Do you know of any good programs that would allow me to work in all three mediums?

Thanks a lot.

I would check out Washington University in St. Louis English program as well as the ones bsmith888 listed above. There are different certificates within the program (like American Culture, film and media studies, early modern studies, women and gender studies,  data science etc), but they seem to encourage interdisciplinary work between areas as well. Hope that helps. Good luck with your search!

[Two Espressos]

On 2/9/2011 at 3:23 PM, bsmith888 said:

You may want to look into Cultural Studies programs as well as English programs with a heavy CS focus (University of Pittsburgh for example). Doing a search for Cultural Studies in the results section should give you a good idea of what's out there. There are also some programs that are basically Cultural Studies programs but that go by different names, e.g. Culture and Theory at UC Irvine, Comparative Studies in Discourse and Society at Minnesota, and Modern Culture and Media at Brown.

Hope this helps!

On 2/9/2011 at 3:33 PM, hopelesslypostmodern said:

 

I would check out Washington University in St. Louis English program as well as the ones bsmith888 listed above. There are different certificates within the program (like American Culture, film and media studies, early modern studies, women and gender studies,  data science etc), but they seem to encourage interdisciplinary work between areas as well. Hope that helps. Good luck with your search!

Thanks for the advice! Another question: how do graduates from Cultural Studies programs fare placement-wise as opposed to, say, a graduate from a regular PhD program in English?

[charles mingus]

Thanks for the advice! Another question: how do graduates from Cultural Studies programs fare placement-wise as opposed to, say, a graduate from a regular PhD program in English?

This thread from the Chronicle of Higher Education forums evolves into a good discussion of the placement tendencies of cultural studies and other interdisciplinary programs:

http://chronicle.com/forums/index.php/topic,58306.0.html

There are many similar discussions on those boards, too, if you feel like digging in a bit.

Best of luck!

CM

[4timeround]

This is a great resource: http://www.iapl.info/GRADUATE_PROGRAMS/GraduateProgramListing.htm

[ZeeMore21]

I would add University of Pittsburgh to the list, I am a student here right now. There is a big emphasis on cultural studies, which makes doing interdisciplinary work a lot easier here.

[dgobox]

University of Florida English and Emory Comp. Lit have attractive programs for students interested in psychology/psychoanalysis and literature.

[Protagonist]

My professors told me the safe route would be to get into a school that emphasizes interdisciplinary studies as well as having a focus on cultural studies, but not getting a degree in cultural studies and getting it in English. These are all professors that either incorporate cultural studies into their lit courses or have created courses that focus on cultural studies.

This way you've got a degree in English and you're well equipped to teach lit courses, which all schools obviously will be needing professors for, and you also have the needed experience to back up your course proposals to the department for courses focused on cultural studies, which schools may be more weary of or lack the funds for.

That being said, I'm going to take a look at Pittsburgh as well. From what programs I've looked at NYU places a good deal of emphasis on interdisciplinary studies and would be a great place to go if you wanted to take film studies courses as well.

[trebuchet]

Concordia University (Canada): PhD in Humanities, and "Special Individualized Program" MA or PhD.