PhD in American diaspora literature?

[tingdeh]

I am so glad I discovered this forum. Gearing up for Fall 2014 applications has been nothing short of hectic...so thank you!

I'm doing an undergraduate project under a fellowship on the literature of the Filipino American diaspora, and I am working on an article on Teju Cole and the Nigerian American diaspora. I really want to carry this theme into graduate school and have begun looking at programs.

Initially I went the top 20 route, but I've slowly been learning that program of best fit is the way to go. So far, Duke and Columbia have been on my radar. I contacted a pretty notable professor in Columbia working on my field and she said their program is a good fit.

What are some other programs to keep in mind for diaspora/transnational work? I've got decent GRE general scores and a stellar CV...and working on the daunting process of the SOP.

[poliscar]

Berkeley (English and/or Ethnic Studies), Brown, Northwestern, Stanford (Modern Thought and Lit/English), and Michigan come to mind. 

Victor Mendoza (http://www.lsa.umich.edu/english/people/profile.asp?ID=1787) at Michigan comes to mind in relation to Filipino American work, but since he's not tenured he probably would not be able to supervise a dissertation. He completed his PhD at Berkeley, however, which seems to produce the most interesting work in the field.  
 

[tingdeh]

Berkeley (English and/or Ethnic Studies), Brown, Northwestern, Stanford (Modern Thought and Lit/English), and Michigan come to mind. 

Victor Mendoza (http://www.lsa.umich.edu/english/people/profile.asp?ID=1787) at Michigan comes to mind in relation to Filipino American work, but since he's not tenured he probably would not be able to supervise a dissertation. He completed his PhD at Berkeley, however, which seems to produce the most interesting work in the field.  

 

 

Thanks a lot -- I contacted Victor Mendoza to see what he has to say regardless. Berkeley's looking good, too, in terms of their graduate dissertation history, a lot of work on Asian American literature.

 

On a somewhat related note: how specific do Statements of Purpose have to be for such schools in terms of the project I'd want to conduct when I'm there?

[jazzyd]

Hey! You might want to check out the thread as there's a lot of ongoing discussion on parts of the application, including the SOP.