Colonial/ Postcolonial Lit PhDs or Professors?

[SongOfMyself]

Hi all, I'm starting to try and find potential advisors or programs conducive for colonial/postcolonial literature focused PhDs. My MSc focuses on transatlanticism (primarily British lit), religious studies, nationalism, and gender up until about 1900. The only problem I'm having is that most of the departments I've found have people who are really great in eighteenth- or seventeenth-century colonial/ postcolonial lit (including at my BA institution), but nothing in the long nineteenth century, especially Romantic & Victorian literature (edit: and regarding South Asia, particularly India). If you have any suggestions or ideas, I'd love to hear them!

Edited May 18, 2016 by SongOfMyself

[__________________________]

You should probably check out Northwestern. They have some great C18 people, a couple of whom do international/transatlantic work (Rebecca Johnson, Kelly Wisecup). I also feel like UMN is a really good place to be doing poco-anything, though I can't think of anyone there specifically doing that with C17/18.

 

[SongOfMyself]

Oh great! I will look into those programs. I'm afraid I phrased my original post incorrectly though-- I'm more of a 19th century focus! I keep finding great programs for 17/18c, but not a lot of 19c. 

[echo449]

I think you'll have an easier time if you focus on programs with strong 19th century faculty and strong po-co, even if those po-co people arn't "in field"--your diss chair doesn't have to be both; you just need an enviroment where faculty are invested in those fields and could support you. 

Edited May 18, 2016 by echo449

[poliscar]

A bunch of places/people come to mind immediately for me. Duke could be a good fit, with Ranjana Khanna, but also someone like Nancy Armstrong. The same goes for Brown—Leela Gandhi is there, alongside a number of great Victorianists and Romanticists. UPenn has Jed Esty, as well as Ania Loomba; Berkeley has a ton of brilliant people, including recent hires such as Poloumi Saha and Joseph Lavery; Columbia is stellar, with Gauri Viswanathan, Spivak, Joseph Slaughter, Sharon Marcus, etc; Princeton has Simon Gikandi, Zahid Chaudhary—both of whom have worked on 19th century colonialism—as well as a ton of other stellar scholars (Esther Schor, Jeff Nunokawa, Rob Nixon...). 

Realistically, there are tons of schools with what you're looking for. I could dig deeper too and probably find suitable people at Rutgers, UCLA, Northwestern, and potentially UVa if Ian Baucom is taking grad students. 

Edited May 18, 2016 by poliscar

[echo449]

I can vouch for the fact that there definitely are students working on Poco and the 19th century at Rutgers (we just admitted someone last year with that profile).

[allplaideverything]

Take a look at UC-Davis. We've got three great Victorianists--Liz Miller, Kathleen Frederickson, & Parama Roy. Parama also does colonial/postcolonial lit & theory, and is one of the most intimidatingly brilliant people I've ever met (http://english.ucdavis.edu/people/proy). We also just generally have lots of faculty with strengths in critical theory, Marxism, etc., and I think we're generally a good place to do intersectional 19th C work.

I'd also add that, while of course you shouldn't apply to programs that don't have any 19th C British / colonialism scholars, it's probably more important to select programs that seem to have a more general intellectual identity that appeals to you, rather than seeking out a faculty member or two who are working on the exact thing that excites you--that one scholar you really want to work with might be busy, or might be less dedicated to graduate students, or might just be a jerk.

[margeryhemp]

On 5/17/2016 at 9:21 PM, SongOfMyself said:

Hi all, I'm starting to try and find potential advisors or programs conducive for colonial/postcolonial literature focused PhDs. My MSc focuses on transatlanticism (primarily British lit), religious studies, nationalism, and gender up until about 1900. The only problem I'm having is that most of the departments I've found have people who are really great in eighteenth- or seventeenth-century colonial/ postcolonial lit (including at my BA institution), but nothing in the long nineteenth century, especially Romantic & Victorian literature (edit: and regarding South Asia, particularly India). If you have any suggestions or ideas, I'd love to hear them!

Definitely check out UCLA-- PoCo is one of our strongest areas, and we have a lot of faculty working in your area-- I know a couple of grad students currently working on postcolonialism in the long nineteenth century, and at least one specifically working on India. Feel free to reach out if you have any questions!