Americanists

[WildeThing]

I was looking at Harvard's English program and was surprised to see only one American lit grad course on offer over two semesters. This was surprising to me but then again my current uni has the same situation. Is this normal? Do any of the top programs have a reputstion for being good with american lit (20th especially)?

[echo449]

Oh, I guess I'm an appropriate person to respond to this. Different programs have different specialties, yada yada. Berkeley and Chicago, for instance, have a ton of 20th century american lit offerings. My program is having a banner year with 6 20th century courses overall, and 4 of those being American. The number of Americanist courses being offered, like the number of anything being offered, will waver depending on who is up to teach a grad course in a given year.  

[greenmt]

Not long ago, I discovered, by accident, that the US News & World Report rankings have fairly detailed breakdowns by specialty.  This should show the listings for American Lit. after 1865, if that helps.

[Warelin]

43 minutes ago, greenmt said:

Not long ago, I discovered, by accident, that the US News & World Report rankings have fairly detailed breakdowns by specialty.  This should show the listings for American Lit. after 1865, if that helps.

As a sidenote: Even US News can be broken based on how they do rankings. Harvard will nearly always rank well because it's Harvard. The last time US News ranked English Programs was in 2013. On that list, there's Bryn Mawr College at #59. Bryn Mawr has never had an English PHD program. Also, since 2013, a fair amount of professors have retired and certain schools have moved towards other specializations.

[greenmt]

Wow, you went deep to find that.  Yes, I wouldn't trust them for anything except general info, which is what it sounded like the original poster was seeking, and I didn't even consider looking at them when I was applying.  The only research-based resource I found when I was looking was the National Academies' 2010 report, which has its flaws and is a few years old now.  I found it useful because I was able to sort by lots of factors, and thereby narrow down to a limited set of programs that fit my criteria.    

[MargeryUnkempet]

Out of curiosity, what other programs are extremely notable for their 20th century American literature offerings? It is my main area of interest and I am trying to narrow down programs. Any feedback will be greatly appreciated! 

[echo449]

Berkeley, Yale, Columbia, UChicago, UCLA, Penn State...I mean, a lot of places have a lot of faculty doing this stuff. Rutgers is also good, particularly if you are interested in specializing in AF-AM lit. 

[MargeryUnkempet]

5 hours ago, echo449 said:

Berkeley, Yale, Columbia, UChicago, UCLA, Penn State...I mean, a lot of places have a lot of faculty doing this stuff. Rutgers is also good, particularly if you are interested in specializing in AF-AM lit. 

PSU and Rutgers are both on my radar, but the others I do not necessarily feel that I could get into (not be too down on myself). This post was started to discuss top tier American Lit programs, but I was curious which mid tier schools have good faculty members who are focused in 20th Century American Literature. If anyone had any information on schools like that I would really appreciate it.

[Warelin]

On 10/4/2016 at 3:36 PM, MargeryUnkempet said:

PSU and Rutgers are both on my radar, but the others I do not necessarily feel that I could get into (not be too down on myself). This post was started to discuss top tier American Lit programs, but I was curious which mid tier schools have good faculty members who are focused in 20th Century American Literature. If anyone had any information on schools like that I would really appreciate it.

FWIW: Last year, Rutgers accepted 12 people into their cohort. The average scores were as follows: 165V, 154Q and a 3.83 GPA.
Penn State doesn't release this information as far as I know.

UCLA mentions that a combined 1300 (V+Subject) can be used to gauge performance. Dividing this in half, this would be a 163V and a 650 on the subject exam.

[poliscar]

Whose scholarship do you admire? What sort of approach do you take? I don't think you'll get very far looking for 20th Century Americanists—the field is just too broad. You should be narrowing it down yourself based on the work you see yourself doing.

[Bumblebea]

On 9/17/2016 at 10:13 PM, WildeThing said:

I was looking at Harvard's English program and was surprised to see only one American lit grad course on offer over two semesters. This was surprising to me but then again my current uni has the same situation. Is this normal? Do any of the top programs have a reputstion for being good with american lit (20th especially)?

I think that is somewhat unusual, to be honest with you. I mean, I'm an Americanist who didn't go to Harvard-level programs, and I always had a wide selection of American lit graduate courses at my disposal every semester.. 

As far as American lit goes, UPenn is probably the top program. Maryland and Rutgers are particularly strong for Af-Am. NYU and CUNY are also very strong for American lit.

[allplaideverything]

On 10/6/2016 at 10:53 PM, poliscar said:

Whose scholarship do you admire? What sort of approach do you take? I don't think you'll get very far looking for 20th Century Americanists—the field is just too broad. You should be narrowing it down yourself based on the work you see yourself doing.

I think poliscar is right. I'd add that you might find it more useful to focus on the theoretical / methodological leanings of departments more than how many 20th C Americanists they have. Basically every department will have at least one person who does 20th C Am, and you can read the literary texts you're interested in on your own. If you're really into psychoanalysis, though, or Marxism, or whatever, you'll need to be in a department that supports that kind of work.

[margeryhemp]

On 9/27/2016 at 5:23 PM, Warelin said:

As a sidenote: Even US News can be broken based on how they do rankings. Harvard will nearly always rank well because it's Harvard. The last time US News ranked English Programs was in 2013. On that list, there's Bryn Mawr College at #59. Bryn Mawr has never had an English PHD program. Also, since 2013, a fair amount of professors have retired and certain schools have moved towards other specializations.

just a pedantic asshole note that BMC used to have one but they phased it out over 20 years ago

 

but another vote for UCLA! Each entering cohort has a very strong contingent of Americanists, particularly 19th and 20th century. If you have any questions, feel free to reach out.