How do I develop future specializations (MA English lit.)?

[miss-prufrock]

Good day, everyone!

I'm Karla from the Philippines, and I just graduated from my university's Speech Comm. program in June. I recently got accepted into our university's MA English Studies Program as an Anglo-American Studies major. You see, I've only taken 5 upper-level English courses, an introductory course in Comparative Literature, and a Critical Theory course (from Antiquity to the British Romantics) in Comparative Literature. As I haven't had formal training in literary theory because of a limited number of electives under my BA program, I've mostly been an autodidact when it comes to literary theory.

I'll be entering the MA program come January 2018. And I feel as if--since I'm not an English major (despite the fact that I do read voraciously)--my intended research topics for the program are limited. I know that I have an affinity for 20th century American literature, Romantic poetry, Modern British Literature, comics, and the suburbs, I've only seemed to have half-developed topics I might want to do research on, which can be multidisciplinary.

Here are some of my specific interests:

• religion and cults in American culture
• American suburbia
• depictions of mental illness for the female
• performing gender and queerness
• pop culture
• advertising

My question is this: how can I further develop future research interests? I have this idea of tracing confession in poetry and American music, connecting advertising with the American Romantics, and analyzing reality shows and classic Hollywood in connection with American literary history.

Additionally, would you be able to recommend journals which specialize in these areas? Would I be able to have access to them?

Thank you so much, and  I would appreciate illuminating insights from you.

[renea]

I'm rhet/comp so I do not really have a background in literature...but... as a second year MA student who recently went through this same problem (and also I'm *still* trying to figure out my "specialization") here are some tips:

 

1. Go to a conference. Search through the CFPs and find some that interest you it will give you a good idea of what the field is doing and where your interests might fit (sometimes we have interests that align with current topics, but we just don't know the right names to call them). I'd highly recommend a PCA/ACA regional conference- your research interests would fit right in (or if you're near Indianapolis swing by their national conference this spring there are panels on everything and it's mostly English ppl). Some other options: MLA, CCCC

2. Join some listsrvs, scope out the popular journals/groups for your field and subscribe to their emails. If you are unsure of where to start, I'd recommend creeping on the faculty you are interested in working with (or just the faculty in your department) and see which professional organizations they are members of. I know in rhet/comp nearly everyone is a member of either CCCC or RSA. Not only will you get CFPs without all the digging, but you'll see job postings which will show you what specialties are being hired for (and what those specialties are being named). 

3. Scope out the other students in your program with similar interests and see where they are presenting, reading, ect. 

[Crow T. Robot]

Seconding @renea's excellent advice. Re. conferences, a graduate symposium might be a good place to start, as many of these are organized around an abstract theme (I think the two I went to were "form" and "borders") rather than limited to a specific field, so you can get a sense of the central debates in several different areas (and, as renea pointed out, learn how these areas are categorized in the first place, and how your already existing interests might map onto them). A lot of people will warn you to avoid grad symposiums like the plague--and that might be true if your only goal in attending is to pad your CV. But if you want to get a sense of the academic landscape and meet potentially likeminded students in other programs, all in a lower-pressure environment than a major professional conference, a well-run grad symposium can be a great experience. 

Also, is your eventual goal to apply to PhD programs? If so, you might find that writing that SOP--especially after having taken some MA courses--forces your interests to come together and look more concrete and developed than you might think they are. That's been my experience this app season, at least, especially writing for programs like Stanford MTL and UC Santa Cruz History of Consciousness that require you to propose a research project or two in detail when you apply. 

Edited December 29, 2017 by Tiresias