Graduate Plans

There are four plans or graduate concentrations in the English Department:

  • Literature and Cultural Theory (Plan A)
  • Rhetoric, Professional Writing, and Community Engagement (Plan B)
  • Creative Writing (Plan C)
  • Media, Cinema, and Digital Studies (Plan H)

Professional and Technical Writing (Plan G) is no longer accepting new students.

Although the concentrations allow for flexibility and interaction, students are advised to consult with their advisors and plan coordinators about procedures that may differ from plan to plan.

Graduate students in the Department of English apply and are admitted into a particular plan of study. Each plan of study has its own requirements for courses and advancement towards a degree; be sure that you are familiar with those specific to your plan.

Students who wish to transfer into another plan should know that such “lateral” admission is not always possible. Students should first consult with both the Associate Chair for Graduate Studies and the director of the plan they wish to enter, to discuss the feasibility of a transfer. If advised to proceed, students seeking transfer and admission into a different plan are required to submit, minimally, transcripts and a statement of purpose for the new plan to the Associate Chair for Graduate Studies and to the director of the plan they wish to enter. Additional materials may be required–possibly including a full application with recommendations and writing samples. Acceptance by the new plan’s Advisory Committee and the approval of the Associate Chair for Graduate Studies is required for all transfers.

Please note: because most plans only accept applications once a year, students who are considering such a transfer should consult with the director of the plan they are considering well in advance. In addition, students who transfer between plans may be required to take additional classes in order to acquire needed background in the new study area.

Plan A: Literature and Cultural Theory

The Literature and Cultural Theory concentration differs from traditional English graduate programs in both the diversity and intensive focus of its offerings. While students are expected to develop historical depth in their scholarship, they are not required to cover a prescribed canon of English and American masterpieces or major texts. Instead, they are encouraged to explore various critical approaches to the cultural, aesthetic, and historical properties of literary texts as a prelude to their own advanced and individualized research. At the master’s level, and more extensively at the doctoral level, the concentration’s course requirements provide options for work in the Department’s other graduate concentrations. With appropriate planning students may thus design programs of study that incorporate work from one or more of these concentrations in support of their primary research interests and professional goals.

Plan B: Rhetoric, Professional Writing, and Community Engagement

The graduate concentrations in Public Rhetorics and Community Engagement (PhD) and Rhetoric and Professional Writing (MA) are interdisciplinary programs that provide students with a broad background in rhetoric and writing studies while offering students opportunities to apply that knowledge in pedagogical, professional, and/or community spaces. According to their individual interests and goals, students can develop in-depth knowledge of community engagement, composition pedagogy, contemporary rhetorical theory, cultural rhetorics, digital rhetorics, multimodal composition, professional writing, rhetorics of science and medicine, technical communication, or writing program administration. We continuously encourage students to critique existing theories and practices, and to develop new disciplinary approaches of their own. Most importantly, the rhetoric concentrations aim to develop a community of researchers, teachers, writers, and administrators who support each other’s work, share ideas, and participate in shaping our program goals.

Plan C: Creative Writing

The Creative Writing concentration offers qualified students the opportunity to work intensively in either fiction or poetry under the supervision of an experienced and widely published faculty. At the master’s level, the student combines graduate workshops in fiction or poetry with courses in literature, some of which stress the craft and theory of the genre in which the student has chosen to work. At the doctoral level, students continue the development of their creative writing in workshops and tutorials, while also establishing a secondary field of study in literature and criticism. The dissertation itself may be a novel, a collection of stories or poems, or a substantial work of creative non-fiction. The concentration in Creative Writing features guest writers whenever possible and sponsors a literary magazine, cream city review. With its combination of curricular and extra-curricular activities, Plan C strives to create an atmosphere of commitment to the creative task, a genuine community of working writers and poets within the framework of a metropolitan university.

Plan H: Media, Cinema, and Digital Studies

UWM’s joint MA/PhD program in Media, Cinema, and Digital Studies starts from the assumption that media in the 21st century must be studied comparatively. Cinema has been intermedial since its inception in its rich intersections with the literary, performing, and visual arts, as well as with science and popular culture. With the advent of digital technologies, the interrelation of all media has only intensified. Students in our interdisciplinary program work across major media forms such as film, television, video games, and tactical and social media. Our faculty and students employ rigorous historical, theoretical, and political methodologies to develop innovative research projects both within and across media, cinema, and digital studies.

Seminars include: Colonial and Postcolonial Cinemas, US Cinema, 1967-1980, Queer Cinema and Television, Storytelling and the Media Industries, Media Historiography, Space and Seeing, Understanding Participatory Media, Surrealism & Revolution, Mediation Politics, Affect and Mediation, The Dark Side of the Digital, The Nonhuman Turn.

MA/MLIS Coordinated Degree Program

In cooperation with the College of Community Engagement & Professions, the Department of English offers the Master of Arts/Master of Library Information Science (MA/MLIS) coordinated degree program to prepare students for positions as humanities librarians. Students enrolled in this program concurrently pursue an MA degree in English and an MLIS degree. Admission to the MA/MLIS degree is contingent upon acceptance to graduate studies by the Department of English and the College of Community Engagement & Professions. Therefore, students must apply for the MA/MLIS in both English and SOIS through Panthera. Prerequisite to the award of either degree in this program is the simultaneous award of its counterpart degree.

Students interested in the MA/MLIS program are required to choose one of four graduate plans in the Department of English graduate studies program. Those plans are:

In addition, students are expected to follow all the requirements and standards of the Department of English with one exception: the MA portion of the MA/MLIS degree requires the successful completion of at least 21 credits as opposed to the 30 credit requirement of the standard MA program offered by the Department of English.

Students will indicate their choice of the MA/MLIS degree on the Graduate School admissions application to the Department of English. Study concentration selection must also be indicated on the Department of English admissions application. Check the Admissions page for application deadlines.

For information on applying to the Master of Library Information Science program, visit the College of Community Engagement & Professions web site.