Graduate Program English

Our graduate programs enable advanced students to pursue intensive study with distinguished faculty committed to a creative and intellectual community. Courses and related programs link students at all levels with interdisciplinary opportunities on campus, while a lively series of speakers, colloquia and conferences provide a context for sustained learning and debate within the humanities. Alumni from our programs have garnered an outstanding range of accomplishments.

The Department of English offers three graduate degree options for prospective applicants:

Our PhD and MFA graduate students are a dynamic group of writers, scholars, and teachers, trained in a diverse range of critical approaches and areas of study, who produce innovative dissertations and theses. In addition, our students receive extensive teacher training, thus presenting substantial teaching experience to prospective employers in addition to scholarly excellence. Cornell graduate students teach multiple seminars in the university-wide First-year Writing Program, an experience which prepares them to design and teach courses in creative writing, literature, and cultural studies to a range of students, including agriculture and engineering majors, as well as students in the humanities and social sciences. You can find more information about current PhD and MFA students, as well as current PhD and MFA Lecturers, by visiting our English Department Graduate Students & PhD/MFA Lecturers page.