The English department at St. John’s University offers two
graduate degrees:
The M.A. and D.A. programs are designed for both full-time
graduate students and professional educators, administrators, and
writers who want to pursue an advanced degree part-time. The
English department's combined degree program, the B.A./M.A., also
provides qualified St. John’s undergraduates with the opportunity
to earn a Master's degree within five years of enrolling for their
B.A. degree.
Both programs feature courses and mentoring from outstanding
faculty
in traditional and emerging fields of literature, cultural studies,
critical theory, writing studies, and composition
studies.
Among the areas of study are British and American literary history,
creative writing and composition studies, and interdisciplinary
fields such as gender studies and postcolonial studies. The
English department has especially strong numbers of faculty in
American studies, modernist studies, and writing and composition
studies and also features excellent faculty in early modern,
eighteenth-century, and nineteenth-century British literary
studies.
All English graduate courses at St. John’s are seminars taught by
research faculty who are committed to teaching and mentoring
graduate students. The graduate curriculum offers
approximately 12 courses in the late afternoon and evening each
semester as well as several summer classes.
Recent graduates of the M.A. program have received fellowships at
some of the best graduate programs in the U.S. Other
graduates have been accepted at prestigious law schools,
established careers in publishing and editing, and obtained
tenure-track middle school and high school teaching
positions.
Career placement of our D.A. students has also been very
successful. Recent St. John's D.A. graduates have obtained
tenure-track jobs at four-year universities, community colleges,
and secondary schools in greater New York and across the country.
Our D.A. students have also used the degree to secure positions in
publishing and editing, public relations, and administration in
secondary and higher education.
Complementing the graduate courses are internship opportunities for
practical experience in tutoring, editing, and research. A
limited number of Graduate Assistantships are available on a
competitive basis to all qualified full-time graduate applicants,
while additional opportunities for tutoring are available for all
English graduate students. With the 2006 opening of the
Institute for Writing Studies ,
the graduate program in English features an exceptional new
environment for professional training and development in writing
instruction.
The English graduate program also sponsors an active intellectual
life. Regular lectures and readings by renowned scholars and
writers are sponsored by the English Department and the Institute
for Writing Studies each semester. There are frequent faculty and
student colloquia and film series. For more information about
these and other events sponsored by the department, please see our
department blog.
Our students are also actively involved in two publications
sponsored by the English Department. In 2003 English graduate
students founded a literary journal, The St. John's
Humanities Review , which features book reviews, essays, and
interviews by contributors from campus and from around the
world. In addition, the department supports a thriving
literary journal of student poetry and fiction, Sequoya. For
descriptions of recent English Department events as well as student
and faculty achievements, see the
English Department Newsletter .
Graduate Admission
Information
Office of Graduate Admission
Robert Medrano, Director
(718) 990-1601
gradhelp@stjohns.edu
Department Contact
Dr. Steve Mentz
Director of English Graduate Studies
St. John's Hall B40-04
(718) 990-6690
mentzs@stjohns.edu