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Graduate Programs

College of Liberal Arts

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 The Department of English at the University of Texas at Austin is home to three fully-funded and highly-rated graduate programs–the Ph.D. in English, the Ph.D. in Comparative Literature, and the M.F.A. in Creative Writing– as well as an M.A. in Humanities, Health, and Medicine, a Dual Degree M.S.I.S./M.A. in Information Studies and English, in partnership with the School of Information, and a 4+1 M.A. program for undergraduate students.

Drawing on the resources of a number of departments and centers, these programs feature a diverse, engaged, and accomplished faculty. The University of Texas and City of Austin provide a vibrant setting for our programs.

Students benefit from the many research resources located on campus including The Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center (widely considered one of the premier special collections libraries in the world), the Nettie Lee Benson Latin American Collection (which draws researchers from all over the world), the Lyndon Baines Johnson Presidential Library, and the Dolph Briscoe Center for the Study of American History. In addition, UT is home to a number of “sibling” graduate programs, centers, institutes, interest groups, and research clusters, including those in American Studies, African and African Diaspora Studies, Communication Studies, Comparative Literature, Creative Writing, History, Mexican American and Latina/o Studies, Radio/Television/Film, and Women’s and Gender Studies, among many others.

Students who undertake our program also receive intensive mentoring and pedagogical training to prepare them for success as teachers, scholars, writers, and administrators, both in and well beyond the academy.

  • English Ph.D.

    Ranked in the top 20 English Graduate Programs by U.S. News & World Report, our program offers students intensive research mentoring and pedagogical training, in addition to six years of full funding. Students in our Ph.D. program work in and across many disciplines and fields of study. For our faculty's primary teaching and research fields, please see the faculty page.

    Admitted students are considered ready for early-level doctoral work upon arrival.  In general, their dossiers display a disciplinary sophistication – an understanding of and talent for inquiry formation within the context of a disciplinary subfield – that is decisively beyond the level typically attained as an English major. We typically accept roughly one in every ten qualified applicants. About 40% of each class enters with an M.A. in English; the 60% who enter with a B.A. earn the M.A. in two years en route to the doctorate. Please note that we do not have a terminal English M.A. program.

    More information about the English Ph.D. program can be found at the following pages:

  • New Writers Project M.F.A. in Creative Writing

    The New Writers Project at the University of Texas at Austin is a small, fully funded, three-year studio M.F.A program within the large and highly-ranked Department of English. The program offers students close mentorship, a literary community, and teaching and editing experience. The NWP works in concert with its partner M.F.A. program, the Michener Center for Writers, to provide an artistically adventurous and intellectually rigorous terminal degree. Students in our M.F.A. program work in fiction and poetry but also benefit from and work closely with the faculty in the above fields of study.

    For more information about the M.F.A. program in Creative Writing and how to apply, please visit the New Writers Project website.

  • Information Studies and English M.S.I.S./M.A. Dual Degree

    The joint English-School of Information M.S.I.S./M.A. Dual Degree is a three-year program that provides students an opportunity to gain professional skills that will qualify them to work as information specialists in important cultural repositories including archives, museums, or libraries, together with a high level of specialized research competency that will serve them in future careers as information professionals or academics. Students in the Dual Degree program come with professional ambitions in information organization, digital humanities, database design, usability, information policy, preservation, and the cultural status of information and communication technologies.

    Additional information on the Dual Degree admissions process and degree requirements can be found here.

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Graduate Student Awards

List of recent awards given to our graduate students.

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