Funding
Students in the Ph.D. program are supported by means of teaching appointments in the Department of English and Department of Rhetoric and Writing and by dissertation-year fellowships paid for by Department of English excellence funds. With the exception of recruitment bonuses and extra-departmental fellowships, each entering group of students receives roughly the same funding package.
Funding for a full six years is available to all entering graduate students in the Ph.D. Program. The typical pattern of support is as follows:
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- 2 years as a Teaching Assistant in the Department of English
- 2 years as an Assistant Instructor in the Department of Rhetoric and Writing
- 1 year as an Assistant Instructor in the Department of English
- 1 year on a dissertation writing fellowship
In addition, we fund two summers through teaching and research assignments (TA, AI, GRA) and two summers through a research stipend.
Students entering the program with an M.A. may choose to complete their degree requirements before their 6th year.
The 9-month TA stipend for 2021-2022 is $19,000. The 9-month AI stipend for 2021-2022 is $21,000. All academic graduate student employees working 20 hours/week or more are funded for health insurance through Academic Blue.
Graduate students also have the opportunity to pursue alternative opportunities while at UT, including editorial assistantships, assistant directorships, and staffing in the University Writing Center (UWC) and Digital Writing and Research Lab (DWRL). In addition to these opportunities, one student per year works as the editorial assistant for Texas Studies in Literature and Language. Students in this position gain extensive experience with the management of a scholarly journal.
Academic Administration Experience:
Each year some of our students serve as Assistant Directors for courses, programs, and projects in the Departments of English and Rhetoric and Writing. These positions entail working closely with faculty and staff to administer parts of our undergraduate curricula, run orientations, and mentor fellow graduate students, among other tasks. At present there are more than a dozen Assistant Directorships. Some are for specific courses, E 316, RHE 306, RHE 309K, and E 314; others serve the New Writers Project, the University Writing Center, and the Digital Writing and Research Lab. Work as an Assistant Director reduces the teaching load and often comes with additional remuneration. Assistant Directors gain essential experience in academic administration, a career path for many of our students.
Many of our students are successful at obtaining prestigious fellowships from other UT Austin units and external organizations (e.g., Mellon, ACLS, PEO). If you receive a fellowship, scholarship, grant, or award that is in addition to the funding commitment outlined in the offer letter you executed upon beginning the English PhD program, notify the Graduate Advisor (Heather Houser) and Graduate Program Administrator (Patricia Schaub). If this funding is obtained for a year when your offer letter promises you an English fellowship or Excellence Graduate Research Assistantship, the amount of that external funding may be deducted from the department stipend. You will never take a cut in the funding detailed in your offer letter by accepting an external fellowship. However, you cannot receive the full amount of the fellowship/GRA promised in the offer letter and the full amount of the external funding concurrently. This policy is in line with The Graduate School’s policy on Supplemental Support and CoLA's policies on external fellowships for faculty. It exists to ensure that the department can continue offering all students Excellence funding, i.e., two semesters without teaching responsibilities, during which you can write your dissertation.
Students in the Ph.D. program are supported by means of teaching appointments in the Department of English and Department of Rhetoric and Writing and by dissertation-year fellowships paid by Department of English Excellence funds. With the exception of recruitment bonuses and extra-departmental fellowships, each entering group of students receives roughly the same funding package.
Funding for a full six years is available to all graduate students entering the Ph.D. Program. The typical pattern of support is as follows:
- 2 years as a Teaching Assistant in the Department of English
- 2 years as an Assistant Instructor in the Department of Rhetoric and Writing
- 1 year as an Assistant Instructor in the Department of English
- 1 year on full fellowship
- 2 summers of teaching or research assignments (TA, AI, GRA)
- 2 summers of research fellowships
The 9-month TA stipend for the 2023-2024 academic year is $20,353. The 9-month AI stipend for for the 2023-2024 academic year is $22,495. UT provides all eligible Academic Graduate Student employees with 100% premium support for AcademicBlue SHIP, the student health insurance plan. You can learn more about UT Academic Graduate Student Employee insurance options here.
Graduate students also have the opportunity to pursue additional graduate student employee positions at UT, including editorial assistantships, assistant directorships, and staffing in the University Writing Center (UWC) and Digital Writing and Research Lab (DWRL). In addition to these opportunities, one student per year works as the editorial assistant for Texas Studies in Literature and Language. Students in this position gain extensive experience with the management of a scholarly journal.
Academic Administration Opportunities
Each year some of our students serve as Assistant Directors for courses, programs, and projects in the Departments of English and Rhetoric and Writing. These positions entail working closely with faculty and staff to administer parts of our undergraduate curricula, run orientations, and mentor fellow graduate students, among other tasks. At present there are more than a dozen Assistant Directorships. Some are for specific courses, E 316, RHE 306, RHE 309K, and E 314; others serve the New Writers Project, the University Writing Center, and the Digital Writing and Research Lab. Work as an Assistant Director reduces the teaching load and often comes with additional remuneration. Assistant Directors gain essential experience in academic administration, a career path for many of our students.
External Funding
Many of our students are successful at obtaining prestigious fellowships from other UT Austin units and external organizations (e.g., Mellon, ACLS, PEO). If students receive a fellowship, scholarship, grant, or award that is in addition to the funding commitment outlined in the offer letter executed upon beginning the English PhD program, they must notify the Graduate Advisor and Graduate Program Administrator (Patricia Schaub).
If external funding is obtained for a year when the English Department offer letter promises an English fellowship or Excellence Graduate Research Assistantship, the amount of the external funding may be deducted from the departmental fellowship or stipend. Students will never take a cut in the total funding detailed in the offer letter by accepting an external fellowship. However, they cannot receive the full amount of the fellowship/GRA promised in the offer letter and the full amount of the external funding concurrently. This policy is in line with The Graduate School’s policy on Supplemental Support and CoLA's policies on external fellowships for faculty. It exists to ensure that the department can continue offering all students Excellence funding, i.e., two semesters without teaching responsibilities, during which they can write their dissertations.
Teaching Assignments
English Graduate Students teach a combination of the following four courses:*
- E 316 (Teaching Assistantship)
E 316 is a required “masterworks” survey of literature that fulfills the State of Texas Humanities Core Requirement. (As a result, between 5,500 and 6,500 students take E 316 each academic year.) Usually taught in a large lecture format, the course emphasizes close reading and critical thinking and is distinguished by its weekly graduate student-led discussion sections. The curriculum for this course varies widely according to faculty instructor and variant (i.e., E 316L: British Literature, E 316M: American Literature, and E 316N: World Literature).
- RHE 306 (Assistant Instructorship)
RHE 306 also fulfills a State of Texas Core Requirement, English Composition. Taught in small sections by graduate students who have earned a master’s degree, RHE 306 is an introductory writing course that includes instruction in practical reasoning and the principles of rhetoric. The curriculum for this course is relatively uniform across sections and often involves a single text, theme, or problem.
- RHE 309K (Assistant Instructorship)
RHE 309K is a writing course focused on studying and practicing methods of rhetorical analysis within the contexts of disputed issues of academic, political, or cultural significance. Graduate students often propose topics related to their research and personal interests and develop the syllabus accordingly. Current topics include “The Rhetoric of Food,” “The Rhetoric of Oil,” and “The Rhetoric of American Exceptionalism.”
- E 314 (Assistant Instructorship)
E 314 is a gateway course to the English major. An introduction to literary analysis, the course is taught in numerous variants: E 314J: Literature and Film, E 314L: Banned Books and Novel Ideas, 314L: Texts and Contexts, 314L: Reading Poetry, E 314L: Cult Classics, E 314L: GoodReads, E 314V: African American Literature and Culture, E 314V: Asian American Literature and Culture, E 314V: Mexican American Literature and Culture, E 314V: Gay and Lesbian Literature and Culture, E 314V: Native American Literature and Culture, E 314V: Women, Gender, Literature, and Culture. As the preceding list suggests, graduate students have great latitude with regard to topic and text selection.
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TA/AI Workload: Across all teaching assignments, the department carefully manages graduate students' teaching load. TAs are responsible for no more than two discussion sections per semester and averaging about 50 students per semester; AIs are responsible for one course per semester and averaging about 25 students per semester.
*Individual teaching assignments are dependent upon departmental teaching needs and other factors, and are assigned by the department on a semesterly basis.
