Our doctoral program offers classes in British and American literature from Shakespeare to the postmodern novel and in creative writing. Small in size, the program enables you to construct your own plan of study to reflect your interests as you prepare for your written and oral exams.

Our graduate programs are designed to accommodate part-time as well as full-time students. Graduate seminars meet once a week and are scheduled in the late afternoon or evening to allow students with work or family responsibilities to attend. At least one graduate seminar is offered each summer. Working closely with your chair and members of their committee, you will leave prepared to enter the workforce, pursue further graduate study, or apply for positions in post-secondary education. Design and execute a scholarly project that enables you to become an expert in your areas of interest. The USD Department of English is committed to providing its graduate students with support in the form of teaching assistantships, travel funds, and opportunities for research grants. All students can gain practical literary professional and editorial experience by taking classes in publishing, as well as working with the Vermillion Literary Project, South Dakota Review, and Astrophil Press.

Specialize in areas that interest you

Earning your doctoral degree shows you’re dedicated to improving your expertise and credibility in the field of English. You can narrow your research and plan of study to focus on a particular specialty, which helps you become more competitive in your field.

1.) Literary Studies: Critical

This specialization offers students challenging graduate seminars on British, American, and World literatures with a rigorous grounding in historical, theoretical, and philosophical frameworks. Students will have the opportunity to work closely with faculty members publishing in fields ranging from Romanticism and modernism on the British side of the Atlantic to Transcendentalism and the Harlem Renaissance on American shores. The Ph.D. program enables students to construct their own plan of study to reflect their literary and critical interests as they prepare for their written and oral exams. Critical-track Ph.D. students will also have opportunities to teach a variety of courses in order to develop their pedagogy and to establish their credentials for teaching in the academic world. Faculty mentorship of graduate students extends beyond the classroom with professionalization workshops designed to help students navigate the difficulties of the job market with sessions on publishing, conferences, and job materials. 

2.) Literary Studies: Creative Writing

This specialization offers students graduate-level workshops in multiple genres with professional writers—developing not only multi-genre fluency within their own work, but also building pedagogical skills and credentials within the creative writing classroom. While offering discussion and feedback on student work and addressing relevant elements of craft and technique, graduate-level workshops in creative writing also provide broad readings within the “state of the art,” and offer opportunities to engage with current conversations in aesthetic and historical contexts, narrative theory, poetics, and critical theory. These workshops are complemented by graduate literature seminars in nineteenth- and twentieth-century British and American literature. Students construct their own plan of study to reflect their individual critical interests and to prepare them for their written and oral exams, which will credential them to teach literature courses at the college level. Creative writing Ph.D. students can establish and build upon their pedagogical skills through teaching a wide range of courses, including introductory courses in creative writing. In addition to offering writers time and mentorship to build their C.V.s, the Ph.D. program also offers numerous professional development opportunities in terms of publishing courses, mentorship in the job application process, and editorial/literary organization experience through working with The Vermillion Literary Project, South Dakota Review, and Astrophil Press.