Graduate Progam Information:
Marnie Leonard (970) 491-2403 Marnie.Leonard@colostate.edu
Graduate Study
Master of Arts in Literature
In keeping with the current multidisciplinary emphasis in literary studies, we offer a flexible program that will allow you to develop and follow your own interests in such matters as
- contemporary cultural studies
- genre studies
- richly contextualized and historicized readings of British, American, and other English-language literatures
- environmental and nature literature and ecocriticism
- race, ethnicity, and post-colonial concerns in literature
- critical theories, aesthetics, and politics
- literary or creative non-fiction of various kinds
- writing by women and feminist/gender theory
- and more
Our program is relatively small, and so our faculty can be especially available and supportive: we try to nurture and challenge every student.
Our requirements (see below) are modest and focused, and the courses we offer change regularly. (For recent graduate course offerings, see The Rambler.) You may opt to cover a range of genres, eras, topics, and authors; to develop your skills in reading, thinking, and writing; to explore and experiment; or to focus on a particular interest. With some initiative and ingenuity, you have considerable room to choose your own path. You may take courses in other departments (History, Philosophy, Natural Resources, Foreign Languages and Literatures, Speech Communications, etc.) and in other programs in the English Department, including such topics as reading and writing theory, computers and writing, teaching English as a foreign language, and English education.
If you are awarded a Graduate Teaching Assistantship (GTA), you will teach your own composition classes, with our help. You may also be able to arrange to earn credit as a teaching assistant in a literature classroom or as a faculty research assistant. If you’re interested, we will help you find other paid and unpaid internships as well, both on and off campus.
Graduate Teaching Assistantships
Assistantships are available on a competitive basis, and most begin in the fall semester. Please apply by January 15th if you wish to be considered.
Requirements for the Degree
Most students finish the MA in literature in four or five semesters.
There are two major options, Plan A, which requires 32 semester credits, 6 of them for writing a thesis, and Plan B, which requires 35 credits, 2 of them for writing a final project. (You don’t need to decide which plan to follow until midway through your second semester, and even then you may change your mind.) In both plans, you must:
- Complete required courses in literary theory and research methods
- Complete one course outside the English Department. Courses cross-listed with the English department are acceptable as long as they are taught by faculty from another department. You may take up to 9 credit hours outside the department; all these courses must be at level 300 or above. If your undergraduate major was not English, this requirement is waived
- Pass comprehensive exam
- Pass an oral defense of your thesis or final project
For additional details, see Graduate Advising Notes: MA Programs. For a brief overview of all major requirements, see Program Requirements Check Sheet.
This information is not intended to replace your advisor or the information in the CSU General Catalog, the Class Schedule, or the Department Checksheets.
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