Program Concentrations

CONCENTRATION IN PUBLIC HUMANITIES 

The Public Humanities concentration combines advanced study in traditional English areas (writing, pedagogy, theory, literature) with training in transferable, hands-on skills applicable to many careers, including work with state agencies, arts organizations and non-profits, and educational institutions in student-support roles (recruitment, advising, program design and leadership). In addition to taking courses such as Writing in Public Genres (English 5050) and Non-Profit Writing and Grants (English 5075), students concentrating in Public Humanities may produce a public-facing thesis portfolio containing materials tailored to their unique career path. As part of the public-facing thesis, students are encouraged to present their scholarship in public settings or design research-related public programming, from organizing a film series, a digital tour or exhibition, or a conference, to creating grants and social media content for non-profits. Students may also gain experience and make professional connections through credit-bearing internships with local arts, governmental, and non-profit organizations.  

In this concentration, graduates will analyze literary and cultural texts with theoretical and rhetorical sophistication; hone skills in teaching, writing, and communicating across genres and communities; and bridge critical and civic discourse to address public concerns. Graduates receive the know-how to excel at jobs in non-profit administration and fundraising, arts advocacy and community organizing, professional communication and media, and two-year college teaching and university academic advising and support. 

CONCENTRATION IN LITERATURE

In the English MA, we conceive the term "literature" broadly, to mean all texts that may be read and analyzed. As a result, "literature" includes authors like Shakespeare and Melville, but also film, television, new media, popular culture, and the visual arts. In this way, our graduate seminars allow students to receive a thorough, theoretically informed graduate education in traditional areas of concentration, as well as in more recently conceived topics. Whether MA students study Shakespeare or Scorsese, they emerge from our program with a cutting-edge understanding of the subjects that they study, because the professors teaching them are well-known, publishing scholars. Recent and upcoming graduate seminars include a Disney seminar that will include a research trip to Disneyland, as well as seminars on the relationship between texts and textiles from ancient Greek culture to twentieth-century labor history, on novels made into films, on American Modernism, on the American Gothic, on Early American captivity narratives, on the graphic novel, on four of Shakespeare's plays, on Milton's influence on the Romantic poets, and on the relations among art, literature, and music in the eighteenth century, among many other offerings.

Recent thesis projects completed by students in the literature program include an investigation of the construction of the “Saracen” in medieval romance; an analysis of the "cowboy grotesque" in the short stories of Annie Proulx; a discussion of the genres composing the narrative of John Merrick, known as the "Elephant Man"; an analysis of the "Gothic Pastoral" in American poetry; and a study of the reception of films about Native Americans at the Wind River Reservation.

With the MA in hand, our students often choose to pursue the PhD in English, and we are happy to mentor them through the demanding application process. While we cannot guarantee admission to a PhD program, recent MA students are pursuing the PhD at the University of Michigan, at Emory University, at the University of Wisconsin, at Arizona State University, and Vanderbilt. Students who are now professors recently completed their PhDs at Stanford University, the University of Arizona, the University of Illinois, and the University of Pennsylvania, among other first-rate research institutions. Still other former students make good livings in the public policy sector, as professors at community colleges, as technical writers and editors, in publishing, and in education. Many MA students also choose to continue on to law school, where they excel, or to business school, where they also find that their research and communications skills are in demand.

CONCENTRATION IN RHETORIC AND COMPOSITION

Historically, the rhetoric and composition concentration of the English MA program at the University of Wyoming has been characterized by an interdisciplinary emphasis on pedagogy within the context of a generalist MA that includes significant coursework in literary studies.

Students in the rhetoric and composition concentration take a range of courses both inside and outside the English Department. Within the department, students take courses in technical and professional communication, computers and composition, and the rhetoric of popular culture, in addition to the foundational course in composition theory and pedagogy. Key offerings outside the department have included courses in media theory, sociology, American studies, educational theory, and rhetorical theory, among others.

Recent thesis projects completed by students in the rhetoric and composition concentration reflect this interdisciplinary spirit. For example, one graduate who has gone on to teach at the university level worked with scholars across campus in his thesis, which elaborated a "pedagogy of exchange" and sought to reframe a relationship between the academy and the marketplace. Another graduate worked with interdisciplinary media scholars to theorize a role for wiki technology within contemporary composition instruction.

As part of the English department's larger conversation about graduate study in English and the kinds of programmatic offerings that will best support students' ambitions and professional objectives, we are currently envisioning a program that emphasizes writing in public and professional environments. Proposed concentrations include:

  • Business and Technical Writing

  • Writing in Digital Spaces

  • Writing for Government and Non-Profits

We imagine this program and these concentrations to continue to embrace and expand upon the interdisciplinary history from which the concentration has emerged. In addition to those programs mentioned above, we hope to forge stronger ties with other programs and departments on campus, including business administration, women's studies, and policy studies.

Contact Us

Department of English - 3353

Master of Arts in English

1000 E. University Ave.

Laramie, WY 82071

Phone: 766-6452

Email: EnglishDept@uwyo.edu

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