Detailed Information
Program of Study
Villanova has been granting its master’s degree in English language and literature for more than half a century. Villanova weds this sense of history with a keen awareness of the contemporary, interdisciplinary spirit of literary study. The curriculum balances a traditional, historical understanding of literary periods with newer, theoretically based considerations of writing and reading. This range of approaches provides students with expertise in much of the literature written in English, highly refined interpretive skills, and familiarity with the major intellectual currents shaping the discipline of literary study today.
All courses are conducted as small seminars, with a maximum enrollment of 15 students. Course work provides a broad range of study in a variety of areas, and the thesis or field exam provides focus within a particular field. The thesis offers an opportunity for sustained critical examination of a work, author, or topic, while the field examination is taken on a list of works compiled in consultation with the student’s adviser within a field of the student’s choosing.
To satisfy the requirements for the master’s degree, students must complete a minimum of 30 credits, including successful completion of a thesis or an oral/written field examination. Students are expected to take at least one course in British literature before 1800 and another in American literature before 1900. An average grade of at least a B must be maintained to remain in the program. Students usually complete the curriculum in two years, taking two or three courses each semester, but may pursue their studies on a part-time basis, in which case they are allowed a period of six years to earn the degree.
At all stages, the program is deeply committed to the individual student’s development and maturation as a literary scholar. Upon matriculation, each student is assigned an adviser, who assists in planning the individual course of study. After successful completion of 9 credits, the student may request an adviser with particular expertise in the student’s area of interest.
Research Facilities
The Falvey Memorial Library at Villanova University houses more than 600,000 volumes and 3,000 periodicals. An interlibrary loan system operates with the efficiency of e-mail. Special holdings include the McGarrity and Worthington collections, major resources of literature and periodicals about Irish history, Irish-American relations, and writings by and about James Joyce. The library is located in the middle of the campus and includes numerous public-use computer stations that are equipped with sophisticated search engines and data-retrieval mechanisms.
Financial Aid
Applicants may compete for full financial awards, including tuition remission and a yearly stipend of approximately $13,000, which are renewable for a second year. Tuition scholarships (tuition remission without a stipend) are also offered and are renewable for the second year. The work these awards require ranges from helping individual faculty members with research materials to assisting in the University Writing and Learning Center.
Since classes in the master’s program meet in the evenings, students without financial aid are often able to support their graduate study through daytime employment outside the University.
Cost of Study
Fees and expenses for graduate students in 2009–10 were $50 for the application fee, $585 per credit for tuition, and $30 per semester for general University fees.
Living and Housing Costs
A variety of affordable housing possibilities are available near the Villanova University campus. Housing costs vary in accordance with the option chosen. Villanova University does not provide on-campus housing for graduate students.
Student Group
There are usually about 50 students matriculated in the program, and the ratio of men to women is approximately 2:3. While some graduate students are dedicated to becoming professors of English, others are seeking the master’s because they want to learn more about the discipline in order to decide whether a Ph.D. is right for them, they wish to advance their careers as teachers of secondary school, or they simply love literature and want to immerse themselves in it. Some students come directly from undergraduate programs, while others have pursued other careers and are returning to school to pursue a lifelong ambition.
Student Outcomes
In recent years, recipients of the master’s degree in English from Villanova have been admitted to highly competitive Ph.D. programs, including Harvard, Johns Hopkins, Ohio State, Penn State, Princeton, Rutgers, UCLA, and the Universities of Kansas, Maryland, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. Others have elected to use the degree to pursue teaching positions at the excellent secondary schools adjacent to the University. Still others have chosen to pursue careers in publishing and other fields, including business and law, which demand the verbal acumen and analytical rigor Villanova’s program cultivates.
Location
Villanova is situated on the historic Main Line, in a beautiful western suburb of Philadelphia. Philadelphia offers a wide variety of museums, libraries, concerts, and other cultural opportunities. Home to the greatest variety of eighteenth-century buildings in America, the city is also enjoying a renaissance in modern architecture, restaurants, and the performing arts. By car or train, the campus is only 30 minutes from downtown. It is 2 minutes from the Blue Route (Route 476) and 5 minutes from the Pennsylvania Turnpike, the Schuylkill Expressway, and Route 202. With ample parking and mass transit stops right on campus grounds, students can travel easily to and from the campus by car, bus, or train.
The University and The Department
Founded in 1842 by the friars of the Order of St. Augustine, Villanova is a comprehensive Roman Catholic institution that welcomes students of all faiths. Roughly 10,000 students attend the University, including 6,000 undergraduates and 4,000 graduate students. The Department of English at Villanova includes a number of distinguished critics, whose scholarship has earned them national and international recognition. They are well acquainted with the methods and values of current scholarship in English literature, and they seek equally to deepen the student’s acquaintance with these critical discourses and develop each student’s individual critical sensibility.
Applying
Villanova typically requires that applicants have at least 18 undergraduate credits and a 3.0 average in English. However, the University occasionally accepts applications from candidates who majored in related fields.
Applicants should send the three letters of recommendation (at least two of which should be from former professors), a writing sample of approximately ten pages, and a one-page personal statement to the Graduate English Program, Department of English, Villanova University, 800 Lancaster Avenue, Villanova, Pennsylvania 19085-1699; they should send the application for admission, the nonrefundable application fee, all official postsecondary transcripts, and the GRE scores from both the General Test and the English Subject Test to the Graduate Studies Office, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, Villanova University, 800 Lancaster Avenue, Villanova, Pennsylvania 19085-1699. Application forms are available online at Villanova’s Graduate School Web site. The deadline for receipt of applications for the fall semester is March 1 and for the spring semester, November 15.
The Faculty and Their Research
- Chiji Akoma, Associate Professor; Ph.D., SUNY at Binghamton. Postcolonial literature.
- Michael Berthold, Associate Professor; Ph.D., Harvard. Nineteenth-century American literature, slave narrative, American Gothic.
- Cristina Maria Cervone, Assistant Professor; Ph.D., Virginia. Medieval studies, poetics, history of the English language.
- Charles L. Cherry, Professor; Ph.D., North Carolina. British Romanticism, madness and imagination, history of ideas.
- Alice A. Dailey, Assistant Professor; Ph.D., UCLA. Renaissance literature.
- Heather Hicks, Associate Professor; Ph.D., Duke. Post–World War II American fiction, postmodern theory, contemporary cultural studies.
- Karyn L. Hollis, Associate Professor; Ph.D., USC. Composition studies.
- Crystal J. Lucky, Associate Professor; Ph.D., Pennsylvania. African American literature, nineteenth-century African American church history, literary pedagogy.
- Jean Lutes, Associate Professor; Ph.D., Wisconsin–Madison. Modern American fiction.
- Hugh Ormsby-Lennon, Associate Professor; Ph.D., Pennsylvania. Augustan literature, eighteenth-century cultural studies, eighteenth-century Anglo-Irish literature, literary theory.
- Megan Quigley, Assistant Professor; Ph.D., Yale. British and Irish Modernism.
- Evan Radcliffe, Associate Professor; Ph.D., Cornell. British Romanticism, the French Revolution controversy, historicism.
- Jill Rappaport, Assistant Professor; Ph.D., Virginia. Victorian literature and cultural history.
- Lisa Sewell, Associate Professor; Ph.D., Tufts. Contemporary American poetry, poetics.
- Lauren E. Shohet, Associate Professor; Ph.D., Brown. Renaissance and seventeenth-century literature, cultural studies, literary theory, gender studies.
- Deborah A. Thomas, Professor; Ph.D., Rochester. Victorian literature and culture, Dickens, Thackeray, nineteenth-century British women’s writing.
Correspondence and Information
Villanova University
Director of Graduate Studies
Department of English
Villanova, Pennsylvania 19085
Telephone:
610-519-7826
Fax:
610-519-6913
Email:
gradinfo@email.villanova.edu
