Our department has a unique mix of faculty and support for projects that work across boundaries. We typically offer eleven or twelve courses each semester, and all courses are capped at 12 students, with the majority smaller than that.
Incoming students do not need to select an advisor but should have a general area of study, which they describe in their application letters. We support a wide range of specialties, defined in terms of time periods (Medieval, Early Modern, 19th century, Contemporary, etc), locale (American, British Lit, Transatlantic, etc), culture (African American, Asian American, LatinX, etc), and topic (Gender, Environment, Science, Religion, etc). Although we are open to students working in many different focuses, we are particularly interested in recruiting students working in the following areas:
The Cultural Operation of Science, Technology, Environment, and Medicine:
As a world-class science and engineering school, Texas A&M offers a unique environment to study the rhetorical and cultural manifestations of science and technology. Our faculty and students in the English department work in interdisciplinary initiatives across the university to examine pressing issues in:
- Digital humanities
- Rhetoric or literature of science
- Medicine and health humanities
- Environmental humanities
- Digital rhetoric and AI
- Technical writing
- Science fiction
- Game studies
As a student you can: work with CoDHR (the Center for Digital Humanities Research) and complete a DH Certificate; join the initiative on the Humanities and the Anthropocene or participate in the new Sustainability Studies initiatives; get involved in the Health Humanities program or new initiatives to study the repercussions of Gen-AI; research in our world-class Science Fiction archive or engage with faculty in emerging conversations in game studies.
Contested Identities and Cultural Production:
Are you interested in how literature and culture works with contested identities across cultural and national boundaries? Much of our recent faculty research, courses, and student work
employ iinterdisciplinary approaches to analyze national, transnational, postnational, and postcolonial literatures, popular culture, and material culture; explore the intersections of gender, race, class, and sexuality in the production and reception of cultural texts; and trace how embodied identity categories are contested and/or affirmed through practices of reading and writing, and how they are shaped by different histories and places. We have particular emphasis in:
- Gender and Sexuality
- Hemispheric and transnational literatures
- Diasporic literatures and cultures
- Multi-ethnic literature
As a student, you can: pursue graduate certificates inLatino/a and Mexican American Studies (LMAS) and Africana Studies; earn funding support from the Race and Ethnic Studies Institute (RESI); engage with faculty and graduate students through the Glasscock Center and RESI Working Groups, such as the Latinx Studies or Asian American Diaspora Studies Working Groups.