The Graduate Program

The English Department at the University of Hawai‘i offers both the M.A. and Ph.D. degrees. We currently have about 120 graduate students, about 75 in the Master's program and 45 in the Ph.D. program. While most have roots in or connections to Hawai‘i, others come from throughout the Pacific region and from many parts of the United States, and we also have students from Canada, Europe, Africa, and Japan. Students are drawn to the Department by the strength of our faculty, by the diversity of our graduate program, and by the opportunity, with all the challenges that it implies, to study literature and writing in a multicultural setting.

Master's and Ph.D. students take many of their classes together, but the two programs have substantively different purposes. The M.A. program is designed to give students a broad overview of the changing field of contemporary English studies while also allowing them to work within an area of concentration of their own choice. Students take courses both within and outside of their concentration. They are encouraged to explore the ways in which methodologies and assumptions are evolving in their own area of interest and how each part of English studies is being affected by developments taking place throughout the discipline. For students who choose to concentrate in Literary Studies in English, Composition and Rhetoric, or Cultural Studies in Asia/Pacific, the culmination of their studies is provided by their Master's project, in which they are encouraged to apply the theoretical and methodological perspectives of more than a single course to the study of a particular group of texts or other forms of cultural production or to a particular theoretical problem. Students in Creative Writing complete their M.A. with a creative thesis, which they are then asked to place, in their oral thesis defense, within the context of other works in the same genre.

The Ph.D. program is intended for highly motivated students who have a clear sense of direction and who are likely to significantly contribute to the field. The program is based less on course work than on independent study and research. Students are required to take a small number of courses, both within the department and outside of it, but the focus of their study is determined by the students themselves in consultation with their advisors, and their preparation for their examinations takes place largely outside of class. The culmination of the Ph.D. program is the dissertation, an original work of research or writing that demonstrates the student's readiness to assume his or her place within the profession. As in the M.A. program, Creative Writing students produce a creative work as their dissertation, while meeting all of the other requirements for a degree in English.

The information provided at the links on this page describe our graduate program in greater detail. Those links, drawn from the Graduate Program in English guide, are intended both to introduce the program to students who are interested in applying for admission and to serve as a guide to the requirements and policies for students who are enrolled. Page numbers in the links refer to the printed copy of the program guide, available on request. Questions should be addressed to the Graduate Director. We also have separate brochures about our programs in Creative Writing, Rhetoric and Composition, and for Graduate Assistants.

The information on this web site supplements that contained in the University's Catalog, which can be ordered from the University of Hawai'i bookstore; it is also available on-line, at http://www.hawaii.edu/catalog. Other general information about the University of Hawai'i, including a directory of faculty e-mail addresses, is available at http://www.hawaii.edu. The English Department's web-site, which includes profiles of department faculty members, is at http://www.english.hawaii.edu.

For further information about faculty and course offerings, go to the links "people" and "courses" at the top of this page. Specific questions about the graduate program in English or about the status of applications for admission can be sent by mail to the Graduate Studies Office, Department of English, University of Hawai'i at Manoa, Honolulu, HI 96822; or to our e-mail address: enggrad@hawaii.edu. You may also telephone the English graduate office at (808) 956-8956 (keeping in mind the time difference if you are calling from outside of Hawai'i). The Department's fax number (24 hours) is (808) 956-3083.