The Graduate Program

Adviser Selection

A successful working relationship with an adviser is one of the most important building blocks to successful completion of an academic degree and to finding satisfying employment as a teacher and scholar. The adviser shepherds you through the "qualifying examination," provides crucial advice for your plan of study, helps you with your topics for the comprehensive examination, and, finally, works closely with you as you research and write your dissertation or thesis. Your adviser will help you select internal and external members of your examination and thesis/dissertation committees.

Upon entering the English Department, students will be advised by the Director of Graduate Studies. Through individual meetings and in English 8005, the DGS will help students prepare to approach potential advisers. Students planning to write an MA thesis and all PhD students should research potential advisers in their first semester by taking classes in their fields of interest, talking with experienced graduate students, and consulting with the DGS. Early in the second semester of their study students should meet with potential advisers to determine academic compatibility. Students will need to find an adviser working in their primary area of concentration. This primary area will consist of some combination of historical period, genre, and approach, and should be reflected in professional associations and in the annual job listings published by the Modern Language Association. It is crucial to prepare yourself to meet the recognized categories of inquiry in the profession. Within these area of primary interest, most students will choose among a number--albeit a small number--of potential faculty mentors. In some cases, students will change fields on account of excellent experiences in their first year of graduate study. We encourage this kind of exploration, especially when it coincides with finding an appropriate mentor for your years in the program. Here are some further issues to consider as you consider particular potential advisers:

• Does the faculty member share methodological interests with you? If not, is the faculty member willing to learn enough about your preferred methodology to provide useful advice as you are writing your dissertation?
• Does the faculty member have the time to work with you?
• Does the faculty member have tenure? There is nothing wrong with choosing an untenured assistant professor as an adviser, but you should be aware of a couple of things:
  • untenured faculty spend much of their time mastering teaching and working on their research in order to attain tenure.
  • even if an assistant professor is enthusiastic and willing, he or she won't have institutional knowledge at hand.
  • if the faculty member does not attain tenure or leaves for another position, you may have to find someone else mid-dissertation.
• Will the faculty member be retiring before you complete your degree?

When you schedule a meeting with a potential adviser, come to her or his office prepared to discuss both the topic and the methodology you wish to pursue for your independent research project. You might put together a one or two page research proposal detailing the broad questions you hope to answer with your research and the means by which you will address these questions. The better prepared you are, the better chance a faculty member will be eager to work with you.

If a faculty member departs for another position, the DGS and the departing faculty member will work with the student to locate another adviser. The departing faculty member may agree to continue serving on the dissertation committee, but the student will have to find another primary adviser.

Faculty members are under no obligation to work with particular students. The DGS will help students having difficulties with finding an appropriate adviser, but the English Department cannot guarantee that you will have the adviser of your choice. Similarly, if a good working relationship cannot be continued between a student and an adviser, the DGS will facilitate finding a new adviser for that student and, if necessary, mediating between student and faculty member.

For further information, please see the Graduate School's Guidelines for Good Practice in Graduate Education.