Undergraduate Program Director

\nThe undergraduate English program at SUNY-Albany has recently been thoroughly revised, offering a flexible framework in which to study writing along with literature, culture, and critical thinking. Students can pursue writing in the department's Honors program, as well as in a new BA/MA program. Seniors well advanced in their work may also take graduate workshops. In addition, the department supports a strong and growing Journalism minor, taught by faculty and active professional journalists, and featuring internships at area newspapers, public relations firms, and so on.

Campus outlets for undergraduate work include the student newspaper, ASP (Albany Student Press), publications such as the Student Voice Newspaper and College Standard Magazine, and various literary journals. All students at Albany benefit from an exceptionally strong program of visiting writers, made possible in part by the presence on campus of the New York Writers Institute, a nonacademic organization created specifically to promote writing in New York State.

Undergraduate Program Director

Graduate Program Director

The University at Albany offers a graduate curriculum in English Studies leading to the PhD or MA degrees. The program puts writing at the center of inquiry, foregrounding issues of theory and practice. It is designed to serve students with a variety of interests - including creative writing, composition studies, literary history, cultural studies, global studies, and critical theory - and to explore the interrelations among such interests. For students emphasizing writing, the program offers coursework in fiction, poetry, nonfiction prose, drama, and hypertext, as well as in various kinds of persuasive and argumentative writing. Those courses are complemented by offerings taking an analytic approach to writing, covering topics such as poetics, rhetoric, performance, and the function of technology (e.g., digital media).

MA students take a broad range of courses on writing (including workshops), literature, and criticism. They may choose the option of writing a creative master's thesis. PhD students with a writing emphasis combine course work in the practice of writing with courses that help build an analytic perspective - in contexts such as history, literary criticism, poetics, critical theory, and pedagogy. Doctoral students may choose to write a creative dissertation, which should effectively integrate critical writing with forms such as poetry, fiction, or drama; innovative projects incorporating hypertext or other digital media are also actively supported. The program aims to produce PhD graduates who will make significant contributions to their chosen field of writing and who will be uniquely qualified, as writers, to be strong teachers of literature, criticism, and writing at the university or college level.

The program sponsors numerous readings and lectures, including the long-standing student-run Jawbone Series for area artists. It also houses two literary journals: the Little Magazine and 13th Moon. In addition, the program benefits from affiliation with an extraordinary range of Albany-based organizations: the New York State Writers Institute, housed on the Albany campus and directed by founder William Kennedy (whose Ironweed won the National Book Critics Award and the Pulitzer Prize), is a nonacademic organization charged with promoting writers and writing in New York State; the energetic Hudson Valley Writers Guild, a regional writers group which sponsors its own workshops, readings, and publications; and ALPS (Alternative Literary Programs), which, with funding from the New York State Council on the Arts, NEA, and the New York State Writers Institute, sponsors reading and poetry workshops throughout the state.

For more information, contact Mike Hill, Director of the Master's Program, Dept. of English.

Graduate Program Director

The University at Albany offers a graduate curriculum in English Studies leading to the PhD or MA degrees. The program puts writing at the center of inquiry, foregrounding issues of theory and practice. It is designed to serve students with a variety of interests - including creative writing, composition studies, literary history, cultural studies, global studies, and critical theory - and to explore the interrelations among such interests. For students emphasizing writing, the program offers coursework in fiction, poetry, nonfiction prose, drama, and hypertext, as well as in various kinds of persuasive and argumentative writing. Those courses are complemented by offerings taking an analytic approach to writing, covering topics such as poetics, rhetoric, performance, and the function of technology (e.g., digital media).

MA students take a broad range of courses on writing (including workshops), literature, and criticism. They may choose the option of writing a creative master's thesis. PhD students with a writing emphasis combine course work in the practice of writing with courses that help build an analytic perspective - in contexts such as history, literary criticism, poetics, critical theory, and pedagogy. Doctoral students may choose to write a creative dissertation, which should effectively integrate critical writing with forms such as poetry, fiction, or drama; innovative projects incorporating hypertext or other digital media are also actively supported. The program aims to produce PhD graduates who will make significant contributions to their chosen field of writing and who will be uniquely qualified, as writers, to be strong teachers of literature, criticism, and writing at the university or college level.

The program sponsors numerous readings and lectures, including the long-standing student-run Jawbone Series for area artists. It also houses two literary journals: the Little Magazine and 13th Moon. In addition, the program benefits from affiliation with an extraordinary range of Albany-based organizations: the New York State Writers Institute, housed on the Albany campus and directed by founder William Kennedy (whose Ironweed won the National Book Critics Award and the Pulitzer Prize), is a nonacademic organization charged with promoting writers and writing in New York State; the energetic Hudson Valley Writers Guild, a regional writers group which sponsors its own workshops, readings, and publications; and ALPS (Alternative Literary Programs), which, with funding from the New York State Council on the Arts, NEA, and the New York State Writers Institute, sponsors reading and poetry workshops throughout the state.

For more information, contact Erica Fretwell, Director of Graduate Studies, Dept. of English.