Welcome to Purdue Graduate Studies in English!

We are a diverse, robust, and challenging program of graduate study—and remain among the strongest English departments for graduate studies in the country. In fact, we’re consistently ranked among the best. In 2019, we hosted the illustrious Colson Whitehead at our Literary Awards program, welcomed Emily Wilson to our annual Big Read author event, and graduated 28 new MA, MFA, and PhD students into the world with a 67% academic job placement rating among new PhDs.

In the Purdue English department, graduate teaching assistants (GTAs) have opportunities to teach introductory composition in our renowned ICaP program, as well as apply for other teaching opportunities in professional writing, film studies, literature courses, creative writing, and more. In addition, research fellowships and other TA positions—such as working for the Purdue OWL, on-campus writing lab (see video here where format students talk about working at the Writing Lab and how it contributed to their current jobs), or CROW (Corpus & Repository of Writing) Lab—offer alternative, valuable academic opportunities. And new roles are always opening up. For example, the prestigious academic journal, Modern Fiction Studies, housed here at Heavilon Hall, recently introduced its own one-year teaching assistantship, awarded to an incoming grad student who demonstrates “outstanding potential in 20^th-and/or 21-st century literary studies.” (Find out more about the MFS named TA line.)

Please note that the application deadline for admissions in 2023-2024 has now been extended to February 15. However, we encourage those wishing to be considered for fellowships to apply as soon as they can.

Learn more about our department. See why we're so proud of our faculty. Get acquainted with our students. Or follow us on social media!!!

Funding Opportunities

Most graduate students are funded through a GTA or Research Fellow position. The Graduate School also makes available summer Purdue Research Foundation (PRF) grants to students who are well along in their programs. Recommendations for PRF Grants are made by the student's major professor.

To learn more, you can use the remainder of this site to find out how to apply to our graduate programs, locate our placement statistics, read about other financial aid options, learn more about our programs of study, and get acquainted with our outstanding students, faculty, and staff.

Useful Information for Students and Mentors

Our department's statement on Mentoring Best Practices.

Never be without your Grad Manual!

(Mentors, you can always start with our mentoring cheat sheet!)

Need a refresher on how registration works? We've got that, too!

Professionalization

Regular professionalization workshops, hosted by our directors of graduate studies and ICaP, encourage students to keep a steady eye on their professional futures while pursuing the research and projects that will make them most successful.

To gain valuable experience on the research and conference circuits, our graduate students benefit from a wealth of resources to draw from for conference travel and research funding. GradSEA, the student-run, student-focused organization for English graduate students, provides annual competitive funding packages, as does ICaP, and the College of Liberal Arts also offers PROMISE awards of up to $750 for domestic travel and $1,500 for international travel annually. The English department supplements PROMISE with additional travel grants of $250 / student annually for conference and research travel. We also offer incentive grants to students who apply for external grants and fellowships.