Department of English and Philosophy

Chair and Professor Schow Assistant Chair and Assistant Professor Engebretsen
Professors B. Attebery, Cantrill, Goldbeck, Kijinski, Levenson, F. Swetnam, S. Swetnam, Tate, Wahl, D. Walsh, M.E. Walsh
Associate Professors Hellwig, K. King, Montgomery, Schmidt,
Assistant Professors J. Attebery, Baergen, Hamlin, Kurtz, Myers, Scott, Van Pelt, Westphal
Assistant Professor and Writing Center Director Mullin
Professor Emeriti Rice, Wigginton

Doctor of Arts in English

The Doctor of Arts in English prepares graduates to teach in two-year and four-year colleges. Thus the program requires breadth of study in English and American literature, interdisciplinary course work, course work in pedagogy and supervised teaching internships. Students will undertake directed research in one or both required doctoral papers.

Admission

For classified admission to the D.A. program, applicants must satisfy the following criteria:

  1. An accumulative grade point average of 3.5 in English courses.
  2. Scores at or above the 50th percentile on the verbal section of the GRE general test and at or above the 50th percentile on the GRE subject test on literature in English.
  3. Three letters of recommendation, preferably from professors who know the student's recent academic work.

Priority will be given to experienced, successful teachers.

Students admitted conditionally without GRE scores must take the tests the first time they are offered following the student's admission. Continuation in the program is subject to a student's meeting this requirement.

General Requirements

The Doctor of Arts in English requires a minimum of 48 semester credits beyond the M.A. degree in English. A course completed as part of a student's M.A. program may be approved to satisfy a particular requirement of the D.A. program, with the exception of the four required seminars in literature. However, the substitution of coursework does not waive the minimum credit requirement for the D.A. program.

Not more than nine semester hours beyond the M.A. may be transferred from other institutions.

At least two consecutive semesters of full-time residence study are required. Students must maintain a 3.5 grade point average to qualify for the D.A. degree. Three grades below B during the entire program will automatically disqualify a student.

Graduate students must follow the policy on incomplete grades as it is listed in the Idaho State University Graduate Catalog.

Teaching assistantships and D.A. fellowships will not be renewed for students with incomplete grades on their transcripts.

Special Requirements

  1. Students must complete two supervised teaching internships. The student must submit a detailed written prospectus for each proposed internship for approval by the Graduate Committee prior to the semester of the internship. An unacceptable D.A. internship will be interpreted the same as a course grade of C.
  2. Students will write two Doctor of Arts papers, choosing from the following options: a. One pedagogical or interdisciplinary b. One from the choice not taken above or a creative or critical literary paper. The doctoral papers will be evaluated by at least three members of the graduate faculty, including a representative from outside the Department of English. An unacceptable D.A. paper will be interpreted the same as a course grade of C.
  3. A colloquium presentation on a topic of their current research, given in the penultimate or ultimate semester of full-time study, allows students to obtain experience in presenting the results of their research to their peers.

    Course Work

    Pedagogy Component

    A minimum of 12 semester credits, including the following requirements:

    ENGL 631	Seminar in Teaching Writing		3 cr
ENGL 700	Supervised Teaching Internship		6 cr
		An additional pedagogy course 
		approved by the department		3 cr

    Interdisciplinary Component
    
A minimum of 12 semester credits.
    Students will design an interdisciplinary component appropriate for their interests and professional needs. The Graduate Committee must approve a written prospectus for this component before the student begins the course work. In this component students are expected to explore relationships between English and another discipline (e.g., art, drama, rhetoric, psychology, history, philosophy).

    Language and Literature Component

    A minimum of 24 credits, including the following requirements:

    ENGL 613	Methods of Scholarship in 
		Language and Literature			3 cr
ENGL 611	Literary Theory and Criticism		3 cr
		Course work in language studies		6 cr
    Course work in language studies must include two courses chosen from the following list:

    ENGL g401	Advanced Composition and Prose Analysis 
ENGL g481	Advanced Grammar	
ENGL g485	Linguistic Analysis	
ENGL g486	Old English
ENGL g487	History of the English Language	
ENGL 685	Seminar in Linguistics
SPCH g436	Rhetorical Criticism
OR
SPCH g437	Rhetorical Theory
Seminars in literature					12 cr
    One of these must be in literature before 1800 and one must be in literature after 1800.
    

    Comprehensive Examination
    
The comprehensive examination, taken after the student has completed at least 32 semester credits beyond the M.A. degree, includes the following sections:
    

      
a.	Language studies
b.	Genre
c.	Literature before 1800 or after 1800.
    
The comprehensive examination may be repeated one time, within 12 months.
    

    Foreign Language Requirement
    
Students must demonstrate proficiency in one foreign language, either modern or ancient, before the program of study is complete. The purpose of this requirement is for students to have a current knowledge of a language other than English and of its relation to the culture from which it originates. Students may satisfy this requirement in one of the following ways:
    

      
	By passing four semesters of one foreign language with an average grade of B, either during the course of study for the graduate degree or with an interval of no longer than two years between the completion of the last language course and the beginning of graduate study in English at Idaho State University.
	By passing a two-part examination administered by the Foreign Language Department with a grade of B.

    1. 	By having completed a major in a foreign language, as verified by a college transcript.

    2. 	By having satisfied a foreign language requirement as part of having completed an M.A. in English with an interval of no longer than two years between the completion of the last language course and the beginning of graduate study in English at Idaho State University.