The department is committed to training its students for life after graduate studies. Our English 957 course introduces students to the theory and practice of composition. Most graduate students go on to academic jobs but many have also thrived in government, industry, and publishing.
The department has a Placement Advisor who coordinates the department’s efforts to accustom students to all aspects of the job search. In a structured and methodical way, geared to the rhythm of the academic year, we guide students through the process of obtaining letters of recommendation, compiling a c.v., and drafting application letters. We also assist students in setting up mock interviews, if they choose, and we help them prepare for on-campus interviews.
Our Placement Advisor offers a required one-credit course (for students who are planning careers in academia) each spring to help students prepare their job materials for the following year. This structured mentoring guides our graduate students in being very well-prepared when they go on the job market the following fall.
The Department of English recognizes that changes in the media of communication are reshaping humanistic studies in profound ways. The department is responding to these changes with a growing number of courses that explore the nature of texts in a digital environment. The department promotes student and faculty work in humanities computing and has alliances with the Etext Center at Love Library, the interdisciplinary group "Text Studies," and the University of Nebraska Press, which has been undertaking an increasing number of online projects. The department also offers strong support to the Corvey Project, the electronic component of the Willa Cather edition, and the Walt Whitman Archive. The expertise graduate students have received in digital humanities has helped them to be successful on the job market.
Job Placement
Recent graduates have obtained tenure-track jobs at the University of Georgia, Washington University, Hope College, the College of West Virginia, Texas Christian University, Alma College, the State University of New York at Oswego, Plymouth State College, Fairmont State College, Wake Forest University, Evergreen College, North Carolina State University, Ohio State University, the University of Windsor, the University of Texas at Austin, Schreiner University, the University of Toronto, Flagler University, the University of Wisconsin-Marathon County, and Hampden-Sydney College. Other recent graduates have found careers as Humanities Editor of the University of Nebraska Press, with the Modern Language Association, with the American Council of Learned Societies, as an educational computer software specialist, and as Editorial Assistant for Great Plains Quarterly and Great Plains Research.