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How do you get a PhD in English?

Pretty much the same way you get a PhD in any other subject--get into grad school and spend roughly 4-7 years working your way through a variety of exams and research projects.

Nearly all professors at 4-year universities are going to have doctorates; that's just par for the course nowadays.
 
shortylickens said:
The only reason I ask is it seems almost all of my professors are doctors.
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"Last January at the Modern Language Association convention in Seattle, Brian Croxall, one of the leading young scholars of the digital humanities—and a self-described “failure,” since he does not hold a permanent academic position—began his talk with a PowerPoint slide of a rejection letter that he had just received from a small department of English: “Please accept our sincere thanks for your interest in the position. We received more than nine hundred applications, so it is truly the case that there are many, many talented scholars whom we are not able to interview.” With odds like that, Croxall observed, it might be time to rethink graduate education in the humanities, at least insofar as it trains students to become college teachers."
--from Should Students Be Encouraged to Pursue Graduate Education in the Humanities?

Though, I suppose you could also look at:
“Ph.D. in English Useless Destroyed My Life”

or

A Surplus of Scholars Fight for Jobs in Academia


Uno
 
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Study just like any other degrees.

A good friend of mine since high school have a Phd in marine archeology, and she is struggling for work in the last 12-13 years since she completed school (she had full scholarship for all of her education). And, another friend in my group of good friends since high school just completed her med school specialization in paediatrics after a Phd in bio genetics engineering (full scholarship for all education).

IMHO, higher education is good, but one must prepare for the outcome and disappointment, because university isn't a job training center.
 
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iGas said:
Study just like any other degrees.

A good friend of mine since high school have a Phd in marine archeology, and she is struggling for work in the last 12-13 since she completed school (she had full scholarship for all of her education). And, and another friend in my group of good friends since high school just completed her med school specialization in paediatrics after a Phd in bio genetics engineering (full scholarship for all education).

IMHO, higher education is good, but one must prepare for the outcome and disappointment, because university isn't a job training center.
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My father has a PhD and makes ~$40k a year, it isn't all high paying jobs and sunshine.
 
I dated a woman completing her phd in Medieval english lit. She knows Middle English, Old English, French, and Japanese. She was lucky and got a non-tenured position at OSU, and then got a tenured position in some assfuck area of Oklahoma. She just published a book and is going to stay at that university for 7 years, when she can apply for tenure. If she gets tenure there, she can apply to other universities and get a tenured position there. She's published a book, so she's on her way.

Given that she didn't get her phd at a top program, she's doing quite well.
 
iGas said:
Study just like any other degrees.

A good friend of mine since high school have a Phd in marine archeology, and she is struggling for work in the last 12-13 years since she completed school (she had full scholarship for all of her education). And, and another friend in my group of good friends since high school just completed her med school specialization in paediatrics after a Phd in bio genetics engineering (full scholarship for all education).

IMHO, higher education is good, but one must prepare for the outcome and disappointment, because university isn't a job training center.
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You don't become an archaeologist for the money.
 
Humanities in general are a waste when it comes to employment, I can't imagine graduate education in humanities fares any better.
 
halik said:
Humanities in general are a waste when it comes to employment, I can't imagine graduate education in humanities fares any better.
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I wasnt discussing that, I just wondered what the process. Best answer I got so far is "research projects" which doesnt say a heck of a lot anyway.
 
Lonyo said:
You don't become an archaeologist for the money.
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I agree, but a bio genetics Phd wage (oil-metabolizing bacteria research for oil companies) was less than half of the average oil rig grunt that have no education. Hence, the pursuit of medicine as the second career path.
 
Six said:
Random thought: it irks me when non-PhD teachers call themselves professors.
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Odd. "Professor" is the form of address I was told to use when I didn't know whether they prof had a PhD or not. (My parents were college professors, and they didn't want me embarrassing them with their co-workers.)

PhDs get the option of being addressed as "Dr." instead. At least in an academic setting. (In public life, most of them would reserve that form of address for MDs.)

My housemate spent a few years shopping her DMA around, no bites. So she's getting certified to teach K-12 now.
 
shortylickens said:
I wasnt discussing that, I just wondered what the process. Best answer I got so far is "research projects" which doesnt say a heck of a lot anyway.
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Doctorate-level degrees usually require some form of original research or authorship. Doing a study, writing a dissertation, etc.

Any MA/MS student will do research projects.

A history PhD might do some original research (going through dusty tomes in a library and learning something that nobody had learned before, or finding evidence to support an alternative interpretation of events. Or even finding survivors of a ____ and interviewing them so that there IS a dusty tome for somebody to study in a century or two.)

A music DMA might do a catalog of orchestral excerpts and how to play them properly, or do a survey of students to show which pedagogical practices are more effective for a given desired outcome. (Yes, they use math.)
 
Is the degree actually in 'English?' I mean, once you get to college, most people are taking literature or other such classes. 'English' is like a remedial thing some people take early on. Like...'math.' Not calculus or something...just general math...

I would have to assume if an 'English' doctorate is not in a specific area, it's still fairly all-encompassing as far as lit classes and whatnot? I mean, what can you actually study about the English language itself at that level? I don't see PhD's diagramming sentences and discussing conjugation or gerunds or conjuctions or some shit...
 
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